Microfinance in Southern Sudan

August 26, 2009 Mary Virtue and Carol Coren were in Southern Sudan helping to build capacity for a national association of microfinance organizations working to help refugees returning to their former homes and villages. A note from Mary: I am sitting in Juba in Southern Sudan. I have a contract to help with capacity building for a microfinance Forum that USAID is supporting here. And it is quite a place. It was a war zone a couple of years back and all the trees and most of the buildings were leveled. Now they have dirt roads with enormous gullies and huts everywhere, as well as some interesting hotels. We are staying in a very friendly place with great food, spotty power, off and on internet and my room is half a trailer. When the power goes off it gets hot very fast. Everything is imported from Kenya or Uganda. It is an extremely fertile area but people are not growing crops. Not a single food item is grown locally. So Juba is as expensive as Paris.