Our Approach

What We Do

The purpose of our work is to advance the development of holistic approaches which combine microfinance with health targeted to very poor women in Latin America. 

We seek to demonstrate how the integration of microfinance and health can fundamentally alter the fight against poverty and make the case for global expansion of microfinance and health integration programs. (from the MicroCredit Summit Campaign)

We invest in initiatives that strengthen an institution's ability to deliver high quality and cost effective health interventions through its microfinance structure specifically in the areas of:

• Reproductive Health and Family Planning
• Children's Health

Our Selection Criteria

Focus on women. We focus primarily on "poor" to "very poor" women.

Focus on Latin America. Generally, we work in countries that have adequate government stability and infrastructure to support potential scale-up activities.

Sustainable. The solution produces revenues and/or increased savings for poor women. Additionally, the project's financial model requires a diminishing subsidy level with a goal of achieving self-funding.

Scaleable. The solution has the potential to reach a significant number of women, includes partnerships with other organizations, and has the potential to be a model for others. The solution has been pilot-tested and is ready to be tested more broadly in the market.

Organizational Leadership and Capacity. The initiative has experienced leadership and the appropriate infrastructure in place for successful implementation, or the required leadership and infrastructure has been identified.

Evaluation. The initiative has built-in evaluation of outcome measures and potential impact measures.

Co-Funding. The initiative has leveraged collective capital to fund the partnership.

Partnership in Learning. Linked can engage in a transparent partnership that can lead to additional value and learning for Linked, the partner, and the field. The knowledge generated is open-sourced and will be shared with others in order to move the field forward.