Get Ahead Foundation [NGO credit in South Africa]

Briefly outlines some of GAF’s numerous activities during the past decade. These diverse projects reflect a donor-driven approach to development that was common among South African NGOs during apartheid. The end of apartheid in 1994 precipitated changes in donor priorities, and indirectly caused Get Ahead to change its methods. Since it began financial operations in 1988, GAF’s Stokvel Program, a group lending scheme, has been the core of GAF’s efforts to promote black economic empowerment. The second part of the report describes the transition of the Stokvel Program from a heavily subsidized loan program with poor portfolio quality toward a sustainable financial institution—a process still far from complete. The reforms of the Stokvel Program reflect broader changes at Get Ahead as it has gradually shed most of its non-financial activities to focus on its comparative advantage: micro-lending.