Tag Definitions

Below is an alphabetical list of tag definitions. The definitions are occasionally modified. If you have any comments on tag definitions or on how they are used, please post your comments on the Loan Taggers team message board or send a private message to a team captain.

Latest definition update: February 1, 2019

Link to download printer-friendly version of tag definitions: Printer-friendly definitions
Note that this is a long document (13-page pdf)

#Animals

#Animals tag definition
Loans to purchase, feed, raise, sell or build shelter for animals

What is an #Animals loan?
  • The borrower will use the loan to purchase, feed, raise, or build shelter for animals
  • Includes aquaculture (raising aquatic animals)
  • Includes beekeeping
What is not an #Animals loan?
  • The borrower has animals, but the loan won't be used to purchase, feed, raise, or build shelter for animals
  • The borrower is a meat vendor (including butchers)
  • Fishing activity other than aquaculture

#Biz Durable Asset (BDA)

#Biz Durable Asset tag definition 
Loans for purchasing durable assets for an income producing activity

What is a #Biz Durable Asset loan?
  • A loan used primarily to acquire or put into service a business asset that is durable, i.e., expected to last for multiple years
  • Includes durable assets used in any income producing activity
  • Includes loans for IPDAs being purchased with installment payments 
  • Includes loans for animals purchased for breeding purposes 

Includes, but is not limited to:
  • Beehives
  • Dairy cattle
  • Chickens for egg production
    Tree saplings for planting (fruit, coffee, etc.)
  • Milling machines 
  • Ovens for bakeries
  • Oil presses (e.g., for olive oil)
  • Welding machines
  • Foundries
  • Sewing machines
  • Greenhouses
  • Cars and trucks
  • Taxis
  • Tables and chairs, to expand a restaurant
  • Computers for an internet cafe or for an entertainment business
  • Larger tools that will be rented out (tractor, harvester) 
  • Purchase of land for farming
  • Purchase or construction of rental units
  • Purchase of furnishings to make a property rentable
In the category of reducing expenses: 
  • Solar hot water heaters
  • Biodigesters
  • Solar panels
  • Water pumps

What is not a #Biz Durable Asset loan?
  • A loan used for materials consumed during production
  • A loan for personal use items
  • A loan for maintenance of or spare parts for an existing durable asset

Exclusion examples:
  • Animals for fattening and slaughter
  • Cattle not raised for milk production
  • Chickens not raised for egg production
  • Maintenance or repair of durable assets such as vehicles or machinery
  • Spare parts on durable assets such as vehicles or machinery
  • Retail store inventory
  • Seeds that will not produce a 2nd generation of seeds with harvest (often referred to as hybrid seeds) 
  • Items for non-business (i.e. personal) use such as cars, computers, solar panels on borrower's home
  • Purchase of land for personal use, such as building a home
  • Home improvement or repair

#Eco-friendly

#Eco-friendly tag definition
Reduces the borrower's carbon footprint or improves the environment (recycling, clean energy, etc.)

What is an #Eco-friendly loan?
  • Any loan involving the recycling, reusing, repairing, or re-purposing of products or materials that would otherwise be disposed of in the trash
  • Any loan that improves or prevents a harmful environmental condition
  • Any loan involving water conservation, including water reclamation, rain water collection, drip irrigation, gray water recycling and the like
  • Any loan that meets the criteria for the #Sustainable Ag tag is also by definition #Eco-friendly (and should get both tags to make these loans easy to find by lenders searching for either tag)
  • It is acceptable to tag loans already in Clothing, Green / Housing or Green / Agriculture sectors to give lenders a second way to search for these loans.
Examples:
  • Reselling used clothing (often called just bales of clothes) or shoes, gathering/selling recyclable materials including scrap metal, electronics/appliance repair, etc.) 
  • Solar panels or solar-powered products
  • Energy-efficient versions of common technology (such as electric vehicles or fuel-efficient cookstoves)
  • Beehives
  • Bicycles
  • Biodigesters
  • Home improvement that will improve energy efficiency of the home (for example by adding insulation to reduce coal burning)
  • Sanitary latrine or toilet where none previously existed
What is not an #Eco-friendly loan?

  • Home improvement loans that do not specifically provide improvements in energy efficiency
  • Replacement latrine or toilet 
  • Buying or reselling of used vehicles, other than electric, as these vehicles become less eco-friendly the longer they are used

#Elderly

#Elderly tag definition
Loans to older borrowers.

What is an #Elderly loan?
  • Although the Kiva tag description does not state a specific age for a borrower to be considered elderly, the Loan Taggers Team  has agreed to use this tag for borrowers 50 years of age and older
  • #Elderly can be used based upon the photo alone, if age is not explicitly indicated in the loan description
What is not an #Elderly loan?
  • Elderly people living with the borrower, but not being the loan applicants. The #Elderly tag applies only to the borrower


#Fabrics

#Fabrics loan description
Photos with beautiful fabrics, or loans for fabrics, sewing, weaving, embroidery, etc.

What is a #Fabrics loan?
  • Loans for fabrics, sewing, tailoring, dressmaking, weaving, embroidery, batik, or basketry
  • Can be based on the photo (what borrowers are wearing, clothing that reveals culture, furnishings in the home,decorations, etc.)
  • Can be based on the loan description and/or photo (e.g., borrower may be dressed in beautiful fabric but loan itself may not have any connection with fabrics, sewing, etc.)
  • Loans dealing with pagnes (colorful wax cloths)
  • Elei printing (a type of Samoan fabric painting)
 What is not a #Fabrics loan?
  • Buying clothing for resale

#Female Education

#Female Education tag definition
Loans used for educating women and girls, or for generating income to pay for their education.


What is a #Female Education loan?
  • A loan to pay current (scheduled) tuition, school fees, and/or other education-related expenses (textbooks, supplies, school uniforms, etc.) for a female student/s
  • A loan to support the operation of a school which has a particular focus on educating women or girls. In a coeducational school, 25% or more of the students should be female
  • A loan to an entrepreneur who will use the income generated by the current loan (at least in part) to support the education of a female student/s. This could be an adult woman putting herself through school or parents supporting their daughter's education
Note: This tag is to be applied only when the gender of student is female (the gender of the borrower is not to be consideration for this tag).

What is not a #Female Education loan?

  • A loan to a female borrower to pay educational expenses for a male student/s (e.g., mother paying for her son's school fees)
  • A loan to a coeducational school in which the percentage of female students is not stated or is less than 25%
  • A loan to an entrepreneurs who has school-aged daughters (or other female dependents) where paying educational expenses is not explicitly mentioned as a benefit of the current loan
  • A loan where the education of a female (e.g., daughter) is stated as a future goal or hope of the borrower

#First Loan

#First Loan tag definition
First loan for the borrower with the Field Partner

What is a #First Loan loan?
  • The loan description specifically states that the loan is the first loan for the borrower with the Field Partner
  • The borrower may have had a loan with a different financial institution/Field Partner
What is not a #First Loan loan?
  • The loan does not explicitly state that it is the borrower's first loan with the Field Partner  (Sometimes a borrower will be a repeat borrower with the FP, even though the loan is the first one posted on Kiva.)

#Health and Sanitation

#Health and Sanitation tag definition
Borrowers who deliver or are in need of health care services, or a loan that has a direct impact on health

What is a #Health and Sanitation loan?
  • A loan for health care expenses related to the borrower or a person supported by the borrower
  • A loan to a borrower who is a health services provider (such as doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, midwives, pharmacists, dentists), even when the loan is for another purpose
  • A loan to a borrower who delivers health information or advice (e.g., family planning)
  • A loan for home improvements which have an impact on health (e.g., installation of toilet where there was none previously; water filtration; repair of roofing to eliminate mold) 
  • A loan to a borrower studying to pursue a career in health services (examples above)
What is not a #Health and Sanitation loan?
  • A loan description stating that with the profit from the loan, the borrower hopes to improve the family's health in the future
  •  
#Job Creator

#Job Creator tag definition
Loans to hire new employees

What is a #Job Creator loan?
  • The loan will be used to hire workers (e.g., seasonal agricultural labor, labor for home construction, additional workers for a business)
  • The loan will provide economic opportunity for someone other than the borrower
  • The borrower already has employees and will be hiring additional employee(s)
  • The borrower is hiring someone on an ongoing basis, intermittently, or for a short period of time (such as weeks or months)
  • The borrower is purchasing an income-producing durable asset which will provide employment for someone other than the borrower (e.g., taxi driver purchasing a second taxi, which will be driven by his brother)
What is not a #Job Creator loan?
  • The borrower requires a loan to pay his existing employees and is not hiring additional employees
  • A borrower who will be using unpaid workers
  • A borrower who will be employing a medium- or large-sized contracting firm that will not be adding new employees to fulfill the contract 

#Orphan

#Orphan Tag Definition
Borrower is a school-aged orphan or is responsible for dependents who were orphaned

What is an #Orphan loan?
  • This tag applies to any borrower who is orphaned or still dependent, for example, a young man or woman needing a loan to pay school fees or expenses, or to pay health-related expenses.
  • The borrower is responsible for dependents who were orphaned.
  • The loan description may state that the borrower has “other dependents” besides immediate family that they are “helping with schooling” or something similar. These may be AIDS orphans, although AIDS or the word orphan is never mentioned. Apply the tag only if you are reasonably sure.
What is not an #Orphan loan?
  • A borrower who has lost both parents, but is older than 18 and is not attending school is not considered an orphan
  • A borrower who is supporting dependents other than family who are older than 18 and have finished schooling would not be tagged as Orphan

#Parent

#Parent loan definition
Borrower is supporting children at home or in school

What is a #Parent loan?
  • Children are the borrower's or partner's own children
  • Children are 18 or younger and live in the same household
  • Children are older than 18, but are still attending school and are supported by borrower
  • Children are older than 18, and are permanently dependent on borrower due to disability
What is not a #Parent loan?
  • The borrower is living with his grown children who are not disabled/attending school, even if they are dependent on the borrower's income (because they are unemployed or similar)
  • The borrower is supporting children other than his/her own or partner's children, such as grandchildren, niece, nephew. (The #Supporting Family should be used for these loans.)

#Refugee

#Refugee tag definition
Borrower is a refugee or person internally-displaced by war, conflict or natural disaster

What is a #Refugee loan?
  • Borrower is a refugee (has been forced to leave their country to escape war, conflict or natural disaster)
  • Borrower is an Internally-Displaced Person (IDP) - a person who has fled his/her home due to armed conflict or similar event, but without having crossed an international border
  • May be living in a camp or settlement, or non-permanent housing
  • "Conflict" includes religious, political, gender persecution, etc.
  • The borrower directly supports refugees
What is not a #Refugee loan?
  • A borrower who was impacted by a natural disaster but remains in the same geographic location
  • A borrower who relocates due to economic hardship (this does not meet the definition of refugee)

#Repair Renew Replace

#Repair Renew Replace tag definition
Loans to repair, renovate, or replace equipment, good, or buildings, or borrowers who provide those services

What is a #Repair Renew Replace loan?
  • Repairs/maintenance to:
    • Vehicles for business, farm, or personal use, including non-motorized vehicles (e.g., bicycle, rickshaw)
    • Items/equipment needed to sustain a business
    • Items for use in the home  
  • Renovations or repairs:
    • To homes or businesses, which may also be referred to as remodeling
    • To all agricultural buildings and fencing
    • For rebuilding/restructuring homes or businesses damaged or destroyed by natural disaster or conflict
    • For purchasing building materials for renovation
    • To add a room to an existing home or business    
  • Replacing:
    • Worn out items used in business, e.g., fishing nets, tables and chairs, barber chairs, cooking utensils, ovens, refrigerators, freezers, etc.
    • Worn out items used in homes, e.g., furniture, carpets, curtains, tables and chairs, cookers, refrigerators, washing machines, etc. 
  • Loans to borrowers who provide repair or renovation services
What is not a #Repair Renew Replace loan?
  • A loan to buy fuel (i.e., gasoline and oil) for a vehicle
  • A loan to pay for registering or insuring a vehicle or to pay tax on it
  • A loan to businesses selling spare parts
  • A loan for first time buying of items for business or home
  • A loan for new building construction of a house, business premises, or farm buildings
  • A loan to pay rent while a house is being built

#Repeat Borrower

#Repeat Borrower tag definition
Borrower has had a previous loan from the Field Partner or Kiva

What is a #Repeat Borrower loan?
  • The borrower has had one or more previous loans (sometimes referred to as "loan cycles" or just "cycles") from the FP (which may or may not have been through Kiva)

Notes: 
  1. There are several Field Partners (One Acre Fund and CAURIE) for which being a member of their program means that they are always borrowers. If the loan definition states that the borrower(s) have been in the program (or “banc villageois” for CAURIE) prior to the current loan period, then the loan should get the Repeat Borrower tag. 
  2. Loans from the field partner RMCR fall into one of two categories (information which can be found in the first line of the “More about this loan” section): “solidarity group loans" which should always receive the #Repeat Borrower tag and “community bank loans” which should not receive the tag (unless specific information in the loan description indicates otherwise).
 What is not a #Repeat Borrower loan?
  • The borrower has had a loan from a financial institution but not the FP/Kiva
  • The borrower has defaulted on a previous loan
  • There is no indication in the loan description that the borrower has had previous loans

#Schooling

#Schooling tag definition 
Loans used by students and teachers, and people expanding their business to pay for children's education

What is a #Schooling loan? 

  • A loan to pay for school, college, university, trades training, or other educational fees
  • A loan for school books, supplies, computers, uniforms, or other expenses directly related to education
  • A loan for a school water filtration system or other infrastructure expense
  • A loan to an educator for classroom resource material or administrative expenses
  • A teacher seeking a loan for any purpose
  • A loan to a borrower who is financially supporting a family member or another person, in order that they can attend any level of schooling
  • A student working his/her way through any level of schooling and is currently attending school
  • The loan description states the borrower is currently incurring school-related expenses, and there is no indication that this expense will not be an ongoing priority. 
  • A "hidden education" loan: The borrower intends to use some or all of the profit generated by the current loan for immediate education expenses. Note: A specific, firm intent should be stated. This can be a grey area in some cases, such as when the description includes only a brief statement indicating the borrower intends to "educate his/her children" with the profits from the loan, with no additional information about ages of children, etc. In such cases, taggers should take into consideration the entire loan description when making the determination regarding whether the loan merits the tag.
** All loans listed in the Education sector by the Field Partner should receive the #Schooling tag, to make it easier for lenders to search all Education/schooling loans at once. 

What is not a #Schooling loan?

  • The borrower has school-aged children, but there is no indication that the loan or the profit generated from the loan will be used for education expenses or to keep children in school. That is, a loan tagged #Parent does not automatically get the #Schooling tag, nor does a loan that merely mentions the borrower has children in school.
  • The borrower states he/she is saving for future education expenses or plans (dreams/hopes) to pay for the education of children sometime in the future. To qualify as a "hidden education" loan, the education expense must be related to the current situation and the use of the current loan profits.
  • The borrower is related to a teacher but is not personally a teacher
  • The borrower is not clearly and currently incurring an education-related expense related to others he/she is supporting

#Single

#Single tag description
Loan description specifically says the borrower is single or unmarried

What is a #Single loan?
  • The loan description must specifically state that the borrower is single
  • The borrower may be unmarried and living with his/her parents and/or siblings
What is not a #Single loan?
  • There is no mention of the borrower's family or marital status in the loan description
  • The borrower is cohabiting in a domestic partnership  (common-law relationship) but is not legally married
  • The borrower is a single parent (A borrower who is single should be tagged either "single" or "single parent", but not both.)

#Single Parent

#Single Parent tag definition
A parent without a spouse or partner, who is responsible for raising children

What is a #Single Parent loan?

  • The criteria for #Parent tag must apply. A loan can be tagged both #Parent and #Single Parent
  • Also, the loan description must specifically mention that the borrower is single (never married, separated, divorced, widowed, living alone)
  • A parent responsible for raising children, whose spouse/partner is living abroad on a permanent or long-term basis, even if the spouse is supporting the family financially

What is not a #Single Parent loan?
  • The borrower is living with a new life partner who is not the parent of the children

#Supporting Family

#Supporting Family tag definition
Borrower is supporting parents, siblings or other dependents

What is a #Supporting Family loan?
  • Borrower is financially supporting parents, siblings, or other relatives and their families
  • Borrower has "other dependents" besides spouse and children who may or may not be biological relatives
  • Grandparents who are financially supporting grandchildren
  • Parents financially supporting adult children (e.g., mother buying a rickshaw for adult son or father buying store stock for adult daughter)
  • Includes partial financial support (e.g., paying for niece's school fees)
What is not a #Supporting Family loan?
  • Borrowers is supporting only their partner and their own children and/or their partner's children  (Use #Parent tag instead.)

#Sustainable Ag

#Sustainable Ag tag definition
Loan has a "green" agriculture component, or is from a Fair Trade partner

What is a #Sustainable Ag loan?

  • The farm (or other agricultural operation) should be sustainable not only economically, but also socially and ecologically
  • A loan involving a Fair Trade FP or any form of Fair Trade certification is probably sustainable in all of these respects
  • Purchase of organic fertilizer (compost and/or manure)
  • Paying for labor to do manual weeding (which means they aren’t using tons of herbicides)
  • Crop rotation is generally more sustainable than monoculture, especially if the rotation includes legumes (which facilitate nitrogen fixation in the soil)
  • Use of local varieties of crops is generally more sustainable (if they’re growing something you’ve never heard of, then it’s probably a locally adapted crop and that’s good for sustainability)
  • Perennial crops are generally more sustainable than annual crops
  • Anything that grows on trees will generally be sustainable as long as it does not involve significant chemical inputs (which unfortunately it might)
  • Animal husbandry can be practiced relatively sustainably by keeping stocking levels low and rotating animals among different paddocks. However, there is some controversy around whether meat production can ever be globally sustainable (especially when it involves ruminant animals like cattle which produce significant amounts of methane).
What is not a #Sustainable Ag loan?
  • Farming that uses chemical pesticides or herbicides or inorganic fertilizers, except perhaps in very targeted use
  • Generally, if an agricultural loan is vague about the inputs used then the assumption should be that it uses chemicals, as this is increasingly the “default” option in global agriculture
  • Loans that get the #Animals tag should probably not receive the #Sustainable Ag tag unless there is something exceptionally “eco-friendly” about the loan (for example, the raising of animals is well-integrated with cropping to provide natural fertilizer and is secondary to the production of crops). From the average animal husbandry loan description it’s very hard to tell much about sustainability, so probably safest to leave most of them out.
  • If a loan has a mixture of sustainable and non-sustainable aspects, then use your judgment as to where the overall balance is.
  • Zero-grazing units

#Technology

#Technology tag definition
 Loans to buy, sell or use modern technology (cell phones, computers, solar power, etc.)

What is a #Technology loan?
  • A loan to buy, maintain, sell, or use technology that was not widely commercially available to individuals in any country before the 21st century
  • Examples: Cellphones, mobile payments, e-commerce, innovative new water purifiers, solar-powered irrigators, solar lamp, computers, internet access, solar chargers, electric cars, website development, and e-commerce
  • A loan for education expenses directly related to a technology diploma/degree
What is not a #Technology loan?
  • A loan for any technology that was widely available to individuals in all countries in the 20th century
  • Examples: Cook stoves, tractors, regular cars

#Trees

#Trees tag definition:
Loans for planting, growing or sustaining trees

What is a #Trees loan?
  •  The borrower's business involves planting, growing, sustaining trees (e.g., with fertilizer, watering, labor)
  •  A loan to buy tree seedlings
  • A loan to purchase fertilizer or other agricultural inputs for sustaining trees
  • A loan to install irrigation for tree plantations or orchards
  • A loan to purchase land when specifically intended to grow trees
  • A loan to purchase or buy back (where the land has been pawned or rented) land dedicated to coconut production (sometimes referred to as cocoland)
Trees include, but are not limited to:
  • Fruit trees such as apple, apricot, avocado, cacao, calamondin (calamansi), carambola (starfruit), carob, cherry, custard apple (sugar apple), coconut, durian, fig, guava, grapefruit, jocote (Spondias purpurea), jackfruit, lemon, lime, longan, mandarins, mango, marang, mulberry, nanches, nectarine, olive, orange, papaya, peach, persimmon, pitaya (dragonfruit), plum, pomegranate, quince, sapodilla (Manilkara zapota or sapota), tamarillo (tree tomato)
  • Nut trees such as almond, Brazil, cashew, chestnut, hazelnut, mahogany, pecan, pistachio
  • Almacigo 
  • Banana (not technically a tree, but included for tree tag)
  • Coffee
  • Copperwood
  • Cork
  • Eucalyptus
  • Falcata
  • Grevillea
  • Laurel
  • Moringa
  • Paulownia
  • Resin
  • Rubber
  • Tagua palm (also known as ivory palm or ivory-nut palm). Nut is carved and is known as vegetable ivory
  • Tara
 What is not a #Trees loan?
  • A business involved in cutting down trees for their wood
  • A business dealing with buying or selling equipment to cut down trees (e.g., chainsaws)
  • A business selling firewood
  • A business making or selling wood products such as furniture or wooden carvings
  • A borrower who trades in fruit, nuts, etc., but does not grow trees
  • Fruit-bearing vines such as passion fruit, chayote, and grape
  • Tea

#Unique

#Unique tag definition
 A Kiva loan that stands out from the rest

What is a #Unique loan?
  • The loan is unusual or has an usual type of borrower
  • The loan is for a unique item to be produced or sold
  • A loan for something that is very rarely seen on Kiva
  • The loan's photo stands out from others on Kiva
  • The loan is to a borrower with an emotional, compelling, or particularly interesting story
What is not a #Unique loan?
  • The loan or borrower is similar to many others on Kiva
#Vegan

#Vegan tag definition:
Fruit, vegetable, nut or grain production or sales with no mention of animal usage

What is a #Vegan loan?
  • The loan is for fruit, vegetable, nut, or grain products or production; there is no mention of  animals in the loan description, and no animals appear in the photo.
  • The loan is for purchase of seeds
  • A loan for alcoholic beverages made with vegan products being produced or sold on a small scale (e.g., banana beer, coconut wine)
  • The use of chemical fertilizer, compost, manure, pesticide, and insecticide is acceptable
  • For group loans, the featured borrower must meet the #Vegan tag criteria, and there must be no mention of animals or animal products relating to other borrowers in the group
What is not a #Vegan loan?
  • A loan description that mentions the borrower owns or works with animals or animal products (including fish)
  • A loan for seeds for a farm that also has animals
  • A loan for mass produced beers and distilled liquors being purchased for resale
  • For group loans, one or more of the group does not met the #Vegan definition         

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