Amandla

August 25

Does Microlending Really Help The Poor?

Poverty Microfinance Trackbacks (0)

The interview with Dean Karlan is very good. The research paper on impact measurements can be found here. Over at the BBC (via Innovations for Poverty Action):

Academics have been trying to work out from the evidence whether microcredit does actually raise people's incomes.

But it's been hard to do a proper scientific survey, since you need to compare those who do get a loan with a control group of similar people who don't.

Dean Karlan, professor of economics at Yale University, has managed to do it - with a control group - in the Philippines. His results raise some serious questions about the effectiveness of microcredit in reducing poverty.

There is an embedded audio link, but it didn't work. Celia

FROM: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/

April 28

Microfinance Project. University Of Birmingham. Centre For The Study Of Global Ethics

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Microfinance project
This is the homepage of the Microfinance project based at the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics at the University of Birmingham. The initiative is funded under the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)'s Research Networks Scheme and is led by Profesor Tom Sorell. It involves a series of 5 meetings between 2009 to 2010, and brings together those with expertise in the fields of philosophy, politics, economics, development studies and microfinance. The project claims to be the first in the UK to combine normative ethics and economic and development policy. This website informs readers about the project's background, aims, methodology and key participants. It also links them to the project's information and discussion blog. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.globalethics.bham.ac.uk/projects/Microfinance.shtml

December 20

Resource Guide On Microfinance. ILO

Microfinance International Labour Organization Trackbacks (0)

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to the poor on a sustainable basis. Financial services that the working poor need and demand include different types of credit, savings, guarantees, insurance, transfer payments, remittances and other transactions. Microfinance is addressed to the poor and those excluded from market transactions. It seeks to broaden and deepen the market by emphasizing that ultimately microfinance institutions have to be sustainable, i.e. self-financing.

Microfinance that is oriented towards decent work is “social” finance. This emphasizes the finality and unique angle of the ILO’s interest and involvement. Social finance is the ILO’s accepted and recognized brand in this field, signalling its distinctive position and identity, andcommunicating to donors and the outside world in general the ultimate purpose of the ILO’s conceptual and policy work on microfinance.

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/lib/resource/subject/microf.htm

May 29

Microfinance

Poverty Microfinance World Bank Trackbacks (0)

Microfinance meets the market
Source: World Bank Policy Research Working Papers

Microfinance institutions have proved the possibility of providing reliable banking services to poor customers. Their second aim is to do so in a commercially-viable way. This paper analyzes the tensions and opportunities of microfinance as it embraces the market, drawing on a data set that includes 346 of the world’s leading microfinance institutions and covers nearly 18 million active borrowers. The data show remarkable successes in maintaining high rates of loan repayment, but the data also suggest that profit-maximizing investors would have limited interest in most of the institutions that are focusing on the poorest customers and women. Those institutions, as a group, charge their customers the highest fees in the sample but also face particularly high transaction costs, in part due to small transaction sizes. Innovations to overcome the well-known problems of asymmetric information in financial markets were a triumph, but further innovation is needed to overcome the challenges of high costs.

+ Full Report (PDF; 165 KB)

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May 17

Inclusive Financial Sectors

Poverty Microfinance United Nations Trackbacks (0)

UN news story highlights the work of the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors. Following on the 2005 International Year of Microfinance, the Advisors Group was created to promote the development of financial services for poor and low-income households and for small entrepreneurs. The Web site includes Recommendations, Publications, and Documents.

Permanent Link: Inclusive Financial Sectors UN Pulse (More)

February 17