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Calendar, Esr Review
Vol. 08 No. 1 Esr Review, Esr Review
Vol. 08 No. 1 Esr Review, Esr Review
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Foreign Exchange Risk Management Practices Of Microfinance Institution, Peter R. Crabb
Foreign Exchange Risk Management Practices Of Microfinance Institution, Peter R. Crabb
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Foreign exchange risk remains a significant problem for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Many sources of potential funding for MFIs remain untapped due to the high risks of currency devaluation faced by these funding sources. Specifically, debt capital is available for MFIs but foreign exchange risk is a potential deterrent. This paper reviews current practices in the management of foreign exchange risk for and by MFIs. The advantages and disadvantages of these practices are discussed and alternative practices proposed.
Vol. 06 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Vol. 06 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Impact Of Microfinance Programs On Children's Education: Do The Gender Of The Borrower And The Delivery Model Matter?, Nathalie Holvoet
Impact Of Microfinance Programs On Children's Education: Do The Gender Of The Borrower And The Delivery Model Matter?, Nathalie Holvoet
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
This article highlights the effects particular features of microfinance programs have on childhood education. Using data from a South India household survey, the article examines how microfinance impacts schooling and literacy, how credit enters the household, and who brings it in. Regression results show that, in the case of direct bank-borrower credit delivery, it does not matter whether credit enters the household through the mother or the father. However, large differences occur when mothers obtain credit through women's groups. Analysis indicates that combined financial and social-group intermediation leads to higher educational inputs and outputs, mainly for girls. Individual interviewis with …
The Experience Of Financial Institutions In The Delivery Of Microcredit In The Philippines, Maria Abigail Carpio
The Experience Of Financial Institutions In The Delivery Of Microcredit In The Philippines, Maria Abigail Carpio
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
This paper identifies the characteristic features of the different financial market players involved in the delivery of microcredit in the Philippines and looks into their experiences in addressing the credit demand of the small-borrower market segment, particularly the microenterprise sector. This paper argues that each group of lenders, specifically commercial banks, rural banks, credit-granting NGOs, and an apex financial institution, allocates its funds by establishing its own criteria for assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers and its own mechanisms to avoid borrower default. The delivery of microcredit takes place within an environment where the different financial market players face their own …
The Transformation Of The Microfinance Sector In India: Experiences, Options, And Future, M. S. Siriaram, Rajesh S. Upadhyayula
The Transformation Of The Microfinance Sector In India: Experiences, Options, And Future, M. S. Siriaram, Rajesh S. Upadhyayula
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
This paper discusses the growth and transformation of microfinance organizations (MFO) in India. Issues that have triggered transformation include size, diversity, sustainability, focus, and taxation. Transformation experiences in India are few. To move to the mainstream, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) choose from three popular forms of organizations: non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), banks, and cooperatives. It appears that there is no ideal path for spin-off. Regulatory changes are needed to allow MFOs to graduate to other legal forms as they grow organically. NGOs must be permitted to invest in the equity of MFOs, as is the case in Bolivia and Africa. Norms …
Realizing Mission Objectives: A Promising Approach To Measuring The Social Performance Of Microfinance Institutions, Katarzyna Pawlak, Michal Matul
Realizing Mission Objectives: A Promising Approach To Measuring The Social Performance Of Microfinance Institutions, Katarzyna Pawlak, Michal Matul
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
This paper proposes a new approach for measuring the social performance of microfinance institutions. The key to developing sustainable social performance measurement (SPM) systems and practices is to consider their design from the perspective of the organizational mission. The fact that the SPM system is built on the organizational mission ensures its cost-effectiveness and facilitates its institutionalization. It not only stimulates an MFI to verify the fulfilment of its social mission and to innovate in the search for optimal solutions to address development needs in a given intervention context, but it also can improve its financial condition through client segmentation …
Microleasing: The Grameen Bank Experience, Asif Dowla
Microleasing: The Grameen Bank Experience, Asif Dowla
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Grameen Bank was the first microfinance institution (MFI) to introduce microleasing on a large scale. This paper provides a preliminary evaluation of Grameen's leasing program. Instead of providing a full-fledged impact assessment study, we examine the terms and conditions of the leasing program and evaluate its success in terms of outreach, repayment rate, and asset ownership.Analysis of program level data shows that the program is successful in terms of outreach and repayment performance. Through the program, poor men and women have become owners of power tillers, power looms, shallow machines, cellular phones, and even computers. The success of leasing suggests …
Scoring Arrears At A Microlender In Bolivia, Mark Schreiner
Scoring Arrears At A Microlender In Bolivia, Mark Schreiner
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Can scoring models help microlenders in poor countries as much as they have helped credit-card lenders in rich countries? This paper presents a scorecard that predicts the probability that loans from a microlender in Bolivia will have arrears of 15 days or more. Although arrears in microfinance depend on many factors difficult to include in scorecards, the paper shows that inexpensive, simple-to-collect data does have some predictive power. In micro-finance, scoring will not replace loan officers, but it can flag high-risk cases and act as a cross-check on loan officers' judgment.
Implications Of Financial Innovations For The Poorest Of The Poor In The Rural Area: Experience From Northern Bangladesh, Mohammed Emrul Hasan
Implications Of Financial Innovations For The Poorest Of The Poor In The Rural Area: Experience From Northern Bangladesh, Mohammed Emrul Hasan
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Providing microfinance to the poorest of the poor in rural areas remains a challenge. Grameen demonstrated that the poor are viable clients for loans and reached them on a massive scale. However, they reach only the upper level of the poor and provide narrow and limited financial services with rigid systems and procedures, which in many ways do not address the needs of the poorest. Despite earning signs of success with their SafeSave innovative approach to serving the poorest in the urban area, this rural adaptation and experiment has faced challenges because of the different social and economical structures of …
A Challenge To The Orthodoxy Concerning Microfinance And Poverty Reduction, Ana Marr
A Challenge To The Orthodoxy Concerning Microfinance And Poverty Reduction, Ana Marr
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
As a response to many partial and simplistic theoretical and empirical studies, this paper presents a more comprehensive analytical framework to assess the success of microfinance in achieving its dual objectives of financial sustainability and poverty reduction. By giving center stage to the study of group dynamics and using principles of imperfect information and social psychology, the paper argues that microfinance not only has failed to solve the original problems of information asymmetries between borrowers and lenders but also, in its pursuit of financial sustainability, is destroying the very foundations of these schemes by disrupting the social fabric of communities, …
Attitudes Of Rural Branch Manages In Madhya Pradesh, India, Toward Their Role As Providers Of Financial Services To The Poor, Howard Jones, Marylin Williams, Yashwant Thorat, Abba Thorat
Attitudes Of Rural Branch Manages In Madhya Pradesh, India, Toward Their Role As Providers Of Financial Services To The Poor, Howard Jones, Marylin Williams, Yashwant Thorat, Abba Thorat
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Discussions on banking reforms to reduce financial exclusion have referred little to possible attitudinal constraints, on the part of staff at both branch and institutional levels, inhibiting the provision of financial services to the poor. The research project, funded by the ESCOR (now Social Science Research) Small Grants Committee, has focused on this aspect of financial exclusion. The research commenced in May 2001 and was completed in April 2002. Profiles of the rural bank branch managers, including personal background, professional background and workplace, are presented. Attitudes of managers toward aspects of their work environment and the rural poor are examined, …
Beyond Micro-Credit: Putting Development Back Into Micro-Finance By Thomas Fisher And M. S. Sriram, James R. Bradshaw
Beyond Micro-Credit: Putting Development Back Into Micro-Finance By Thomas Fisher And M. S. Sriram, James R. Bradshaw
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Balancing Supply And Demand: The Emerging Agenda For Microfinance Institutions, Thankom Arun, David Hulme
Balancing Supply And Demand: The Emerging Agenda For Microfinance Institutions, Thankom Arun, David Hulme
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Announcements, Journal Of Microfinance
Announcements, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Money Talks: Conversations With Poor Households In Bangladesh About Managing Money, Stuart Rutherford
Money Talks: Conversations With Poor Households In Bangladesh About Managing Money, Stuart Rutherford
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
This paper describes the money management behavior of 42 low-income Bangladeshi households, half of them rural and half living in urban slums. They were found to be active managers of their financial resources. Thirty-three varieties of financial instrument were found to be in use by the sample households during the research year. As well as using a wide variety of instruments, most households engaged in multiple uses of the instruments: on average each household initiated a new money management arrangement every two weeks. The sums of money involved are large, both absolutely and relative to incomes. The average “turnover” (the …
Vol. 05 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Vol. 05 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Rural Finance, Poverty Alleviation, And Sustainable Land Use: The Role Of Credit For The Adoption Of Agroforestry Systems In Occidental Honduras, Ruerd Ruben, Luud Clercx
Rural Finance, Poverty Alleviation, And Sustainable Land Use: The Role Of Credit For The Adoption Of Agroforestry Systems In Occidental Honduras, Ruerd Ruben, Luud Clercx
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
This paper analyzes the relationship between financial services provided by different agents, the adoption of agroforestry systems, and the implications for food security and sustainable soil management. Attention is focussed on the role of rural finance in reducing risk and stabilizing household income and yields. We conclude that credit provision performs critical functions for reinforcing the resilience of rural livelihoods in less-favored areas. Rural development programs in the Occidental region of Honduras have been rather reluctant to provide rural financial services. Unfavorable agroclimatic conditions and the scarcity of infrastructure lead to extreme poverty. The local economy is fairly dynamic due …
Vol. 04 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Vol. 04 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Challenges To Microfinance Commercialization, Anita Campion
Challenges To Microfinance Commercialization, Anita Campion
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
This paper was presented to audiences in Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines through a World Bank multimedia distance education program in October 2001. The presentation addressed some of the core obstacles to microfinance commercialization, defined here as the application of market-based principles to providing financial services to the poor. The paper discusses some of the challenges to microfinance commercialization, such as inappropriate donor subsidies, poor regulation and supervision, and limited management capacity of microfinance institutions. Given the initial target audience of primarily World Bank employees, the paper concludes with a discussion on what donor can do to move microfinance …
To Pay Or Not To Pay?: Local Institutional Differences And The Viability Of Rural Credit In Nicaragua, Johan Bastiaensen, Ben D'Exelle
To Pay Or Not To Pay?: Local Institutional Differences And The Viability Of Rural Credit In Nicaragua, Johan Bastiaensen, Ben D'Exelle
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Innovative credit enterprises, aiming to expand the frontier of the rural credit market, can attain financial sustainabihty and broadened social outreach if they embed financial operations in local institutions, such as social networks and prevailing rules. Only in this way can the "rules of the game" imposed by the credit enterprise gain the local legitimacy that is necessary to reduce transaction costs sufficiently. The nature of preexisting local institutional environments, therefore, has a profound effect on the performance of credit enterprises. Our analysis of a rural microcredit program in two neighboring villages in Nicaragua indicates that existing patron-client structures, conditioned …
Community Savings Funds: Providing Access To Basic Financial Services In Marginalized Rural Areas Of Mexico, Gabriala Zapata
Community Savings Funds: Providing Access To Basic Financial Services In Marginalized Rural Areas Of Mexico, Gabriala Zapata
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
The Community Savings Funds (CSFs) promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture in Mexico seek to provide marginalized community groups with a simple mechanism that allows them to save and administer their own funds securely, efficiently, and profitably, according to their own needs and priorities. Specially trained promoters help set up CSFs for a period of one year—using a standardized Toolkit—after which they are expected to work autonomously. There are 540 CSFs in 12 states with over 12,800 members and savings totaling 4.45 million pesos (US 5445,000). This paper describes the characteristics of the CSF model and the results to date. …
Care's Mata Masu Dubara (Women On The Move) Program In Niger: Successful Financial Intermediation In The Rural Sahel, William J. Grant, Henry C. Allen [email protected]
Care's Mata Masu Dubara (Women On The Move) Program In Niger: Successful Financial Intermediation In The Rural Sahel, William J. Grant, Henry C. Allen [email protected]
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
CARE's Mata Masu Dubara (MMD) project is a women's time-bound accumulating savings and credit association (ASCA) program in rural Niger. Over the past decade, CARE has facilitated the creation of over 5,500 active women's groups with over 162,000, providing the purest forms of financial intermediation to their members in some of the poorest parts of Niger. Working from a very simple and appropriately adapted savings based product, sustainability and replication of the associations is easy to achieve. Due to the overwhelming demand for the product, CARE's role has evolved from service provider creating the associations to a facilitator that trains …
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
The New Microfinance: An Essay On The Self-Help Group Movement In India, Kim Wilson
The New Microfinance: An Essay On The Self-Help Group Movement In India, Kim Wilson
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Indian NGOs have created at least one million self-help groups with 17,000,000 members since the self-help group concept was developed by MYRADA in the late 1980s. India is unique in that banks are permitted to lend directly to unregistered self-help groups and by May 2001, banks and cooperatives had financed 461,478 of these groups, with almost 200,000 new self-help groups financed between May 2000 and May 2001, indicating an accelerated process of expansion. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) trains banks and refinances their loans. The key to NABARD's success is decentralization. Responsibility for group development and …
Evaluation And Microenterprise Programs In The United States, Mark Schreiner
Evaluation And Microenterprise Programs In The United States, Mark Schreiner
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Microenterprise programs attempt to help poor people start or strengthen small businesses. Funding and political support have grown rapidly. Is microenterprise a good use of scarce development funds? Unfortunately, most evaluations have been case studies in what not to do. Because benefits and costs cannot be measured completely nor with perfect certainty, rigorous evaluations should support their necessarily subjective judgements with logic and explicit assumptions. The usefulness of an evaluation lies not in its (apparent) incontrovert-ibility but rather in its clarity of assumptions and in its openness to meaningful review and critique.
A Symposium On Savings-Led Microfinance And The Rural Poor, Jeffrey Ashe
A Symposium On Savings-Led Microfinance And The Rural Poor, Jeffrey Ashe
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.