Can Microfinance Work

Author : Milford Bateman
Publisher : Zed Books Ltd.
Page : 261 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2010-06-10
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781848138957

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Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? by Milford Bateman Pdf

Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, movie stars, royalty, high-profile politicians and ‘troubleshooting’ economists. In this provocative and controversial analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn’t actually work. In fact, the case for it has been largely built on hype, on egregious half-truths and – latterly – on the Wall Street-style greed of those promoting and working in microfinance. Using a multitude of case studies, from India to Cambodia, Bolivia to Uganda, Serbia to Mexico, Bateman demonstrates that microfi nance actually constitutes a major barrier to sustainable economic and social development, and thus also to sustainable poverty reduction. As developing and transition countries attempt to repair the devastation wrought by the global financial crisis, Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work? argues forcefully that the role of microfinance in development policy urgently needs to be reconsidered.

Author : Lesley Sherratt
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780199383191

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Can Microfinance Work? by Lesley Sherratt Pdf

'Can Microfinance Work?' presents a thorough-going and nuanced ethical assessment of the microfinance industry, drawing on the author's expertise in the fields of finance and applied ethics.

Author : Craig Farren Churchill,Cheryl Frankiewicz
Publisher : International Labour Organization
Page : 452 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9789221186571

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Making Microfinance Work by Craig Farren Churchill,Cheryl Frankiewicz Pdf

This training manual provides an overview of the key management principles necessary to optimize the services of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and brings together useful lessons from numerous MFIs worldwide to help managers strengthen the performance of their unit, branch or institution.Either used alone, or as part of a management training course, Making Microfinance Work offers various tools and advice. The markets and marketing of MFIs are examined and looks at the different ways in which managers can communicate the value of their products and services. It introduces effective methods for enhancing efficiency and productivity which minimize the trade-offs MFIs invariably face as they try to provide services over the long term.The topic of managing risks is also covered. This manual offers strategies to prevent risk from occurring and, if it does occur, explains how to rectify the situation. Practical techniques for allocating costs and determining prices are also highlighted, as well as the importance of plans, budgets and reports. Illustrations and case studies are used to assist managers in applying the concepts outlined in the text. An extensive list of additional reading and useful Internet resources is also provided

Author : Ira W. Lieberman,Paul DiLeo,Todd A. Watkins
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
Page : 493 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2020-06-30
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780815737643

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The Future of Microfinance by Ira W. Lieberman,Paul DiLeo,Todd A. Watkins Pdf

A major source of financing for the poor and no longer a niche industry Over the past four decades, microfinance—the provision of loans, savings, and insurance to small businesses and entrepreneurs shut out of traditional capital markets—has grown from a niche service in Bangladesh and a few other countries to a significant global source of financing. Some 200 million people globally now receive support from microfinance institutions, with most of the recipients in the developing world. In the beginning, much of the microfinance industry was managed by non-governmental organizations, but today the majority of these institutions are commercial and regulated by governments, and they provide safe places for the poor to save, as well as offering much-needed capital and other financial services. Now out of infancy, the microfinance industry faces major challenges, including its ability to deal with mobile banking and other technology and concerns that some markets are now over-saturated with microfinance. How the industry deals with these and other challenges will determine whether it will continue to grow or will be subsumed within the larger global financial sector. This book is based on the results of a workshop at Lehigh University among thirty-four leaders in the industry. The editors, working with contributions from more than a dozen leading authorities in the field, tell the important story of how microfinance developed, how it has met the needs of hundreds of millions of people, and they address key questions about how it can continue to meet those needs in the future.

Author : Craig Churchill,Cheryl Frankiewicz
Publisher : International Labour Organisation
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2012-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9221241831

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Making Microfinance Work by Craig Churchill,Cheryl Frankiewicz Pdf

Microfinance has long been recognized as having significant potential to create jobs and reduce poverty. But to meet the twin challenges of growth and sustainability, managers of microfinance institutions (MFIs) must not only understand essential management functions: they must also be armed with innovative ideas and strategies to succeed in today's increasingly competitive environment. This book provides a valuable overview of the key management principles necessary to optimize the services of MFIs.Volume 1 examines the markets and marketing of MFIs and captures the different ways that managers can communicate the value of their products and services. It offers strategies to prevent risk from occurring and, if it does occur, explains how to rectify the situation. Practical techniques for allocating costs and determining prices are also highlighted, as well as the importance of plans, budgets and reports. Volume 2 includes chapters on various product options, including savings, insurance, leasing, money transfers, and even grants and nonfinancial services. It also explores how to combine different product menus to serve specific market segments, such as the ultra-poor, youth, women, and small and medium enterprises. It provides specific suggestions to manage diversification, including adapting the institutional culture, redistributing responsibilities, empowering staff, communicating with clients, reengineering systems, and managing change.

Author : David Roodman
Publisher : CGD Books
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781933286532

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Due Diligence by David Roodman Pdf

The idea that small loans can help poor families build businesses and exit poverty has blossomed into a global movement. The concept has captured the public imagination, drawn in billions of dollars, reached millions of customers, and garnered a Nobel Prize. Radical in its suggestion that the poor are creditworthy and conservative in its insistence on individual accountability, the idea has expanded beyond credit into savings, insurance, and money transfers, earning the name microfinance. But is it the boon so many think it is? Readers of David Roodman's openbook blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis. Due Diligence, written entirely in public with input from readers, probes the truth about microfinance to guide governments, foundations, investors, and private citizens who support financial services for poor people. In particular, it explains the need to deemphasize microcredit in favor of other financial services for the poor.

Author : Joanna Ledgerwood
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 302 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 1998-12-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780821384312

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Microfinance Handbook by Joanna Ledgerwood Pdf

The purpose of the 'Microfinance Handbook' is to bring together in a single source guiding principles and tools that will promote sustainable microfinance and create viable institutions.

Author : Hugh Sinclair
Publisher : Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2012-07-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781609945183

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Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic by Hugh Sinclair Pdf

Microfinance insider Hugh Sinclair weaves a shocking tale of an industry focused on maximizing profits and plagued by predatory lending practices, scandals, cover-ups and corruption.

Author : Todd A Watkins
Publisher : World Scientific Publishing Company
Page : 472 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2018-04-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9789813140752

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Introduction to Microfinance by Todd A Watkins Pdf

Author : R. H. Schmidt,H. D. Seibel,P. Thomes
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2016-09-19
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9783527508020

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From Microfinance to Inclusive Finance by R. H. Schmidt,H. D. Seibel,P. Thomes Pdf

Once praised as a panacea to overcome poverty microfinance has had to face harsh criticism because of painful failures and unfulfilled expectations. Still many people in particular in rural regions do not have any access to formal financial services, many microfinance institutions are weak, and others rather exploit their clients driving them into over indebtedness than helping them out of poverty. What should microfinance achieve? Can it help to build up inclusive financial systems allowing access to basic financial services for everybody? The historic templates for this book are the German Sparkassen and Cooperative banks that have a strong track record of development and growth spanning over 200 years. For obvious reasons their results cannot be transferred directly into specific solution options to today's challenges in developing countries. Nevertheless the coming into existence of Sparkassen and Cooperative banks can well be seen as part of a period of revolutionary developments in the European economic and social landscape, which can be viewed as analogous to the transformation that emerging economies are undergoing today. While Europe faced dramatically changing living conditions during the period of industrialization these newly creatd banks made change possible by unequivocally including the lower class population in the transformationby providing access to savings and loans. And it is this is parallel - even in the face of the many differences - which is why their development and success deserves careful consideration today. The authors' approach differsfrom other explorations by specifically adopting an interdisciplinary strategy. They take into account past developments as well as current global ones from a historical, social science and economic point of view. Analysis and the interpretation of data is supported by case studies to illustrate their considerations. The authors identify general parameters both for failure and for success and also indicate how to optimize existing potentials - both for institutions and policy makers. As a result of this interdisciplinary work the authors advance an inclusive stylised facts based model. The will to build up institutions, to adhere to corporate social responsibility and creating conducive legal frameworks form the basic conditions for success. More specifically, the guiding principles of these successful business models are a fair savings and credit policy, the promotion of capital transfers without reference to class and gender, a focus on business activities in a well defined region, decentralized organizational structures combined with national networks which avoid regional capital drains and the securing of economies of scale and scope. Llast but not least is the centrality of objectives beyond that of the sheer maximisation of profits.

Author : Lamia Karim
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780816670949

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Microfinance and Its Discontents by Lamia Karim Pdf

The first feminist critique of the much-lauded microcredit process in Bangladesh.

Author : Suresh Sundaresan
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
Page : 143 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2009-01-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781848445178

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Microfinance by Suresh Sundaresan Pdf

. . . a valuable resource that traces the changes in the microfinance sector from its origin until now. . . The book will serve as a good reference point for future debate in these areas. Microfinance Insights In 2006 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus for his work on microfinance, dramatically changing attitudes towards capital markets. Suresh Sundaresan has assembled an impressive set of scholars and practitioners in this book to bring together recent practical innovations and policy questions in the realm of microfinance. The contributions emphasize practical solutions to problems facing the field by examining capital markets, providing a framework for thinking about regulation, and raising questions about gender empowerment. They examine recent developments in the field, research findings, and the challenges that lie ahead. This book takes a solid step toward a systematic analysis of the implications of microfinance for the role and regulation of capital markets. The authors address integration of capital markets with microfinance, technological innovations such as the use of mobile phone technology, the consequences of women s access to micro-loan borrowings, and the regulatory challenges and opportunities emerging as the landscape of microfinance dramatically evolves. Practitioners, policy makers, and academics in the fields of developmental economics, finance, gender studies and public and development policy will enjoy this analytically rigorous work.

Author : Marguerite S. Robinson
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 524 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0821349538

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The Microfinance Revolution by Marguerite S. Robinson Pdf

??? ... Microfinance is the method whereby financial services and credit is made available to the economically active but low income people of developiong countries. This book focusses on three key aspects of the phenomenon: 1) the shift from government- and donor-subsidized credit delivery systems to self-sufficient, sustainable microfinance institutions; 2) the results on the ground, on the way in which microfinance is helps people expand and diversify their enterprises, increase their incomes, raise their living standards and those of theri families, and boost their self-confidence; 3) the theroretical frameworks that had previously impeded the microfinance revolution, with suggestions for their improvement.

Author : Peter A. Fanconi,Patrick Scheurle
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2017-05-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781119338208

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Small Money Big Impact by Peter A. Fanconi,Patrick Scheurle Pdf

Make your money make a difference—and enjoy attractive returns Small Money, Big Impact explores and explains the globally growing importance of impact investing. Today, the investor's perspective has become as important as the actual social impact. Based on their experience with over 25 million micro borrowers, the authors delve into the mechanics, considerations, data and strategies that make microloans and impact investing an attractive asset class. From the World Bank to the individual investor, impact investing is attracting more and more attention. Impact investing is a global megatrend and is reshaping the way people invest as pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, family offices and private investors jump on board. This book explains for the first time how it works, why it works and what you should know if you're ready to help change the world. Impact investing has proven over the last 20 years as the first-line offense against crushing poverty. Over two billion people still lack access to basic financial services, which are essential for improving their livelihood. Investors have experienced not only social and environmental impact, but have received attractive, stable and uncorrelated returns for over 15 years. This guide provides the latest insights and methodologies that help you reap the rewards of investing in humanity. Explore the global impact investing phenomenon Learn how microloans work, and how they make a difference Discover why investors are increasingly leaning into impact investing Consider the factors that inform impact investing decisions Part social movement and part financial strategy, impact investing offers the unique opportunity for investors to power tremendous change with a small amount of money— expanding their portfolios as they expand their own global impact. Microfinance allows investors at any level to step in where banks refuse to tread, offering opportunity to those who need it most. Small Money, Big Impact provides the expert guidance you need to optimize the impact on your portfolio and the world.

Author : Marguerite Robinson
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2001-06-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780821383384

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The Microfinance Revolution by Marguerite Robinson Pdf

Around the world, a revolution is occurring in finance for low-income people. The microfinance revolution is delivering financial services to the economically active poor on a large scale through competing, financially self-sufficient institutions. In a few countries this has already happened; in others it is under way. The emerging microfinance industry has profound implications for social and economic development. For the first time in history, capital is well on its way to being democratized. 'The Microfinance Revolution', in three volumes, is aimed at a diverse readership - economists, bankers, policymakers, donors, and social scientists; microfinance practitioners and specialists in local finance and rural and urban development; and members of the general public interested in development. This first volume, 'Sustainable Finance for the Poor', focuses on the shift from government- and donor-subsidized credit systems to self-sufficient microfinance institutions providing voluntary savings and credit services.