With an estimated untapped market of nearly a billion poor people, microfinance now stands at a crucial crossroad. Successful microfinance institutions have proven that financial services can be an effective and powerful instrument for poverty reduction, helping poor people to increase incomes, build assts, about what is needed to make microfinance sustainable. Yet, with the exception of a few countries such as Bangladesh and Bolivia, microfinance has failed to reach massive scale.
Over the next decade, microfinance will either realize its vast potential for improving the lives of large numbers of the poor –or it will remain an unfulfilled promise. This brief summarizes the vision and strategy of CGAP’s 29 member donors to bring microfinance to the scale to serve millions worldwide.