Searching: Research & Analysis

Sustaining Microfinance in Post-Tsunami Asia

This Brief presents guidelines intended to help MFIs provide the appropriate range of emergency and longer term assistance to their clients, while helping both MFIs and donors ensure the ultimate mission of the MFI--to be a sustainable provider of financial services--is not compromised.

Linking Microfinance and Safety Net Programs to Include the Poorest

Most studies of microfinance programs in Bangladesh indicate that the poor, and especially poor women, have been effectively targeted, and that microfinance programs have been successful in opening up economic opportunities for their clients, increasing access to resources and contributing to their confidence and well-being.

Exploring Client Preferences in Microfinance

Microfinance products tend to be uniform across large geographic areas. For example, in Bangladesh most microfinance institutions (MFIs) offer some variant of the product pioneered by Grameen Bank—a loan with a term of about a year, repaid in frequent (usually weekly) installments, given in a group context, ostensibly for micro-enterprise use, and with a compulsory savings element.