Research & Analysis

Microfinance and HIV/AIDS

This Donor Brief addresses how microfinance can play a role in helping families affected by HIV/AIDS and how microfinance institutions can plan for the institutional risk posed by this epidemic.

Microfinance Poverty Assessment Tool

The multi-dimensional Poverty Index constructed by the tool is for donors and investors who require a standardized, globally applicable set of poverty indicators to make poverty-focused funding decisions and to compare MFIs across regions and countries.

Financial Terms, Ratios, and Adjustments for Microfinance

This Consensus Guidelines puts forward standard definitions for selected financial terms, commonly used and subject to confusion, and suggests a standard method of calculating certain financial ratios. The definitions established in this document will make comparisons among MFIs more meaningful and promote more transparency in MFI reporting.

The Impact of Microfinance

This Donor Brief looks at how donor funding for microfinance can be powerful as a complement to investment in other social services.

Disclosure Guidelines for Financial Reporting by MFIs

This Consensus Guidelines represents the consensus of CGAP's member donors on microfinance institution (MFI) financial reporting requirements. The guidelines do not prescribe accounting policies or any particular format for financial reporting. Rather, they indicate the minimum information that should be included in MFI financial reports, regardless of how that information is presented.

Guiding Principles on Regulation and Supervision of Microfinance

Captured here is broad consensus on many principles of good practice in regulation and supervision of microfinance. The guidelines summarize these principles for government regulators and others engaged in moving microfinance into the formal financial sector.

Regulation and Supervision of Microfinance

This Donor Brief provides a simple and clear summary of the increasingly complex issues in microfinance regulation and supervision. It includes definitions of key terms, clear guidelines, and options for donor action.

Microfinance Means Financial Services for the Poor

This Donor Brief summarizes the vision and strategy of CGAP members to bring microfinance to the scale required to serve millions worldwide.

Credit Components

Designed as inputs to larger projects with limited life spans, credit components run the risk of failing to provide the intended target groups with permanent access to financial services. This Donor Brief outlines some ways to make the most of credit components and minimize their downsides.

Is Microfinance an Effective Strategy to Reach the MDGs?

This paper reviews the mounting body of evidence showing that the availability of financial services for poor households (“microfinance”) is a critical contextual factor with strong impact on the achievement of the Milennium Development Goals.