Microfinance and Poverty Reduction

* Acknowledgements

* Introduction

1. Current debates in microfinance
* Subsidised credit provision
* The move to market-based solutions
* Making use of social collateral
* Savings Can microfinance interventions reduce poverty?
o Poverty as powerlessness
o Credit for micro-enterprises
o Reaching the poorest
* Financial interventions and social change
* Treading carefully in microfinance interventions

2. Informal financial services
* Introduction User-owned informal financial services
o Some examples of user-owned financial services
* Turning the informal into the formal
* What can be learned from informal finance?
* Deciding when and how to intervene
o Research questions on existing informal financial services
* Filling the gaps
o Some examples of innovative services
* Promotion: an alternative strategy for NGOs
o Formation of savings groups and development of internal credit facilities
o Promotion of small-scale formalised approaches
o Linking groups to the formal system
o Linking with specialised financial service NGOs
o Advocacy

* Summary and conclusions

3. The design of savings and credit schemes for poor people
* Introduction
* Targeting savings and credit to poor people
* Women as users of financial services
* Lending through groups
o Functions of the group in microfinance schemes
o Including the poorest
o Other examples of group-based schemes

* Savings
o The value of savingd facility
o Compulsory or valuntary savings?
o Linking savings to credit

* Forms of loan
o Credit in cash or kind?
o Directed or undirected credit?
* Loan disbursement and repayment schedules
* Interest rates
* Integrating financial services with other activities
4. Savings and credit group formation and institution-building
5. Social development programmes
6. Economic development activities
7. Summary and conclusion
8. Financial performance and sustainability
* Introduction
* Managing and assessing financial performance
o The repayment rate
o Arreas and default
* Financial sustainability
o The pros and cons of 'scaling up
o Issues in sustainability: the experience of 'village banking'
o Sustainability through exstending coverage
o Measuring financial sustainabilty
* Managerial and organisational sustainability
o The role of staff in microfinance interventions
o Organisational sustainability and change
* Summary and conclusions

9. Assessing impact
* Introduction
* The difficulties of assessing impact
o Establishing loan use
o Measuring change: controls and baselines
o Proving causality
* Innovations in impact assessment
o Researching usefulness: a case study
o Assessing impact on social relationships
o Impact assessment as a dynamic process
o Validating quantitative data in impact assessment
o Using quantitative data in impact assessment
* Learning and adaptability
* Summary and conclusions

10. Case studies
* Introducing the case studies
* Union Regional de Apoyo Campesino (URAC), Mexico
o Background
o Design
o Financial performance and sustainability
o Impact assessment
o Conclusions
* SUNGI Developent Foundation, Pakistan
o Background
o Design
o Financial performance and sustainability
o Impact assessment
o Conclusions
* Ladywood Credit Union, UK
o Background
o Design
o Financial performance and sustainability
o Impact assessment
o Conclusions
* ACTIONAID in The Gambia
o Background
o Design
o Financial performance and sustainability
o Impact assessment
o Conclusions
* Casa Campesina Cayambe, Ecuador
o Background
o Design
o Financial performance and sustainability
o Impact assessment
o Conclusions

* Conclusions

* Annex 1 Table 1 Six microfinance institutions
* Annex 2 Repayment rate and arrears rate

* References