The following article was written by Sofia Tillo for MediaGlobal. You can read the original article here. Microfinance is nothing new, having brought access to financial services for the world’s poorest people for the past two decades. Particularly common are initiatives giving small private loans to people in least developed countries.
The following was originally posted by Taylor Corbett, who is working with BRAC’s Ultra Poor program in Bangladesh, on the Jolkona blog. You can read the original blog post here.
“ … perhaps the most fully realized “integrated” provider, offering financial services along with schools, legal training, productive inputs, and help with marketing and business planning. If you are in Dhaka these days, for example, you can buy Aarong brand chocolate milk, which is produced by a BRAC dairy marketing affiliate. A different BRAC subsidiary produces Aarong brand textiles made by poor weavers, and still another subsidiary runs craft shops that sell the goods of microfinance clients.”
A recent IFPRI (International Food Poverty Research Institute) publication “The poorest and hungry: assessments, analyses, and actions”, features a chapter by BRAC’s founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed.”Microfinance Interventions to Enable the Poorest to Improve Their Asset Base” is a thoughtful commentary on the potential of microfinance-based approaches to alleviate poverty.
Grameen Foundation, J.P. Morgan and WAM-NY recently presented a panel discussion on poverty reduction using microfinance. At the event, Grameen Foundation released a review of the most recent research examining the effects of microfinance on the lives on the poor. The review titled “Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Another Look” written by Kathleen Odell, updates the conclusions drawn in a 2005 Grameen Foundation white paper titled “Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Stock of What We Know”.