Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Re: [MFP] Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Looking to the Future

 

Thank you, Anuj; I agree that the endless debates about the impact of microcredit, that is, microdebt, are overdone (although, like microcredit itself, its evaluation industry is a major source of employment and income for quite a lot of people). But, more broadly, I think you are exaggerating the potential of financial services when you ask whether access to them can enable people "to take control of their livelihoods, and make this world less unequal".
 
Of course such access can help most people a little (and it can also injure a lot of people, luckily in most cases only a little too) but there are other far more important services, such as education, decent health care, proper governance and the rule of law. Excess 'financialisation' of the economy is a problem for better off places and people, it's unfortunate that the information revolution has not made financial intermediation less costly and more automatic.
 
We should not promote the same phenomenon as a panacea for the problems of poorer people, and we must not act like medical specialists who believe that 'their' speciality, whatever it may be, is what everyone needs.
 
Malcolm
 
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2016 8:59 AM
Subject: RE: [MFP] Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Looking to the Future
 
 

Thanks Getaneh, (and Leslie),

It is 2016, high time we get away from the endless debates of micro-credit, micro-finance, and start looking at it from financial inclusion perspective…. Let's admit, framing the subject and issues just around micro-credit is problematic and digresses us from more relevant debates of current times..

Can access to financial services relevant and be created for people in the margins to take control of their livelihoods, and make this world less unequal? High time we think through macro and micro together, and not be consumed by marginal issues.

If the capital-flows and financial services systems keep the majority of people on the economic margins, which is what we all are facing today, our frames of thinking and program design must change. Or so I propose.

Anuj

From: MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2016 1:41 AM
To: MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [MFP] Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Looking to the Future

 

Dear Leslie

Thank you for the update on impact. ... True that most microfinance impact studies employ methodologies that can only reflect partial picture of the true story. Their focus is often 'microcredit' and forget savings, insurance, etc. They take samples from diverse countries, different contexts, and assume every thing about the poor is the same. etc, etc. ... But what is still not well discussed in both the Grameen Foundation's study, as well as the six country RCTs is the issue often raised by people like Milford Bateman -- the issue that MICROCREDIR might actually be crowding out real entrepreneurs (distorting the markets, etc) by using 'scarce' financial resources to every poor (even when they don't have ready business). If the evidence tells us that the welfare of only some 5-10% are 'significantly positively impacted', could it be more appropriately targeted to selected few (perhaps employ approaches like BRAC 'graduation' model) as some countries are increasingly using it???.... I think this can be discussed more.... I believe you would find the discussion (by Milford) in the following link useful.

Regards

On Monday, January 11, 2016 8:21 PM, "Liselle Yorke lyorke@grameenfoundation.org [MicrofinancePractice]" <MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Dear All:

I'm pleased to share the latest report in the Measuring the Impact of Microfinance series. Written by Kathleen Odell, it examined research published since 2010 (our first paper covered research up until 2005 and the second covered research between 2005 and 2010). The report is published in association with Accion, Dominican University, and the Microfinance CEO Working Group.

We encourage you to read the paper and Kathleen's blog on NextBillion, which ran today. Equally important, we'd love to get your feedback on future directions for research on financial inclusion.

Sincerely,

Liselle

Liselle Yorke

Group Lead, Marketing

1101 15th Street, NW, 3rd Floor│Washington, D.C. 20005

202-628-3560, ext 128│Mobile: 202-750-4674

lyorke@grameenfoundation.org│Skype: liselle_yorke

Connecting the World's Poor to Their Potential

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