LIST OF BOOKS ON MICROFINANCE
Managing Risk and Creating Value with Microfinance
Author: Mike Goldberg, Eric Palladini
Publish Date: August 2010
Summary:
This book covers risk management topics such as risk management systems, good governance, interest rates, and microinsurance. The authors present information on new product development and efficient delivery methodologies including housing microfinance, microleasing, disaster preparedness, and new technologies. It is intended for microfinance institutions (MFIs) board members, managers, and staff, students and professors of microfinance, and government regulators and supervisors. The book brings together the latest information on microfinance institutional sustainability from leading international experts and microfinance practitioners in four Latin American countries. Each chapter focuses one topic: risk management; good governance; interest rates; microinsurance; housing microfinance; microleasing; disaster preparedness; or new technologies. The papers in the book are the result of a series of meetings financed by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and supported by the World Bank’s Global Development Learning Network. The Bank engaged practitioners in these four countries in response to a movement in some South American governments to impose policies and practices that would, in the long run, reduce the MFIs’ sustainability. The meetings were designed to strengthen MFIs by disseminating innovative approaches in the above eight areas, promoting a South-South dialogue, encouraging greater ties between these MFIs, and highlighting the Bank’s ability to mobilize international experts and local practitioners. The discussions took place between 2006 and 2008.
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
Author: Muhammad Yunus
Publish Date: October 2003
Summary:
It began with a simple $27 loan. After witnessing the cycle of poverty that kept many poor women enslaved to high-interest loan sharks in Bangladesh, Dr. Muhammad Yunus lent money to 42 women so they could purchase bamboo to make and sell stools. In a short time, the women were able to repay the loans while continuing to support themselves and their families. With that initial eye-opening success, the seeds of the Grameen Bank, and the concept of microcredit, were planted.
After earning a Ph.D. in economics at VanderbiltUniversity, Dr. Yunus returned to Bangladesh to settle into a life as a professor. But a famine in 1974 ravaged the country, leading Dr. Yunus to alter his thinking and his life profoundly: "What good were all my complex theories when people were dying of starvation on the sidewalks and porches across from my lecture hall?.... Nothing in the economic theories I taught reflected the life around me." Armed with little more than a lofty dream to end the suffering around him, he started an experimental microcredit enterprise in 1977; by 1983 the Grameen Bank was officially formed.
The idea behind the Grameen Bank is ingeniously simple: extend credit to poor people and they will help themselves. This concept strikes at the root of poverty by specifically targeting the poorest of the poor, providing small loans (usually less than $300) to those unable to obtain credit from traditional banks. At Grameen, loans are administered to groups of five people, with only two receiving their money up front. As soon as these two make a few regular payments, loans are gradually extended to the rest of the group. In this way, the program builds a sense of community as well as individual self-reliance. Most of the Grameen Bank's loans are to women, and since its inception, there has been an astonishing loan repayment rate of over 98 percent.
The Economics of Microfinance
Author: Jonathan Morduch, Beatriz Armendariz
Publish Date: May 2010
Summary:
The microfinance revolution, begun with independent initiatives in Latin America and South Asia starting in the 1970s, has so far allowed 65 million poor people around the world to receive small loans without collateral, build up assets, and buy insurance. This comprehensive survey of microfinance seeks to bridge the gap in the existing literature on microfinance between academic economists and practitioners. Both authors have pursued the subject not only in academia but in the field; Beatriz Armendariz founded a microfinance bank in Chiapas, Mexico, and Jonathan Morduch has done fieldwork in Bangladesh, China, and Indonesia.The authors move beyond the usual theoretical focus in the microfinance literature and draw on new developments in theories of contracts and incentives. They challenge conventional assumptions about how poor households save and build assets and how institutions can overcome market failures. The book provides an overview of microfinance by addressing a range of issues, including lessons from informal markets, savings and insurance, the role of women, the place of subsidies, impact measurement, and management incentives. It integrates theory with empirical data, citing studies from Asia, Africa, and Latin America and introducing ideas about asymmetric information, principal-agent theory, and household decision making in the context of microfinance. The Economics of Microfinance can be used by students in economics, public policy, and development studies. Mathematical notation is used to clarify some arguments, but the main points can be grasped without the math. Each chapter ends with analytically challenging exercises for advanced economics students.
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits
Author: C.K. Prahalad
Publish Date: October 2009
Summary:
"C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they dobusiness in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation areto prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new bookoffers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability."
Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect,Microsoft
"The Bottom of the Pyramid belongs at the top of the reading list forbusiness people, academics, and experts pursuing the elusive goal ofsustainable growth in the developing world. C. K. Prahalad writes withuncommon insight about consumer needs in poor societies andopportunities for the private sector to serve important public purposes whileenhancing its own bottom line. If you are looking for fresh thinking aboutemerging markets, your search is ended. This is the book for you."
Madeleine K. Albright, Former U.S. Secretary of State
"Prahalad challenges readers to re-evaluate their pre-conceived notionsabout the commercial opportunities in serving the relatively poor nations ofthe world. The Bottom of the Pyramid highlights the way to commercialsuccess and societal improvement--but only if the developed worldreconceives the way it delivers products and services to the developingworld."
Christopher Rodrigues, CEO, Visa International
"An important and insightful work showing persuasively how the privatesector can be put at the center of development, not just as a rhetoricalflourish but as a real engine of jobs and services for the poor."
Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme.
A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and the Business Solution for Ending Poverty
Author: Phil Smith, Eric Thurman
Publish Date: February 2007
Summary:
A bold manifesto by two business leaders, A Billion Bootstraps shows why microcredit is the world's most powerful poverty-fighting movement-and an unbeatable investment for your charitable donations.
A Billion Bootstraps unearths the roots of the microcredit revolution, revealing how the pioneering work of people such as Dr. Muhammad Yunus-winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize-is giving hope to billions. Philanthropist and self-made millionaire Phil Smith and microcredit expert and consultant Eric Thurman provide a riveting narrative that explores how these small loans, arranged by “barefoot bankers,” enable impoverished people to start small businesses, support their families, and improve local economies. By paying back their loans instead of simply accepting handouts, men and women around the world are continually giving others the same opportunity to change their futures.
Smith and Thurman also examine why traditional charity programs, while providing short-term relief, often perpetuate the problems they are trying to alleviate, and how applying investment principles to philanthropy is the key to reversing poverty permanently.
A Billion Bootstraps explains how ordinary people can accelerate the microcredit movement by investing charitable donations in specific programs and then leveraging those contributions so the net cost to lift one person out of poverty is remarkably low. You'll discover how to get more for your money by donating with the mind-set of an investor and calculating measurable returns-returns that will change lives and societies forever.
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
Author: Jeffrey D. Sachs
Publish Date: March 2005
Summary:
Economist Jeffrey Sachs brings a lifetime of scholarship and experience to the complex problem of the wealth and poverty of nations. He reviews two centuries of history, explaining the reasons behind the uneven dispersal of wealth, and provides a holistic way to assess a nation's resources. Sachs is no ivory-tower thinker; he has been to the places he writes about, has worked with governments and NGOs, and has seen firsthand the devastating effects of poverty and poor sanitation, as well as the great benefits of roads and power grids. Sachs's how-and-why book about changing the conditions for much of the world's poor offers hope that this is not an unsolvable problem.
Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development
Author: Ananya Roy
Publish Date: April 2010
Summary:
This is a book about poverty but it does not study the poor and the powerless. Instead it studies those who manage poverty. It sheds light on how powerful institutions control "capital," or circuits of profit and investment, as well as "truth," or authoritative knowledge about poverty. Such dominant practices are challenged by alternative paradigms of development, and the book details these as well. Using the case of microfinance, the book participates in a set of fierce debates about development - from the role of markets to the secrets of successful pro-poor institutions.Based on many years of research in WashingtonD.C., Bangladesh, and the Middle East, Poverty Capital also grows out of the author's undergraduate teaching to thousands of students on the subject of global poverty and inequality.
What's Wrong With Microfinance?
Author: Malcolm Harper (Editor), Thomas Dichter (Editor)
Publish Date: August 2007
Summary:
Microfinance has been a long-lived development fashion. It has been around since the 1980s, and in 2005 it enjoyed the accolade of a UN international year. The reasons for this success are obvious. It reaches millions of poor people, particularly women, and it can be profitable both for some of its customers and also for the institutions which finance it. There are, however, some important problems, discussed in this book. Some arise from exaggerated expectations, some from bad design and mismanagement and some from erroneous basic policies. Is microfinance really a step on the road to economic growth, or is it a short-term palliative, keeping poor people poor? Can an MFI really work if it embraces the double bottom line of both profit and social good? Is microfinance, especially credit, harmful, often landing the vulnerable poor in debt? Should microfinance be reaching the poorest? The chapters, written by well-known experts in the field, are grouped around the categories: clients, institutions, and expectations. The authors sound a timely warning to governments, bankers, donors and the general public. The intention is not to bring microfinance to a stop, but to make people pause, reassess their expectations and re-think some policies. Microfinance is never a panacea and may sometimes be actively damaging to its intended customers.
Microfinance Investment Funds: Leveraging Private Capital for Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction
Author: J.D. Von Pischke (Editor), Ingrid Matthaus-Maier (Editor)
Publish Date: August 2007
Summary:
Microfinance investment funds are a recent development that will grow in importance. These funds expand the range of opportunities for financing microfinance institutions, enabling them to offer greater outreach and diversity of products for microentrepreneurs and small businesses. Microfinance now spans the range of finance, from the most simple enterprise to the complexity of capital markets. KfW actively promotes microfinance investment funds and other activities that facilitate the growth of microfinance. This book is an expression of KfW's role as information broker and trend setter. The authors who contributed to this collection offer a comprehensive range of perspectives and themes related to microfinance investment and its promotion.
Microfinance Handbook: An Institutional and Financial Perspective
Author: Joanna Ledgerwood
Publish Date: October 1998
Summary:
Microfinance is not simply banking; it is a development tool. It has been estimated that there are 500 million economically active poor people in the world operating microenterprises and small businesses. Most of them do not have access to adequate financial services. The purpose of this Handbook is to bring together in a single source guiding principles and tools that will promote sustainable microfinance and create viable institutions. The Handbook takes a global perspective, drawing on lessons learned from the experiences of microfinance practitioners, donors, and others throughout the world. This volume covers extensively matters pertaining to the regulatory and policy framework and the essential components of institutional capacity building, such as product design, performance measuring and monitoring, and management of microfinance institutions. The handbook has three parts. "Issues in Microfinance Provision," Part I, takes a macroeconomic perspective toward general microfinance issues and is primarily nontechnical. "Designing and Monitoring Financial Products and Services," Part II, narrows its focus to the provision of financial intermediation, taking a more technical approach and moving progressively toward more specific (or micro) issues. "Measuring Performance and Managing Viability," Part III, is the most technical part of the handbook, focusing primarily on assessing the viability of microfinance institutions.
Women's Health and Poverty Alleviation in India
Author: K. S. Mohindra
Publish Date: January 2010
Summary:
Poverty and ill health are intertwined; therefore, social responses need to address the links between the two. There has been increasing attention paid towards the role of microcredit as a poverty alleviation strategy (that especially targets women), yet little scrutiny of how microcredit may influence population health in general and women's health in particular. In this book, we ask: can microcredit be considered a “pro-health” poverty alleviation strategy for women? Using a multi-disciplinary approach, the linkages between poverty alleviation and women's health are investigated from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. The theoretical perspective draws upon Amartya Sen's capability approach and population health models and theories. The empirical perspective is based on a study examining female participation in self help groups (a form of microcredit) and their health in the South Indian state of Kerala.
Poverty Alleviation and Self Help Groups: A Case Study of Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh
Author: G.P. Kapoor, Neha Kapoor
Publish Date:January 2010
Summary:
"This book consists of eight chapters. The first one is an introductory chapter containing some basic information and performance of Self-Help Groups in India; as also an introduction to Himachal Pradesh with special reference to District Kangra. The second chapter throws light on Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in the district. Fourth and fifth chapters are related to income profile of SHGs and SHGs' Women Empowerment respectively. In the Sixth and Seventh Chapters, financial independence of women and SHGs' comparative roles in India have been analysed respectively. Conclusions and suggestions are highlighted in eighth chapter."
Banking, Micro Finance and Self-help Groups (SHGs) in India
Author: A. Vijayakumar (Editor)
Publish Date: July 2009
Summary:
Prior to initiation of reforms in 1991, Indian banking industry suffered from lack of competition, low capital base, inefficiency and high intermediation costs. Ever since the bank nationalisation of 1969, the banking sector had been dominated by the public sector along with a high degree of financial repression characterised by administered interest rates and allocated credit. Banking sector reforms of the last two decades have placed greater emphasis on structural measures and improvement in standards of disclosure and levels of transparency in order to align the Indian standards with international best practices. Reforms have brought about considerable improvements as reflected in various parameters relating to capital adequacy, asset quality, profitability and operational efficiency.