Volume draws on the broad review of experience and contains a selection of papers, which delve into some of the general issues associated with microfinance as well as in specific case studies of institutional development and new mechanisms for enhancing sustainability and the resource base from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The overall analysis shows that there is no single model that can be prescribed for all circumstances. Rather, adjusting financial institutions and their operations to local conditions implies diversity and innovation. Case studies of institutional development and new mechanisms for enhancing sustainability and resource base are discussed.
Offers general policy conclusions to give broad guidance to national and international sponsors and to promoters of microfinance enterprises:
* demand driven strategies have many advantages compared to the earlier, often donor driven, supply side approaches,
* subsidised finance (via low interest rates) is an appropriate instrument for reaching large numbers of poor people in a sustainable way,
* there is still considerable need for grant financing to develop efficient and sustainable institutions
Specific topics covered include:
* integrating the poor into the rural financial mainstream,
* assessing performance of development finance institutions,
* bank-NGO linkages and transaction costs of lending to the poor through groups, with evidence from India and the Philippines,
* developing financial services in disadvantaged regions, looking at self- managed village savings and loan associations in Mali,
* building up capacity for banking with the poor, looking at the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh,
* challenges that come with growth for microfinance organizations,
* innovative funding of capacity development, with the case of a self- administered capital fund instrument,
* debt-to-development conversions.
