Adoption of Information Technology (IT) in Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) has become one of the key indicators to improve operating efficiency and productivity of staff at all levels of the organization. Though the cost of investment in IT is a matter of concern, it has manifold benefits ranging from productivity improvement to socio economic development of the target clients. This paper focu...

INTRODUCTION Cisgender and transgender woman sex workers (CWSWs and TWSWs, respectively) are key populations in Malaysia with higher HIV-prevalence than that of the general population. Given the impact economic instability can have on HIV transmission in these populations, novel HIV prevention interventions that reduce poverty may reduce HIV incidence and improve linkage and retention to care f...

This paper set to provide an overview of microfinance in Nigeria and examine its problems and prospects. The data collected form secondary sources, were analysed descriptively. The microfinance scheme holds a lot of prospects for the Nigerian economy as it is expected to empower of LowIncome Earners, reduce poverty, generate employment, among others. However, the paper observed that among the p...

This study extends research on the social performance of microfinance institutions. The research methodology is based on Grameen Progress out of Poverty Index™ (PPI™) for Cambodia applied to a sample of borrowers randomly extracted from a Cambodian microfinance institution's loan portfolio. Dataset has been directly collected through in-house interviews. Main questions discussed here are: (1) I...

I. Overview Housing finance strategies vary from country to country, and depend on overall levels of internal economic, social, and political development. Natural disasters and human conflicts, however, know no borders. When confronted with either, developed countries assumedly have institutions and resources to deal with short-term relief, mid-term recovery, and long-term solvency and preventi...

Despite the rapid expansion of microfinance services in the past several decades, the low use of formal credit exhibited by poor households, the high dropout rates experienced by many microfinance institutions, and the prevalence of dual credit markets, even in the most saturated markets, suggest that microcredit may fail to meet the needs of many poor households. This paper examines the import...

Ruth Junkin is Rural Finance Specialist, Center for the Competitiveness of Ecoenterprises (CeCoEco), Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Turrialba, Costa Rica. Globally, the past few decades have seen exponential growth and development in the microfinance sector. The worldwide movement to promote small-scale financing for micro and small enterprises has reached ov...

OBJECTIVES Women's participation in microfinance-based self-help groups (SHGs) and the resultant social capital may provide a basis to address the gap in health attainment for poor women and their children. We investigated the effect of combining a health program designed to improve health behaviours and outcomes with a microfinance-based SHG program. DESIGN A mixed method study was conducted...

INTRODUCTION Single solutions continue to be inadequate in confronting the prevalent problems of poverty, ill health and insufficient health system capacity worldwide. The poor need access to an integrated set of financial and health services to have income security and better health. Over 3500 microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide microcredit and financial services to more than 155 million ...