Microfinance and Vulnerability to Poverty
Microfinance and Vulnerability to Poverty

Author: Oliver Rogall

Publisher: Ibidem Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 9783838202372

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Low income households are faced with various types of risks, increasing their vulnerability to poverty. In Cambodia, conditions of the rural poor - with the majority engaged in agriculture - are characterized by low productivity, limited capacities in terms of land and assets, volatile income sources, fluctuating farm input and output prices, debt and lack of credit worthiness. A microfinance institution operating in rural Cambodia and aiming to offer financial products to a large number of poor households is Angkor Mikroheranhvatho Kampuchea (AMK) Co. Ltd. Through its internal Market and Social Research Department, AMK staff annually collects socio-economic information about selected loan clients (household profiles, cash-flow analysis), as well as non-clients as a control group. Their survey tool includes questions about household's food consumption, main risk sources and coping strategies. The present research study draws information from this AMK survey database. The measures taken are applied to socio-economic cross-sectional data as of 2006/07 and validated with panel data from 2008.A theoretical framework is developed to examine the mechanisms through which the effects of the AMK services on its clients influence the household's ability to manage risk. It includes measurement aspects of a forward-looking concept of vulnerability to identify and capture its linkages to risks, shocks, and risk strategies of rural households. Secondly it incorporates the dynamic aspects of poverty by looking at temporal changes in absolute poverty levels. Moreover, it seeks to identify gaps and opportunities of microfinance services as a risk management strategy to reduce vulnerability.The results show that the fraction of vulnerable households (85%) facing a risk of poverty is considerably greater than what the static poverty assessment suggests. Results further show that the majority of the sample households are poor (72%) as of 2006 and 2007. Among the non-clients the figure is substantially lower with 58% poor households, whereas 75% of the AMK microfinance clients fall below the poverty line. This particular confirms the intended outreach targets of AMK.Furthermore, it could be ascertained that those clients who remained clients could significantly accumulate assets and became less dependent on agricultural activities. This is a good indication that AMK clients have safety nets and more strategic possibilities in case of future shocks.

Vulnerability to Poverty
Vulnerability to Poverty

Author: M. Grimm

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-30

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0230306624

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With the current global crisis, high levels of volatility in trade, capital flows, commodity prices, aid, and the looming threat of climate change, this book brings together high-quality research and presents conceptual issues and empirical results to analyze the determinants of the vulnerability to poverty in developing countries.

The Microfinance Impact
The Microfinance Impact

Author: Ranjula Bali Swain

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-08-15

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1136308091

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Financial inclusion through microfinance has become a powerful force in improving the living conditions of poor farmers, rural non-farm enterprises and other vulnerable groups. In its unique ability to link the existing extensive network of India’s rural bank branches with the Self Help Groups (SHG), the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has covered up to 97 million poor households by March 2010 under its Self Help Group Bank Linkage Programme. Policy-makers have proclaimed SHGs as ‘‘the most potent initiative ... for delivering financial services to the poor in a sustainable manner." This book presents a comprehensive scientific assessment of the impact of the Self Help Group Bank Linkage Programme (SBLP) on the member households. The book discusses wide-ranging topics, including the rural financial sector in India, the history and structure of the SBLP, the impact methodologies, the economic and social impact of microfinance, its role in building assets while reducing poverty and vulnerability, the role of women and their empowerment, training and accumulation of human capital and policy implications of lessons learned. The empirical results show that vulnerability of the more mature SHG members declines significantly. Vulnerability also falls for villages with better infrastructure and for SHGs that are formed by NGOs and linked by banks. The results strongly demonstrate that on average, there is a significant increase in the empowerment of the female participants. The economic impact of SBLP is found to be the most empowering. Greater autonomy and changes in social attitudes also lead to female empowerment. The investigation further reveals that training (especially business training) has a definite positive impact on assets but not on income. The impact of training can be improved through better infrastructure (as in paved roads), linkage model type, and the training organiser. Bridging the gap in the existing literature and between academics and practitioners, this book moves beyond the usual theoretical issues in the impact assessment literature and draws on new developments in methodology. It will be of interest to academics, development practitioners and students of economics, political science, sociology, public policy and development studies.

Microfinance and Vulnerability to Seasonal Famine in a Rural Economy
Microfinance and Vulnerability to Seasonal Famine in a Rural Economy

Author: Claudia N. Berg

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 43

ISBN-13:

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This paper uses a unique data set on 143,000 poor households from Northern Bangladesh to analyze the effects of microfinance membership on a household's ability to cope with seasonal famine known as Monga. We develop an estimation strategy that exploits a jump and a kink at the 10 decimal land ownership threshold driven by MFI screening process to ensure repayment by excluding the ultra-poor. Evidence shows that microfinance membership improves food security during Monga, especially for the poorest households who survive at the margin of 1 and 2 meals a day. The positive effects on food security are, however, not driven by higher income, as microcredit does not improve the ability to migrate for work, nor does it reduce dependence on distress sale of labor. The evidence is consistent with consumption smoothing being the primary mechanism behind the gains in food security of MFI households during the season of starvation.

Pathways Out of Poverty
Pathways Out of Poverty

Author: Sam Daley-Harris

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13:

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Microfinance is a key intervention in helping families in developing countries move out of poverty. The Microedit Summit Campaign works to promote microfinance, with the aim of reaching 100 million families by 2005. This book challenges conventional wisdoms and explores the Campaign's core themes.

Financial Inclusion for Poverty Alleviation
Financial Inclusion for Poverty Alleviation

Author: Essam Yassin Mohammed

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-12-12

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1351595121

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More than one billion people still live below the poverty line – most of them in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Financial inclusion is a major issue, as more than three-quarters of the numbers of poor and disadvantaged women and men do not have access to financial products and services, such as bank accounts, affordable and suitable loans, and insurance. The key objective of this book is to provide practical case studies of financial inclusion, rather than focus on academic debates such as the ideological basis of promoting microfinance. Using the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals as an overall framing of the issues, it shows how poor and disadvantaged women and men can be bankable if the right facilitation for maximizing opportunities and addressing constraints are in place. Case studies confirm that achieving inclusive and sustainable access to financial products and services goes beyond simply enabling poor and disadvantaged women and men to have access to credit, or the ability to open a bank account. Examples from Africa, Asia and Latin America demonstrate encouraging progress in making microcredit accessible to millions of poor people. The foremost challenge, however, has been to ensure that they have access to, and usage intensity of, suitable and affordable financial products and services that meet the needs of their livelihoods as well as risks and mitigation strategies. This requires understanding that poor and disadvantaged women and men do not exist in isolation from complex and interdependent functions in the financial system, which includes a number of actors, diversified services, constraints (not just symptoms) and capacities and incentives. Overall, the book provides a rich source of examples of how building inclusive financial systems can empower the world's poor – by increasing income and employment opportunities, securing livelihoods and reducing poverty.

Measuring Poverty and Vulnerability in Microfinance
Measuring Poverty and Vulnerability in Microfinance

Author: Olga Torres García

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 467

ISBN-13:

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This dissertation explores how to best measure poverty and vulnerability to poverty in microfinance clients in rural areas and provides the results of the test for Angkor Mikroheranhvatho (Kampuchea) (AMK), a microfinance institution operating in rural Cambodia. The objective is to find the best measuring tool available and to adapt it to the rural Cambodian context. Thus, the first section of this dissertation discusses the theoretical framework for rural finance, microfinance, poverty and vulnerability to poverty and the second section explores the Cambodian context and its poverty profile. In the third section, two complementary but distinct poverty measuring tools are applied: a multidimensional relative poverty tool based on Principal Component Analysis (AMK-PCA Wellbeing Score) and a one-dimensional absolute poverty tool based on Daily Food Expenditure per capita. Both tools are based on food security. The analysis shows AMK's extensive poverty outreach, and the comparison of the outputs from both tools further confirm the reliability of results.The main conclusion of this dissertation is that it is not possible to create a single poverty assessment tool that provides simultaneously absolute and multidimensional results. What is possible is to apply two tools, as part of a combined research effort within the context of rural Cambodia, so that poverty and vulnerability can be assessed regularly as a multidimensional concept while adding a monetary tool that allows for easier comparisons at the national level.

Microfinance and Poverty Reduction
Microfinance and Poverty Reduction

Author: Susan Johnson

Publisher: Oxfam

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 9780855983697

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The book emphasizes the importance of studying the local context, and then considering the macroeconomic factors which may be operating upon the economy of a particular country. Five extended case studies, in the Gambia, Ecuador, Mexico, Pakistan, and the UK are examined with reference to further aspects of sustainability and impact assessment.