Microfinance Poverty Alleviation And Financial Inclusion Of The Poor

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.

Having understood the necessity of poverty alleviation alongside financial inclusion through microfinance intervention, this book makes an attempt to fill the knowledge gap in relation to the potential synergies among microfinance, poverty alleviation and financial inclusion. As a part of empirical study, it examines the correlation between poverty alleviation and financial inclusion by thoroughly analyzing the key microfinance models such as SHG-Bank Linkage Program (SBLP) model, Microfinance Institutions (MFI) model and Business Correspondent (BC) Model; and offers some interesting observations, which are quite relevant in the present policy context. It also makes an effort to address one of the fundamental questions as to why the poor, especially women are unabatedly depending upon MFIs, despite the successful functioning of SBLP model in fulfilling the same objective. This book is a reminder of the fact that any effort to achieve complete financial inclusion without alleviating poverty is a futile exercise and financial inclusion would be successful only if financial literacy is vigorously promoted along with poverty alleviation schemes and programs.

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2013 in the subject Sociology - Work, Profession, Education, Organisation, grade: A, , course: PhD, language: English, abstract: The poor, like others, too need financial products and services in order to build assets, manage consumption and mitigate risks. Microfinance, in recent times, has emerged as a powerful tool to provide access to some financial services to the poor. For decades, poverty alleviation has topped the International development agenda. United Nations Millennium Goals state that by 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty should be half of what it was in 2000. Microfinance addresses the twin goals of financial inclusion and poverty alleviation in a way that builds self-esteem in the individual and self-sufficiency in the institution providing the financial services. Different models have emerged in microfinance delivery based on their clientele, focus area, interest rate, savings linkages, collateral, coverage and organizational/legal structure. With all the successes of the existing microfinance models, the herculean task of poverty alleviation still leaves enough space for innovative models. This study explores the potential of faith-based microfinance in complimenting the efforts of poverty alleviation and also overcoming the weaknesses in the existing models. Faith-based microfinance operate on distinct principles. The purpose of this study is to focus on the functioning of the faith based microfinance and to explore its role as an alternative tool of poverty alleviation. In order to get a meaningful insight regarding the impact of faith based microfinance on the lives of the beneficiaries, it is necessary that a comparison is made to the mainstream microfinance on commonly accepted parameters of poverty alleviation.

Since independence in 1947, the government of India and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have made concerted efforts to provide the poor with access to credit. Despite the phenomenal increase in the physical outreach of formal credit institutions in the past several decades, India's rural poor continue to depend on informal sources of credit. Institutions have also faced difficulties in dealing effectively with a large number of small borrowers whose credit needs are small and frequent and their ability to offer collaterals is limited. Cumbersome procedures and risk perceptions of the banks have left a gap in serving the credit needs of the rural poor. This has led to a search for alternative policies, systems and procedures, saving and loan products, other complementary services, and new delivery mechanisms that would fulfill the requirements of the poor. It is in this context that micro credit has emerged as the most suitable and practical alternative to conventional banking in reaching the hitherto unreached poor population. Micro finance is the provision of a broad range of financial services - such as deposits, loans, payments, money transfers, and insurance - to the low-income households and their micro enterprises. The basic purpose of micro finance is to provide access to financial assistance, including credit to the poor, enabling them to start/expand micro enterprises and break out of poverty. Micro credit helps the poor in making available the credit and other financial services for improving their income and living standards. The micro credit program - which was formally heralded in 1992 with a modest pilot project of linking around 500 Self-help Groups - has made rapid strides in India, exhibiting considerable democratic functioning and group dynamism. The micro credit program in India is now the largest in the world. This book contains 45 scholarly papers in the field of micro finance in India, categorized in five parts: Micro Finance: General Observations . Micro Finance, Self-help Groups, and Financial Inclusion . Micro Finance, Poverty Alleviation, and Empowerment of Women . Technical Aspects of Micro Finance . Micro Finance: Case Studies in India and Abroad.

This book explores the relationships between financial inclusion, poverty and inclusive development from Islamic perspectives. Financial inclusion has become an important global agenda and priority for policymakers and regulators in many Muslim countries for sustainable long-term economic growth. It has also become an integral part of many development institutions and multilateral development banks in efforts to promote inclusive growth. Many studies in economic development and poverty reduction suggest that financial inclusion matters. Financial inclusion, within the broader context of inclusive development, is viewed as an important means to tackle poverty and inequality and to address the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This book contributes to the literature on these topics and will be of interest to researchers and academics interested in Islamic finance and financial inclusion.

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.

Master's Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 3, University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück (WiSo), course: International Business and Management, language: English, abstract: This paper observes the relationship between multiple variables in order to determine whether Financial Inclusion can be used as a tool for poverty reduction in the Middle East and North Africa. There are many reports that identify this to be function to something very likely as a tool around the world; however, there has been limited work regarding financial inclusion and the Middle East and North Africa. Through qualitative and quantitative research, this paper examines the possibility of this theory working in MENA. Wide income disparities, combined with government corruption, religious dispositions, and an overall lack of money are contributing barriers to the unbanked. These factors greatly limit the use of this tool until other issues are tackled and governments commit to more policies that will be conducive to growth; banks must be more open to lending; and people will have to become more financially literate. The World Bank, Gallup, the IMF, and various authors, in addition to the World Bank FINDEX dataset are used to reference information conceded by well-respected authors in the financial-, development-, and in the government sector. Although there seems to be a great deal of promise with the concept of Financial Inclusion as a Tool for Poverty Reduction world wide, it seems to be very limited in MENA, in the poverty-stricken nations. Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Yemen are observed in the report. Generally, there are barriers preventing the implementation of inclusiveness, which will prevent the advancement of poverty alleviation. More government commitment is required.

The attempt of the Grameen Bank to alleviate poverty and enhance the skills and productivity of its rural women clients provides the fascinating backdrop to this important study of micro-credit institutions. Tazul Islam examines the real extent to which the Grameen Bank's credit-alone policy has been successful in securing the Bank's financial sustainability; its practical role in alleviating poverty and its actual impact on the productivity of its clients. This book concludes by considering alternative policy options that hold out the possibility of increased poverty alleviation.