Governance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cameroon: What lessons can we learn?

The aim of this paper is to find out the effects of the COBAC regulations regulating the microfinance industry on the governance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cameroon. The paper is based on 35 in-depth interviews carried out from May to June 2011 and June to July 2012 with managers and accountants from MFIs in Cameroon, MFI clients and non-clients, regulatory authorities in the Ministry of Finance, and accounting professionals. The findings show that the regulations have broken down the governance within the MFIs in Cameroon thus turning MFIs into hybrid organizations with managers striving to meet their shareholders' interests

On the design of a credit agreement with peer monitoring

SIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Development banking

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3579.0256(LSE-STICERD-DEP--64) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Does microfinance empower women? Evidence from self‐help groups in India

Microfinance programmes like the Self Help Bank Linkage Program in India have been increasingly promoted for their positive economic impact and the belief that they empower women. However, only a few studies rigorously examine the link between microfinance and women’s empowerment. This article contributes to this discussion by arguing that women’s empowerment takes place when women challenge the existing social norms and culture, to effectively improve their well‐being. It empirically validates this hypothesis by using quasi‐experimental household sample data collected for five states in India for 2000 and 2003. A general model is estimated by employing appropriate techniques to treat the ordinal variables in order to estimate the impact of the Self Help Group (SHG) on women’s empowerment for 2000 and 2003. The results strongly demonstrate that on average, there is a significant increase in the empowerment of women in the SHG members group. No such significant change is observed however, for the members of the control group. The elegance of the result lies in the fact that the group of SHG participants show clear evidence of a significant and higher empowerment, while allowing for the possibility that some members might have been more empowered than others.microfinance, women’s empowerment, general model, G21, J16, C33,

Microfinance and climate change adaptation: an overview of the current literature

There is growing interest in the role microfinance could play in facilitating adaptation to climate change. This article contributes to this interest by reviewing the state of the literature on microfinance and climate change adaptation which has two key areas. The first area of the literature focuses on the potential for microfinance to facilitate household adaptation, which has been only partially successful in linking microfinance and adaptation because of weak conceptualisation of adaptation and terminological shortcomings. The second area of literature examines the vulnerability of microfinance institutions to climate change, highlighting they are directly vulnerable to climate change themselves as well as indirectly vulnerable through their beneficiaries. The realisation of climate-resilient microfinance requires both climate proofing internal operations to reduce direct vulnerability, and promoting climate-resilience amongst beneficiaries. This may have already happened serendipitously to an extent, but there is scope for further action. We conclude that more evidence is needed to substantiate the links and thus progress the literature, particularly studies employing an adaptation lens