Microfinance impact and the MDGs : the challenge of scaling-up

This paper concerns the potential for microfinance to make a difference in achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. It recognises that microfinance can contribute to several MDGs but that to do so in ways that make a real difference would involve a significant scaling-up of microfinance service provision. Herein lies the challenge. The expansion of developing country microfinance services is increasingly driven by commercial investors who do not usually assess Microfinance Institution (MFI) performance according to MDG criteria. At best, they will use some fairly loose ‘social’ criteria often borrowed from the corporate social responsibility literature; or they may refer, usually without precision, to a double bottom line of financial and social performance. These have little or nothing to do with achievement of the MDGs. As the empirical material presented makes clear, MFIs that do not deliberately and rigorously target poor households are unlikely to make any difference to MDG attainment. MFIs with a social mission focused on poverty reduction (MDG1) face a genuine difficulty. To expand coverage of poor households, they generally need to seek financial support, usually in the form of loans or equity. Their difficulty is that they face a serious risk of ‘mission drift’, concentrating on achieving an outstanding financial performance, which is necessary anyway and especially if they wish to access commercial funds, and neglecting their social mission. In other words, commercial funding may mean less attention to poor households in microfinance service delivery. The challenge for the industry is to manage scaling-up without losing sight of its social purposes. The paper argues for client-level assessment by MFIs that can both ensure that poor households are targeted and that microfinance impact on their poverty status can be monitored. Developing a social performance monitoring system based on client assessment is the principal way in which MFI impact on the MDGs can be established and maintained. Keywords: microfinance, poverty, Millennium Development Goals, scaling-up, social performance, targeting, monitoring

Ben Jonson's scholarship as illustrated in selected works

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1949. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Agricultural Input Subsidies in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has contributed to African agricultural policy debate which has featured prominently in growth and poverty reduction assessment in sub-Saharan Africa. This debate has rekindled interest in the use of agricultural input subsidies to promote food security nationally and at household level. After the enforced withdrawal of these agricultural subsidies during the structural adjustment era, their re-introduction as ‘market-smart’ subsidies has led to several assessment studies. This article draws on evidence from five countries and a detailed study in Ruvuma Region, Tanzania. These subsidy programmes were reported to be successful in increasing maize yields and reducing poverty and had positive spillover effects on input use by non-recipients and private sector development in rural areas. However, unclear programme objectives and serious implementation problems prevented most of these programmes from being effective. These results underline the controversial nature of subsidy policies, with contemporary debate mirroring historical controversy

Poverty, voice and advocacy: a Haitian study

Over the past ten years, Fonkoze (a non-profit organisation in Haiti) has adapted the 'graduation' model of lifting families out of extreme poverty through its Chemen Lavi Miyò (CLM) or 'pathway to a better life' programme. Yet despite international recognition for this approach, Fonkoze’s work is little known within Haitian policy circles on social protection and poverty. This paper is the product of a 12-month action research project by Fonkoze with support from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). It used a rapid outcome mapping approach (ROMA) as a framework for creating an advocacy strategy through which Fonkoze could influence the development of Haiti’s social protection policy. It also aimed to give voice and promote downwards accountability to people who have lived experience of ultra-poverty by enabling them to articulate their views within the policy process. he report concludes by highlighting the problem that donors tend to channel their resources through separate government ministries or departments, which though inevitable (to some extent) given the context, is also unhelpful in promoting a coordinated social protection policy.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Real Time Monitoring for the Most Vulnerable: Concepts and Methods

In assessing the value of different approaches to real?time monitoring for the most vulnerable, an initial requirement is to set out a conceptual framework that provides at least some degree of clarity as to what precisely is meant by ‘real time’, ‘monitoring’ and ‘vulnerable’– all terms that can be highly context?specific. That is the first task addressed here. The second is to consider potential sources of data that might be used to undertake real?time monitoring and assess their advantages and disadvantages for the present purpose. Four general approaches are considered – community?based participatory monitoring, sentinel sites, routine data systems and rapid surveys – and selected examples from the literature are given to illustrate the potential use and limitations of their applications.