Social and Financial Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions in Pakistan

Financial efficiency and profitability of „for profit‟ institutions have been traditionally measured with the help of financial ratios [Hassan and Sanchez (2009)]. However, financial ratios are inappropriate to investigate the sources of inefficiency, estimate financial or social efficiency with multiple inputs and outputs, and to decompose the sources of efficiency or inefficiency into technical, technological and scale efficiencies or inefficiencies respectively [Hassan and Sanchez (2009)]. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are special institutions, which simultaneously consider their social role to uplift the marginalised community members along with their commercial objective to secure self-sustainability. In standard literature this phenomenon is coined MFIs as being „double bottom line” institutions. [Gutierrez-Nieto, Serrano-Cinca, and Mar Molinero (2007); Gutiérrez-Nieto, Serrano-Cinca, and Molinero (2007)]. This simultaneity differentiates MFIs from conventional financial institutions. The achievement of socioeconomic efficiency is indispensable for MFIs to operate independently and on a wider scale. Thus investigation of socioeconomic efficiency of MFIs is important for monitoring and optimal policy implications

Social Safety Nets Programs in Bangladesh: Preparing for Adaption to Demographic Change, Disaster, and Poverty Reduction

From the last two decades, Bangladesh has experienced a rapid decline in birth rate and childhood mortality rate simultaneously. Due to increase in literacy rate, per capita income, more awareness about life, and better nutrition, life expectancy has also increased rapidly in Bangladesh. As a result, the increase in population and life expectancy undeniably has an impact on the demographic profile of the population. As a disaster prone and large populated country with limited resources, a big share of population is still poor and vulnerable. To tackle the situation a large scale social safety net (SSN) programs with grants cash, in-kind or both for targeted people have been implementing by the government and non-government organization. This paper is an attempt to provide an overview of the current SSN program implemented by the government. Considering existing literature and document, this paper identifies three models of SSN transfers: natural shocked-based, extreme poverty-based and age-based transfers model. It concludes that coverage and amount of age-based transfer need to increase at priority basis as the number of elderly increases over the year. It also concludes that for extreme poverty reduction the coverage and amount of benefit as last resort of other two transfer models can be revised. Keywords: social safety nets, demographic change, vulnerability, elderly, and povert

The analysis of labor force participation in rubber smallholding sector in Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatera, Indonesia

The fact is that natural rubber has a strategic role as it is one of the commodities industry tropical crops. In addition, it also has important and strategic role in sup-porting the national economy, primarily as a source of livelihood of millions of rub-ber farmers in rural areas. This study analyzed the potential of using family labor in rubber smallholding sector in Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatra Province, Indo-nesia. The total sample used for the study was 280 respondents of households. Data was analyzed using multiple regression analyses. The multiple regression analysis used to identify the determinants of labor force participation decision regarding work in the rubber smallholding in the study area such as rubber production (kg per year per hectare), number of family workers, age of family head, location of dwelling, education of family head, and average years of schooling of family workers. Based on the analysis, only two factors affected significantly family labor force participation outside their smallholdings, namely number of family labor and education of family head

PRODUCTIVITY AND SOCIAL ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF RUBBER SMALLHOLDERS IN KABUPATEN BANYUASIN, SOUTH SUMATRA PROVINCE

Rubber is one of the top foreign exchange earners in Indonesia. Seventy percent of the land in Indonesiaused for the cultivation of rubber consists of smallholding and the remaining 30 percent are large plantations.There are 34,827 rubber smallholders in the South Sumatra Province and account for 87 percent ofrubber cultivation in the province. However, they contribute only about 55 percent of the total rubber production.In contrast, large rubber plantations which account for only 13 percent of rubber cultivation contribute45 percent of the rubber production which shows that rubber plantation productivity is very low.The objective of this study is to describe the productivity and socio economic profile and the affect of socioeconomic for rubber smallholders productivity. The total sample used for the study was 433 respondentsconsisting of 280 poor households and 153 non poor households. Data cross tabulation was used in thisstudy. The results show the socio economic profile reflects the level of rubber farmers education plays therole in the productivity of rubber plantation, the average working hours of the poor rubber farmers foreach age group is fewer than those who are not poor families, and the factor of the duration of workinghours is certainly associated with the area of the land to be prepared

Entrepreneurial Skills through Engagement Activities with a Disabled Community

Universities are no longer ivory towers where a research is done for research sake alone. University researchers are often accused of being disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life and sometimes overspecialised or even worthless. However, this negative perception of universities has changed. Today, universities are engaging with the communities and industries through various programmes for a win-win situation for the benefit of all stakeholders. The transfer of practical knowledge from universities helps improve the socioeconomic, socio-cultural and socio-political developments of the community. When such knowledge and skill are shared with the disabled or the unfortunate population, the potential positive impact is even more fulfilling. This paper reports on the success of a community engagement activity with a disabled community in reviving an abandoned cat fish rearing project. It describes the three challenging but exciting phases of this engagement process until the cat fish rearing project is fully revived and sustainable with support from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). While instilling the population with the needed entrepreneurial skill to ensure sustainability of the project, USM social work students gain invaluable experience of engaging the community through clear phases of the process without sacrificing the general values and cultures of the community. Instead, the students engaged these values to win the confidence and trust of the communit

Translation and content validation of Bahasa Malaysia version of the food insecurity experience scale (FIES)

INTRODUCTION: Food insecurity can be defined as the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate, safe foods or the inability to acquire foods in socially unacceptable ways. Food insecurity is recognized as a public health issue worldwide where it is clearly described under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) number 2: End hunger and achieve food security. To understand the complexity, multifaceted nature of food insecurity in Malaysia needs established tool and adequate data. This study aimed to translate and validate the English version of Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) into Bahasa Melayu (BM) by adopting the guideline of the World Health Organization (WHO) on questionnaire translation. METHODS Two forward and backward translations involving experts in food insecurity study and experts in language were done as stipulated in a guideline. Content validity by the experts and face validity by the target population were conducted as part of validation process. RESULT Content Validity Index (CVI) and FactorialValidity Index (FVI) was done to analyses content validity. RESULTS The harmonized BM version of FIES was produced with 100% CVI. However, FVI was inconsistent. Hence a factor analysis should be done to asses the full degree of FVI. CONCLUSION The full validation study of BM version FIES especially construct and criterion validity needed to be done before it is widely used to measure food insecurity in the population specifically Malaysian population