Twelve key themes covering institutions, products, services, processes and enabling environment are studied in this literature review of rural finance in developing countries. Advances made and emerging lessons are examined for these themes, and the challenges and remaining gaps in knowledge...

This paper explains market segmentation that occurs in the Philippine informal credit markets through the matching of borrowers and lenders by their occupational specializations to internalize transaction costs and facilitate economic activity. The regression results support a predictable...

Major investments have been made in developing microfinance in Asia with reducing poverty as one of the frequently stated objectives. A variety of institutional forms of microfinance are being introduced in the region - including by the ADB - and financial institutions pursue different...

The paper explains the market segmentation that occurs in the Philippine informal credit markets through the matching of borrows and lenders by their occupational specialization which internalizes transaction costs and facilitates economic activity. The regression results support a predictable...

Research on structural adjustment, liberalization and privatization in sub-Saharan Africa has not focused on the consequences of these policy initiatives on the financial sector. This paper documents and discusses the consequences of these reforms on the financial sector in The Gambia. Marked...

This paper examines the implications of the institutional designs employed by two types of NGOs for the functions performed by indigenous self-help village groups called kafos in The Gambia. NGOs were found to be only a partial substitute for the financial and insurance functions traditionally...

Based on reports prepared for or by the ILO, World Bank, USAID and Ohio State University, examines the problems facing microfinance programmes in countries emerging from armed conflict with particular reference to Cambodia, El Salvador, Mozambique and Uganda.

This study examines the impact of improving access to formal savings services on the ability of households to manage adverse economic shocks- which affect over 90% of the households in our sample. The study uses a Randomized Encouragement Trial (RET) design to gather panel data from 2,006...