People at the very bottom of the economic ladder are often excluded, or exclude themselves, from microfinance. Their income is usually too low and unreliable to permit repayment of loans or investment in anything but basic food consumption. In some countries the very poor are served by safety...

Humanitarian crises pose a formidable development challenge. Whether caused by conflict, natural disaster, climate-related events, or some combination of the three, crises have been steadily increasing in frequency, severity, and complexity. While the nature and incidences of these crises vary...

In microfinance, experimentation with loan guarantees began largely as an attempt to demonstrate to local banks that Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are creditworthy. Though loan guarantees are far less common than other funding instruments, such as debt, equity, and grants, they are beginning...

In most countries, reaching scale and providing real value to clients will likely require donor involvement in the medium term. Donors will need appropriate expertise and resources to engage effectively in micro insurance because it is relatively new, complex, and risky. Donors have diverse...

All donors and investors use contracts to establish legal relationships with the partners they fund. Typically, these contracts define the permitted use of the funds and include general suspension or termination clauses. Unfortunately, many agreements do not include project-specific performance...

This Country-Level Effectiveness and Accountability Review (CLEAR) examines the efficacy of microfinance aid in Madagascar, based on an objective analysis of donor assistance for the sustainable development of financial systems targeting the poor. The three levels of the financial system are the...

The evidence on demand for sharia-compliant financial services is mixed. On the one hand, IFC-funded studies showed relatively high demand, while results from Findex showed that financial exclusion due to religious reasons was minimal (Demirguc-Kunt, Klapper, and Randall 2013). One of the...

As existing and trusted institutions with large branch networks reaching rural areas, Arab postal networks have the potential to be powerful tools in the fight for greater financial inclusion in the Arab world. Beyond a few success stories, however, the Arab world has so far not capitalized on...

Apexes are an important source of local funding for microfinance-and even more so since the global financial crisis. Well over US$2 billion per year of public money is being disbursed globally to microfinance through apex funds or local wholesale facilities. The funds are then disbursed by...

People at the very bottom of the economic ladder are often excluded, or exclude themselves, from microfinance. Their income is usually too low and unreliable to permit repayment of loans or investment in anything but basic food consumption. In some countries the very poor are served by safety...