Two thirds of the Fund's current projects have a rural finance component; about 21% of the Fund's resources are dedicated to rural finance.2 Most of IFAD's target group are small producers engaged in agric ultural and non-agricultural activities in areas of widely varying potential. Direct...

Reaching 100 million of India's rural poor with savings and credit by 2008: This is NABARD's goal through its SHG banking program, leveraging the strength of the formal banking system and the flexibility of informal self-help groups in providing adequate financial services to the rural poor....

That has to be uppermost in our minds as we think about what microfinance means. For IFAD, the finance issue is crucial to the task of reducing rural poverty. We do not insist on any particular institutional model. The demand for financial services is very diverse even among the poor, and we...

Uganda, where 85 % of the population live in rural areas, has experienced a rapid rise of rural and microfinance over the last ten years. There is a pronounced gender awareness in public policities and programs. Best practices have been mastered by institutions in the formal and the NGO sector....