Suchergebnisse

Substantiating cause and effect is one of the great conundrums for those aiming to have a social impact, be they an NGO, social impact investment fund, or multinational corporation. All face the same quandary: how do you know whether, or how, you contributed to an observed social change? A wide range of impact evaluation methodologies exist to address this need, ranging from informal feedback loops to highly elaborate surveys. But generating useful and credible information in a timely and cost-effective way remains an elusive goal, particularly for organizations working in complex, rapidly evolving and diverse contexts. Attributing Development Impact brings together responses to this challenge using an innovative impact evaluation approach called the Qualitative Impact Protocol (QuIP). This is a transparent, flexible and relatively simple set of guidelines for collecting, analysing and sharing feedback from intended beneficiaries about significant drivers of change in their lives. Innovative features include the use of 'blindfolded' interviewing to mitigate pro-project bias, and the application of a flexible coding system to make analysis and reporting faster and more transparent. The QuIP has now been used in 18 countries (including Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Mexico, Tanzania, Uganda and UK) with activities to promote food security, rural livelihoods, factory working conditions, medical training, community empowerment and microcredit for house improvement. This book includes comprehensive 'how to' QuIP guidelines and practical insights based on case studies from these countries into how to address the numerous methodological challenges thrown up by impact evaluation. Essential reading for evaluation specialists within NGOs, governments and donor agencies; social impact investors; community development practitioners; and researchers and students interested in evaluation methodologies.

Microfinance movement have been started in India along with other countries of the world to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG), and to give impetus to the all round development of the country. Microfinance includes micro-savings, microcredit, micro insurance, micro-pension and micro-remittance in its entire gamut. Microfinance provides low cost finance and non-financial services to the vulnerable rural poor of the country in order to capacitate them to generate income through their microenterprises, which help them to uplift their financial strength. The new paradigm of microfinance put emphasis on women through Self Help Groups (SHGs) in order to improve their living standard by empowering them in all respect, and operates on the principle of "borrower knows the bestâ€. The development of microenterprises through Self Help Groups is the sine qua non of modern microfinance programme. To provide financial support for the microenterprises, NABARD has taken important initiative by linking SHGs to the Banks in 1992. Taking the cognition of NABARD's effort, in the same vein, Government of India launched Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) in1999 to make easy access to the subsidised credit for the enterprising women. Millions of SHGs were formed under SGSY around the nation, and now, it is restructured and renamed as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). This study will assess the district wise operational efficiency of the programme in West Bengal through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. The objective of this study is to find out the shortcomings of the programme which provides adequate clue for the effective monitoring of the programme in future.

The major objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the institutional environment of microfinance and access of rural women to microfinance. Focus group sessions were held with groups of rural women who are clients of formal and informal Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Esan Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. The two formal institutions were the Ekpoma branch of Lift Above Poverty Organization Microfinance Bank and the Ujoelen Microfinance Bank. Fifteen case studies with fourteen women and one man were also examined. They had all accessed loans from formal and/or informal MFIs. Main findings Institutional environment: The traditional informal microfinance institutions still exist side by side with the formal MFIs. These informal mechanisms have not been absorbed into the regulated microfinance sector. They are still very popular with rural women, many of whom have belonged to these "meetings" for over a decade. These informal thrift and credit societies still remain the only source of funds available to poor women who have not been able to access the formal sector microfinance institutions. Why are rural women poor? According to respondents, rural women in the study area are poor because of heavy family responsibilities. They have to feed their family when the husband does not provide because they cannot leave their children hungry. Additionally, they pay their children's school fees as they do not want their children to be driven out of school. As a result of all these factors, women do not have enough capital for their trading and farming activities and cannot save. The women are hardworking and if they have capital they can trade with it and lift themselves out of poverty. The respondents gave examples of successful business women in the area that succeeded because they had access to credit from LAPO and other sources. Why it is difficult for women to borrow from banks? Rural women in particular find it difficult to borrow from banks because most do not have bank accounts, they have no collateral to present to the bank, and many women do not know the procedures for accessing bank loans. As they explained, while men inherit land and other property which they can use as collateral, women do not inherit property. They also said that women need their husband's consent to borrow money from the bank. Sources of microfinance for rural women: The main source of finance for the majority of rural women is their contribution from their savings/market association. However, with the advent of microfinance banks, more rural women are now accessing formal microfinance institutions. Rural women have accessed loans from the Lift Above Poverty Organization (LAPO) and Ujoelen Microfinance Banks. One of the women's groups also accessed credit from a government agency – the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP). Some of the more successful women have accessed multiple sources of credit over the years as their businesses have expanded. None of the participants has accessed loans from any of the commercial banks which have established microfinance banks/departments operating in the study area. Impact of microfinance on women's businesses and lives: According to the women interviewed, microcredit has had positive impacts on their businesses and family life. Many of them have been able to expand their businesses. In some cases, they no longer have to buy goods on credit thereby avoiding interest payments and increasing their profits. At the family level, unlike in the past, they can make more contributions to their family upkeep, they eat better food, are able to pay children's fees regularly and with less stress. A few who were so inclined have joined political parties such as the PDP and AC. However, to properly assess the impact of microfinance, a quantitative study using measures of impacts will be more reliable. Government policy and access to microfinance in rural areas of Edo State: In the study area, government policy has helped to bring formal microcredit sources to women on a larger scale. The Community Banks that transformed into MFBs now target women as microfinance client, which they did not do when they operated as Community Banks. Microcredit is also available to women through the LAPO, which has always targeted women's groups. However, while the formal institutions have transformed into Microfinance Banks as required by the government's Microfinance Policy, the traditional savings institutions still remain outside the regulated microfinance sector. Recommendations: From our findings, we would like to recommend and emphasize the following: * Informal microfinance institutions should be registered at the local government level and encouraged to keep good records in order to provide data on the volume of informal sector transactions in microfinance. * Women find it difficult to access formal finance institutions for several reasons, including lack of collateral or bank accounts and the belief that women do not repay loans. * More MFBs should be established in all Local Government Areas (LGAs) in order to reach the rural dwellers, especially women who should be targets of MFB operations. * Commercial banks which have established microfinance departments should develop products that target rural self-employed women. * MFBs should be properly supervised to protect depositors' funds. The experiences of depositors with failed Community Banks should not be repeated. Access to microfinance can help rural self-employed women to expand their businesses and improve their personal and family well-being. Women will be encouraged to open bank accounts if they are assured that their deposits are safe and that they will be able to access loans for their businesses at reasonable terms such as low interest rates and convenient savings and repayment schedules. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP32; NSSP ; DSGD

Au Mali comme dans la plupart des pays en développement, le crédit agricole autrefois assuré par les sociétés publiques de développement est désormais confié à des acteurs privés parmi lesquels les institutions de micro finance. Cependant, la pérennisation de ces institutions reste encore un défi majeur à relever en liaison avec celle des systèmes de production sur lesquels elles reposent. Dans la zone irriguée de l 'Office du Niger, située à 350 km au Nord est de Bamako la capitale du Mali, les institutions de micro finance comme les ménages agricoles, subissent de plein fouet les effets pervers des risques liés à l'activité agricole et les conséquences d'une dégradation générale des conditions de production au cours des dernières années. Les mauvaises récoltes ont contribué à une dégradation de la capacité de remboursement des ménages agricoles. Cette situation crée d'énormes tensions entre les offreurs et demandeurs de crédit pendant la période de remboursement. Le système de financement reste très fragile et ne sécurise pas encore ni les offreurs ni les demandeurs de crédit, alors qu 'il est vital pour soutenir la politique d'extension des terres aménagées initiée par le gouvernement malien.

PART I: INTRODUCTION: THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS . - 1. 'New' Approaches to the Governance of Africa's Natural Resources; J. Andrew Grant, W. R. Nadege Compaore, Matthew I. Mitchell, and Mats Ingulstad . - 2. Interrogating the 'Good' in 'Good Governance': Rethinking Natural Resource Governance Theory and Practice in Africa; Mari-Lise du Preez . - PART II: GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN AFRICA'S OIL SECTOR . - 3. The Rise and Fall of Oil-Rentier States in Africa; Douglas Yates. - 4. Access to Information and Transparency Provisions in Petroleum Laws in Africa: A Comparative Analysis; Peter G. Veit and Carole Excell . - 5. Micro Level Effects of Oil Resources: Insights from a Survey of Angolan Microcredit Clients; Allan Cain, Ivar Kolstad, and Arne Wiig . - 6. Bridging the Governance Gap in South Sudan: Connecting Policymakers to Populations in Africa's Newest Oil-Producing Country; Conrad Winn, Melissa Jennings, and Matthew I. Mitchell . - PART III: GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN AFRICA'S NON PETROLEUM NATURAL RESOURCE SECTORS. - 7. Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in Mining: From Engagement to Development in Ghana; Hevina S. Dashwood and Bill Buenar Puplampu . - 8. Network Governance and the African Timber Organization: Prospects for Regional Forestry Governance in Africa; J. Andrew Grant, Dianne Balraj, Jeremy Davison, and Georgia Mavropoulos-Vagelis . - 9. Refocusing Governance from the 'Bottom-Up': Understanding the Gendered Dynamics of Land Deals for Biofuel Development in Kenya and Tanzania; Andrea Collins . - 10. Casting the Net Widely: Effective Governance and the Contribution of Fisheries to the Development of African Countries; Ussif Rashid Sumaila and Dawit Tesfamichael . - 11. Hydropolitics and Transboundary River Basin Management Nuances in the Southern African Development Community; Anthony Turton . - PART IV: CONCLUDING REMARKS: NEW CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES . - 12. Global and Local Challenges and Opportunities: Reflections on China and the Go

AbstractSri Lanka being a developing country, its poverty can be identified as a serious issue for the development of the country. Poverty can be identified as a spatial characteristic in Sri Lanka which can be seen in the high poverty rates in several areas as the result of disparities of natural and physical resources distribution and, geographical disadvantages. Microfinance has been identified as a significant tool for eradicating poverty in many Asian countries after the 1990s. Sri Lanka also launched several microfinance programs to reduce poverty in the country. Despite the availability of microfinance in Sri Lanka, very few studies have been carried out; therefore, only limited knowledge of the empirical and theoretical impacts of the various microfinance elements on poverty alleviation is available. This study is an attempt to remedy this paucity of knowledge. Primary data were gathered through a Likert scale questionnaire that was distributed among 497 borrowers of the Samurdhi microfinance program. This sample was chosen from five districts of Sri Lanka. Structural Equation Modeling was used for testing the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that microcredit was the most significant element of microfinance for alleviating spatial poverty in Sri Lanka. Nonfinancial Services and Insurance Services also had a positive impact on spatial poverty alleviation. Micro Savings and Social Intermediation Services did not have a notable positive impact on spatial poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka. The findings of this study enhance the existing knowledge of microfinance, providing conceptual and empirical contributions. This study could substantially contribute to the government by offering it deeper insight into its programs. Therefore, policymakers and regulators will be able to introduce better tools for eradicating poverty, based on this new knowledge.

This is a scientific attempt to highlight the role of peasant women in family matters. The family is a significant component of society. Women play a fundamental role for the development of society. The women's role in the improvement and functioning of society is not even acknowledged. Women are the backbone of a family. In rural areas of Pakistan, women are involved in many household activities such as cooking, ironing, picking cotton, upkeeping the children, shopping for groceries and supporting their family in economic activities but their role has been ignored. In this present study, women's status and role in socio-economic affairs of family will be investigated. This study has been conducted in District Sargodha as a geographical universe and human universe were peasant women. In this current study, the multistage sampling technique from probability sampling method is used. The interview schedule was developed according to the objectives of study and research included 280 respondents. Inferential analysis proved that the women of different marital status have different roles in socio-economic affairs of the family as, at first, the role of women living in nuclear families increased to 7% in decision making process of socio-economic affairs of the family whereas, in joint family system, this role is decreased to 10% and lastly in extended families, the role of women in socio-economic affairs of the family increased to 3%. Secondly, it is obvious that the women with higher level of education have more understanding of familial rights as compared to the women with lower education. In the light of the above facts, this studysuggests that microcredit facility should be provided to peasant women, along with government and NGO's by using mass media campaigns, should play their active role to empowered the peasant women.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate why poor people make decisions that at first sight appear irrational. The author stays within the realms of classical consumption theory, and investigates preference-based explanations. The author studies the case of rickshaw rental versus purchase. One-year rent is sufficient to buy a rickshaw in the plains of Nepal, while a rickshaw will last many years, so purchase appears very profitable. Still most cyclists rent the rickshaw.


Design/methodology/approach
– Based on choices made by rickshaw cyclists between hypothetical financing schemes for rickshaws we investigate whether the explanation is a high time-preference rate or a high elasticity of the marginal utility of consumption, which in turn can be explained by preferences that are formed by consumption near a subsistence level.


Findings
– The authors find that subsistence constraints are more important than high time-preference rates. In short, many rickshaw cyclists switch from profitable investment decisions to myopic choices if the weekly payments are too high.


Research limitations/implications
– In contrast to standard bidding-forms, the methodology does not allow for exact estimates of the implied time-preference rate or the elasticity of the marginal utility of consumption.


Practical implications
– Microcredit has no role if people are subsistence constraint, as they will need to save every day also to repay loans.


Social implications
– The findings indicate that myopic choices by poor people are not due to myopic preferences, but rather that the disutility of reducing consumption today is too high.


Originality/value
– The authors believe bidding-forms are too complex for field experiments among people with no, or minimal, education. The simple hypothetical choices we have constructed appear to work.

Small firms continue to experience difficulty accessing adequate finance from formal external sources, notwithstanding many and varied institutional and policy initiatives introduced to address this seemingly perennial problem. Underpinning research indicates that information asymmetry is the principal reason for the finance gap, particularly for young firms. The aim of legislation introduced in the UK in 2012 is to utilise the credit union sector to increase the amount of new lending to SMEs. The rationale for this legislative change arises because credit unions typically operate within a defined geographic region, they can compile detailed local knowledge of small businesses and are therefore uniquely placed to minimise information asymmetries thereby reducing the funding gap for small firms. Despite this perceived advantage, credit unions have been reluctant to take advantage of this legislative and lending by credit unions to SMEs has been negligent to date. We investigate the reasons for this lack of engagement in SME lending by interviewing the chief executives of five credit unions in Scotland. Our findings reveal that the CEOs of the credit unions are reluctant to lend to SMEs at present, as they are uncomfortable with the level of risk associated with lending to a sector of which they have little experience or expertise. Furthermore, credit unions will need to offer attractive interest rates to compete with high street banks and an increasing number of microcredit providers. Policy makers need to better understand the structure and function of credit unions before assigning a greater role in SME lending. It is too early to say whether credit unions can play a significant role in SME lending, and our evidence suggests that structural issues must first be resolved before they become an established presence in the SME lending ecosystem.

Part I: Theories of Change: Defining the Research Agenda, Leadership and Change -- Theory of Change: Defining the Research Agenda -- About Bridges and Goals: On the Art of Change Management as a Bridge to the Goals for a Sustainable World and a World of Sustainable Investing -- Analysing the Credibility of Theories of Change -- Failed Theories of Change: Misperceptions About ESG Investment and Investment Efforts to Combat Climate Change -- Y.1: The Biological Code for Evolutionary Transformation and Strategic Investment Decisions -- Part II: Creating Global Frameworks -- Towards a Unifying Framework of Impact Assessment in Impact Investing -- Social Reporting Standard (SRS): Making Social Impact Visible -- Clustering of Negative Criteria: A Pragmatic Approach for the Implementation of SRI -- Part III: Impact Investing -- Improving Early Childhood Development in Namibia with Result Based Financing -- An Analysis on Impact Measurement: How Do We Measure Impact? -- The Lessons of Microcredit -- Impact Investing Practice Report: Impact Analysis and Impact Reporting at BonVenture -- Part IV: Quantitative Analysis in Investing -- When Transparency Clouds Rather Than Clarifies: A Closer Look at Transparency Bias Within ESG Scores -- Comprehensive Simulation Meta Model for Transition Planning and Decision Analysis with Sustainable Impact -- Part V: Ecosystems -- Banking 4.0: Digital Ecosystems and Super-Apps -- Orchestrating Value Co-Creation in Business Ecosystems -- Part VI: Blockchain, Chryptoeconomics and Sustainability -- Change Through Crypto-Economics -- Blockchain and Sustainable Development Goals: From Blue Skies Estimates of Impact to Bottom-Up Essentials -- The Tokenization of Assets: Using Blockchains for Equity Crowdfunding -- Blockchain and the Evolution of Information Society -- Cryptography Leads the Next Wave of Societal Change -- Machine Learning and Finance -- Part VII: SDG Topic -- The Gender Investment Gap -- The Era of New Leadership -- Social Enterprises: Investment in a Sustainable Social Development with Added Value -- Part VIII: Climate Change -- Domestic Heating and China's Sustainable Energy Goals -- Sustainable Energy Investment in Australia -- The Money Pipeline: The Role of Finance in the Climate Emergency -- Moving the Topic of Climate Change from Politics to Economics.

More than one billion people still live below the poverty line--most of them in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Financial inclusion is a major issue, as more than three-quarters of poor and disadvantaged women and men to not have access to financial products and services, such as bank accounts, affordable and suitable loans, and insurance. The key objective of this book is to provide practical case studies of financial inclusion, rather than focus on academic debates such as the ideological basis of promoting microfinance. Using the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals as an overall framing of the issues, it shows how poor and disadvantaged women and men can be bankable if the right facilitation for maximizing opportunities and addressing constraints is in place. Case studies confirm that achieving inclusive and sustainable access to financial products and services goes beyond simply enabling poor and disadvantaged women and men to have access to credit, or the ability to open a bank account. Examples from Africa, Asia and Latin America demonstrate encouraging progress in making microcredit accessible to millions of poor people. The foremost challenge, however, has been to ensure that they have access to, and usage intensity of, suitable and affordable financial products and services that meet the needs of their livelihoods as well as the risks and mitigation strategies. This requires understanding that poor and disadvantaged women and men do not exist in isolation from complex and interdependent functions in the financial system, which includes a number of actors, diversified services, constraints (not just symptoms) and capacities and incentives. Overall, the book provides a rich source of examples of how building inclusive financial systems can empower the world's poor--by increasing income and employment opportunities, securing livelihoods and reducing poverty--back cover.

Considered the causes and results of the economic achievements of South Korea, which for one generation's lifetime had managed to leapfrog from poverty to the top of the world's advanced economies. Analyzed the similarity between the problems of the Republic of Korea, which has been at war with its northern neighbor for more than 70 years, and Ukraine since 2014, as both countries are at the epicenter of strategic conflicts in Eurasia, in which basic interests of world powers collide. Confucianism is analyzed as a model of social and personal relations that has absorbed the wisdom and experience of the millennia-old civilization, demonstrated its exceptional viability, capacity to dynamically modernize and creatively assimilate the achievements of other cultures and civilizations. There is a unique synthesis of values of the two most competitive systems of work ethic in the modern world – Confucianism and Protestantism, which ensured the phenomenal success of the South Korean modernization. It is argued that the very combination of strong socially responsible state, competitive structural democracy and social and labor ethics based on the amalgam of Confucian and Christian values gave effect to the "Miracle on the Han River." It is shown that Ukraine and South Korea have a common position on the key issues of world order as well as promising bilateral relations, whereas the South Korean experience of economic modernization and development is of interest to Ukraine. Promising areas of Ukrainian-South Korean economic cooperation, such as electronics and IT technologies, renewable energy, aerospace and aviation industry, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and healthcare are substantiated. Ukraine may benefit from the ROK's positive experience in developing such areas as private entrepreneurship, small and medium business support, that would help practically solve the problem of microcredit and attract investment in the real sector of Ukraine's economy.

One of the conditions for providing social services to the population, reducing the differentiation of their incomes, as well as reducing poverty is to provide equal access to financial services for all segments of the population. Despite high unemployment and a significant number of poor people, only about a few thousand Nigerians today use Islamic microfinance services. The main purpose of this study is to study the impact of the Islamic microfinance system on the financial situation of the population. The study is based on the principles of the theory of positivism. Methods of deduction, statistical analysis, and survey served as methodological tools. The authors of the article developed a structured questionnaire, the analysis of which allowed to analyze the attitude of citizens to Islamic microfinance services. A representative sample of citizens of the metropolis Bauchi with different levels of wealth, age and gender was selected for the study. According to the results of the survey, the development of special microcredit programs for low-income people allowed to finance the start of their own business, thus providing their own and household members' employment. The main factors hindering the development of microfinance in Muslim countries are the high level of non-repayment of borrowed funds, imperfect infrastructure, the presence of Sharia bans on certain types of financial transactions. The results of the study showed the need for an active information campaign aimed at explaining the benefits of using macro-financial services and their accessibility for low-income citizens, as well as expanding the network of microfinance institutions throughout the metropolis. These measures will create conditions for the development of small business in the country, and as a consequence reduce poverty and reduce the number of unemployed in the country.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the empirical relationship between microsavings and the financial performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).


Design/methodology/approach
The approach in this paper is decidedly empirical, and employs data obtained from Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX). The data set consists of 350 microfinance MFIs domiciled in 36 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period covering 1998–2012.


Findings
The panel estimation results consistently show that there exists a negative and statistically significant relationship between microsavings and the financial performance of MFIs in SSA. This is perhaps surprising, albeit rational considering the exceedingly elevated operating expenses that ascend from mobilizing and managing microsavings, ceteris paribus, that could erode firm profitability. The paper draws policy implications from these important findings.


Research limitations/implications
Even though generalized method of moment estimation technique was employed and robustness checks, the issue of endogeneity cannot be eliminated entirely.


Practical implications
Microfinance industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the financial sector in SSA. The industry is increasingly becoming the core of financial inclusion in the region where two-thirds of the adult population lack access to formal financial services. Therefore, gaining an in-depth understanding of the role microsavings play in the financial performance of MFIs can contribute to the growth of the industry.


Originality/value
This study is timely considering the significant growth in the number of microsavings – there are currently twice as many microsavings accounts in SSA as there are microcredits. More importantly, based on 400 MFIs, that reported data to MIX in 2016, the total microsavings stood at about US$11bn against an aggregate loan portfolio of about US$10.5bn. The remarkable growth of microsavings in SSA, from less than US$100m in 2000 to US$11bn in 2016, is the main motivation of undertaking this study.

<div><p><em>Poverty is one of the biggest challenges to the development of a developing country like India where a major population is living in rural and semi-urban areas. Institutional credit is considered as a powerful tool for alleviating poverty. Microfinance is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to the poor. As the financial services of microfinance usually involve small amounts of money – small loans, small savings etc. the term "Microfinance" helps to differentiate these services from those of commercial banks. Microfinance in India has been through two channels of credit delivery to poor and low-income households–Self Help Group Bank Linkage Programme (SBLP) and the Microfinance institutions lending through groups as well as directly to individuals. This study was with the overall objective of conducting a detailed analysis of interest rates, costs and margins of microfinance institutions. </em></p><p><em>This study highlights the reach and the impact on the customers and the channels used by these firms for the effectiveness of Micro Finance and Microcredit schemes. For the purpose of analysis the statistical tools like Mean, Standard deviation, coefficient of co-relation and regression have been used. </em></p><p><em>Microfinance is playing a very important role in decrease poverty. Microfinance to the rural SHGs is a way to raise the income level and improve the living standards of the rural peoples. Thus, it can be concluded that the self-help groups contribute substantially in pushing the conditions of the rural population up.</em></p></div>