NewsMicroinsurance Has Big Upside
Risk & Insurance. 15 September 2009. The "bottom of the pyramid," the billions of people on the low end of our global economic system, are starving for a lot of things--good governance, clean drinking water, basic but essential nutrients. But they are also starving for insurance. Read the article. Starved for Solutions: How Microfinance Can Smooth Consumption in a Hungry WorldACCION International. Website story. 25 September 2009. With access to microfinance services, low-income, informal-economy entrepreneurs, like Pura Rivera, are in a better position to absorb and manage the immediate shocks of fluctuating food prices. Read the article. Debunking Myths about the Poor and Financial ServicesThe Wall Street Journal, India Journal. 4 September 2009. The power of finance to transform the lives of the poor is not well understood. Despite recent articles that raise concerns about microfinance, the evidence at large shows that successful microfinance institutions (and their list is growing) have managed to implement service delivery mechanisms that meet the needs of the poor, at a lower cost than most accessible alternatives. Read the article.
Lending Talent, and Money, on a Micro ScaleThe New York Times. 24 June 2009. Government agencies and international aid groups have long supported programs that train the world's poor in how to start and run their own businesses. The training is seen as a way to end hunger and stabilize societies. Read the article. Sub-par, But Not Subprime.The Economist print edition. 19 March 2009. Lending to the poor has held up well, but it is not as safe from the credit crisis as its champions hoped. Read the article. Microcredit Summit Campaign: More than 100 Million of World’s Poorest Benefit from Microcredit.In January 2009, the Microcredit Summit Campaign (a project of RESULTS Educational Fund) released the State of the Campaign Report 2009, which revealed that more than 106 million of the world’s poorest families received a microloan in 2007, surpassing a goal set ten years earlier by the Microcredit Summit Campaign. Microloans are used to help people living in extreme poverty start or expand a range of tiny businesses such as husking rice, selling tortillas, and delivering cell phone services to remote villages. “This is a tremendous achievement that many people thought was far too difficult to reach,” said Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus who was present for the announcement. “What makes it even more remarkable is that loans to more than 100 million very poor families now touch the lives of more than half a billion family members around the world. That is half of the ’s poorest people.” How Sustainable is Microfinance, Really?Richard Rosenberg. CGAP Microfinance Blog. 15 December 2008. Read the article. |