Microcredit

Microfinance: Why Care About Institution Building?

Elisabeth Rhyne | Posted 05.27.2012

Read More: Brac, Microloans, Microcredit, Microfinance, Equity Bank, Financial Inclusion, Mibanco, Promujer, Roodman, Books News

Rather than complaining that microloans aren't enough, those who support microfinance can work on figuring out how to use these great institutional resources to accomplish more.

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Using Microfinance to Bring Clean Water to India's Poor

Tom Murphy | Posted 05.08.2012

Mumbai -- A unique public-private partnership involving private sector giants like Unilever and Heinz is improving the health of Indian children. Two ...

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Whole Foods Helps Empower Low-Income Entrepreneurs

Posted 02.25.2012

Read More: Whole Foods Market, Grameen America, Microcredit, Video, Stephen Vogel, Whole Planet Foundation, Muhammad Yunus, Nicole Gates, Entrepeneurship, Impact News

To empower entrepreneurs in low-income communities, Whole Foods Market's foundation has partnered with a microfinance organization to help budding bus...

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Microfinance in Bangladesh: It's Not What You Thought

Elisabeth Rhyne | Posted 04.11.2012

Read More: Brac, Microcredit, Microfinance, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, World News

One of the interesting things about microfinance in Bangladesh is that its intense market saturation has not resulted in a crisis of over-indebtedness or unmanageable default. "Overlapping" is common -- that is, clients taking loans from several MFIs at the same time.

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Letter From Uganda: Given the Tools to Fight Poverty, Africa's Women Tend to Win

Susan Davis | Posted 12.25.2011

Read More: African Women, Microcredit, Brac, Uganda, Microfinance, International Development, Bangladesh, Women News

When we invest in girls and women, we end up with healthier families, a more flexible workforce, lower HIV rates and a more stable society.

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Imagining a World Without Banks

Ann Lee | Posted 11.29.2011

Read More: Government, Federal Reserve, Banks, Economic Stimulus, Innovation, Microcredit, Financial Reform, Economy, Business News

Like a cancer that has caused the rest of the economy to get sick, the banking tumor that has grown out of control must be removed or it will eventually kill the whole economy.

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Helping Women Help Themselves Around the World With Micro-Credit: Grameen Bank in Action

Mitchell J. Rabin | Posted 11.26.2011

Read More: Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, Microloans, Microcredit, Micro-Credit, Bonsai People, Business News

I had the unique opportunity to meet Dr. Muhammad Yunus last week in NYC after the screening of a film called Bonsai People directed by Holly Mosher.

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Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus Wants To Put 'Social' In 'Business' To Help Poor

HuffingtonPost.com | Andrea Stone | Posted 10.11.2011

Read More: Philanthropy, Foreign Aid, Mohammad Yunus, Microcredit, Danone, Microfinance, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, Haiti, Hillary Clinton, Dannon Yogurt, Nobel Peace Prize, Social Business, Good News, Humanitarian Aid, Intel, Impact News

WASHINGTON -- The Nobel Peace Prize winner who invented microcredit presented his latest idea for combating poverty, "social business," to the State D...

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Celebrating 30 Years Of Social Entrepreneurship

Alison Craiglow Hockenberry | Posted 08.29.2011

Read More: Social Change, Social Innovation, Bill Drayton, Ashoka, Changemakers, Social Entrepreneurship, Microloans, Microcredit, Microfinance, Microlending, Muhammad Yunus, Impact News

Social entrepreneurship today enjoys the high regard it has long deserved -- fully 30 years after the organization that launched the movement was born.

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Truth Teller or Bank Teller? Which Are You?

Jonathan Lewis | Posted 06.19.2011

Read More: Microcredit, MicroCredit Enterprises, Accion, Microfinance, Economic Development, Banks, Kiva, Impact News

I wanted to tell my disgruntled microfinance detractor that in a world plagued with 3 billion poor people, there are no easy answers.

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Banking on the Poor

Scott Baker | Posted 06.04.2011

Read More: Microloans, Yunus, Microcredit, Credit, Grameen, Loans, Bank, Poor, Grameen Bank, Cafrs, Impact News

Would banking on the poor be any more risky than banking on the money-leveraging banks that have already failed and had to be bailed out -- for trillions?

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To Catch a Dollar Reveals Real Life on a Large Scale

Muhammad Yunus | Posted 05.29.2011

Read More: Microloans, Microcredit, Microfinance, Muhammad Yunus, World News

Throughout the world, there's a reality show playing out in actual communities on a huge scale, a truly authentic show whose message remains consistent, no matter the economic tides.

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Why Muhammad Yunus and the Women of Grameen Matter

Vivian Norris | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Women, Greed, Microcredit, Muhammad Yunus, Loan Sharks, Grameen, Speculation, Grameen Phone, Bangladesh, Banks, Poor, Sustainable, Business News

If we are going to see true evolution and true civil society, we must begin with supporting the most disadvantaged in helping themselves. They know what they need.

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Microfinance Leaders Strive to Walk the Walk

Elisabeth Rhyne | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Smart Campaign, Client Protection, Microcredit, Microfinance Transparency, Microfinance, Grameen Bank, Basix, World News

Vijay Mahajan, founder of the microfinance institution BASIX, and widely regarded as the dean of Indian microfinance, is walking the hot and dusty roads of rural India in his kurta pajama and sandals.

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Why Muhammad Yunus and the Poor Need Us More Than Ever

Vivian Norris | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Corruption, Nobel Peace Prize, Greed, Vigilantevnm, www.vigilante-vnm.com, Vivigive, Microcredit, Muhammad Yunus, Grameen, Gandhi, Business, Integrity, Bottom Billion, Profit, Microfinance, Bangladesh, Vivian Norris, Banks, Business News

Nobel Peace prize winner Yunus has been under attack by not only his leader of government in his native Bangladesh but by those who are upset with what narrows down to Dr. Yunus' stand against corruption and loan sharking.

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Microfinance -- The Backlash Begins

Virginia M. Moncrieff | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Microcredit, Africa, Development, Economics, Microfinance, International Aid, Mohammed Yunus, Impact News

International aid work is always coming up with new models hailed to battle world poverty. Much of the same hope and excitement was invested in microfinancing as the solution du jour.

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Three Secrets of Safe Microfinance

Elisabeth Rhyne | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Client Protection, Microcredit, Microfinance, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Andhra Pradesh, Equity Bank, Smart Campaign, Consumer Protection, Microloans, Ngos, World News

Like sex, microfinance can be safe if practiced responsibly. Recently, however, we've seen that not all participants in the microfinance industry are practicing safe microfinance.

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Is Yunus Right About Charitable Donations?

Bhagwan Chowdhry | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Microfinance, Sks, Microcredit, Poverty, Muhammad Yunus, Philanthropy, Compartamos, Small Business America, World News

Many renowned micro-credit proponents, most notably Yunus, often discard charitable donations. But isn't a charity dollar a zero interest loan with a very long maturity?

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How Microfinance Lost its Soul

Aaron Ausland | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Microcredit, Poverty, Development, Microfinance, Debt Alleviation, Impact News

Six fundamental shifts in the practice of microfinance have left it operating more like a for-profit bank and less like an innovative pro-poor movement.

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Join Us in Integrated Approach to Build The New Haiti

Jim Luce | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: We Can?T Have That Foundation, Usaid, University of West Indies, Microcredit, Nyu, Housing, Social Responsibility, World Bank, Liberal Arts, Internet Connectivity, Federation Des Caisses, International Developent Fund, Family Care, Harvard, Desjardins Developpement International, Yale, Leogane, Ganthier, Orphan Care, Kiwanis, International University of Haiti, Princeton, Lions International, James Jay Dudley Luce Foundation, Nyu-Polytec, Cheddi Jagan, Skype, Health Care, Agricultural Cooperatives, Rotary, Creating Global Leadership, International Development, Haitian Diaspora, Earthquake, European Union, Croix-Des-Bouquets, Chf, Oiww, New York City, Tourism, Thomas Dudley, Education, Commerce, College of Wooster, New Haiti, Orphans International Worldwide, Haiti, Petit-Goave, Professional Development, Hospital St. Croix, Creole Language, Ecole De La Redemption, January 12, World News

Léogâne, Haiti. I am perhaps the most excited I have been in my entire life as I prepare to move to Haiti next month. Ten months after the earthqu...

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How to Make Everything From Nothing (VIDEO)

Jonathan Lewis | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Microcredit, Microfinancing for Women, Microfinance, MicroCredit Enterprises, First Republic Bank, Impact News

Without a dime of donations or leaving home, individuals, small family foundations and companies in the United States are at this very minute financing 112,000 small businesses.

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Microinsurance, Microsavings and Microcredit Under One Roof

Bhagwan Chowdhry | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Microsavings, Microcredit, Microinsurance, Financial Inclusion, Financial Access, Microfinance, Technology, Biometrics, India, Impact News

The meagre savings that the poor do manage to accumulate are rarely enough and there is a need for insurance against unfortunate events such as going hungry, undernourishment for children, and pulling children out of school.

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Restoring Trust Is the First Step Forward to Heal from the Financial Crisis

Vivian Norris | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Microcredit, Credit, Trust, Grameen Bank, Elizabeth Warren, Ceos, Banks, Financial Crisis, Obama, Wall Street, Muhammad Yunus, Vigilante-Vnm, Business News

The poorest of the poor in the microfinance world pay back at rates as high as 99%. Wall Street banks not only did not pay back, they took from us and paid themselves bonuses. Guess they aren't very good bankers are they?

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Making Microfinance Benefit the People and Not the Sharks

Shivani Siroya | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Microcredit, Microfinancing for Women, Microfinance, World News

In the right hands, microcredit can be a truly empowering opportunity, enabling hardworking entrepreneurs to become self-sufficient business owners and improve the livelihood of whole communities.

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The Impact of Microfinance: Grameen Foundation Provides a Primer

Elisabeth Rhyne | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Impact Studies, Microcredit, Microfinance, Grameen Foundation, Business News

Moderate results are disappointing if you were expecting microfinance to cure poverty. But they are just what you'd expect if you think microfinance is about bringing financial services to people who never had them before.

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