Week of February 22, 2011

In the past two weeks alone CNN, BBC, and the Guardian, not to mention countless other media outlets around the world, have been reporting on the ongoing feud between microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus and the Bangladeshi government. While the Bangladeshi government continues to pressure Yunus to leave the top post at Grameen, some researchers and practitioners have continued to dig more deeply to better understand the financial lives of the poor and evaluate tools, mechanisms, and strategies to alleviate poverty. Here are some of the ideas and research circulating in the blogosphere:

•    From The Guardian: "Can microinsurance protect the poor?" 
•    David Roodman looks at microfinance impacts in Africa and examines Milton Bateford’s arguments re: who is to blame for indebtedness
•    Robert Townsend delves into the financial lives of the poor in Thailand
•    Gina Harmon, president and CEO of Accion discusses the economic imperatives of scaling microfinance in the U.S. in the Huffington Post
•    Visa and humanitarian groups partner to improve aid disbursement 
•    Stuart Rutherford and FAI’s Jonathan Morduch discuss the importance of microsavings
•    David Roodman and Barbara Cristina S. debate financial access and the poor
•    Matthew Bishop and Felix Salmon debate the value of for-profit microfinance
•    The World Bank examines why so few farmers want rainfall insurance
•    Andrew Sprung on the Smart Campaign to launch a certification program for client protection
•    Interesting analysis of potential impact of microfinance caps in “Sacrificing Microcredit for Unrealistic Goals”

Week of March 14, 2010

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3/19: Financial architect finds out how the poor live on $2 a day http://bit.ly/a7bUfq#microfinance

3/19: FAI report "Half the World is Unbanked" published in the McKinsey Quarterly: http://bit.ly/avouNe #microfinance

3/18: "Microfinance: Dream vs.reality" http://bit.ly/b9FwHO #microfinance

3/18: Stuart Rutherford: "Poor households in the financial diaries used 9-10 different financial tools to manage their money" http://bit.ly/99GsNE

3/16: Interview with Stuart Rutherford:"Micro-finance guru unveils new vision for poor" http://bit.ly/cDo346 #microfinance

3/16: Idea of the day: "coping diaries" (like financial diaries) examining how people cope in both normal and crisis periods. http://bit.ly/c0Mw8B

3/16: New book explores the SHG movement in India: "#Microfinance Self-Help Groups in India: living up to their promise?" http://bit.ly/aeqZ4J

Week of February 7, 2010

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2/9: The Regulator’s Dilemma: Navigating Competition Policy http://shar.es/mn2lq via#microfinance

2/9: Cell-phone banking offers financial help to Third World - http://bit.ly/5DF7fH#microfinance

2/9: Forbes.com: "How to protect the world's most vulnerable banking clients" http://bit.ly/aMKwNu #microfinance
  
2/8: RT@poverty_action: IPA research that's good for your heart (literally!) http://www.newsweek.com/id/233006

2/8: MICROCAPITAL PAPER WRAP-UP: Behavioral Foundations of Microcredit http://bit.ly/aUu5dB #microfinance

2/8: FAI invites you to an event with Muhammand Yunus at NYU on March 5th. RSVP at http://bit.ly/apyrMl #microfinance

Week of January 31, 2010

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2/4: FAI research from "Half the World is Unbanked" cited in Susy Cheston's Congressional testimony on #microfinance. http://bit.ly/di2KfN

2/3: New version of the FAI paper "Microfinance Games" available at http://bit.ly/9cH7I4. #microfinance

2/3: New version of the FAI paper "Behavioral Foundations of Microcredit" released at http://bit.ly/bOSd15. #microfinance

2/2: Microfinance requires no donor money, says MicroRate's Stauffenberg http://bit.ly/cun4Ej What about "Smart Subsidies"? http://bit.ly/9TmsrC

2/1: RT @poverty_action An "anti-nudge" on the way to Mexico...http://poverty-action.org/node/2570

2/1: Great video of Sendhil Mullainathan alking at TEDIndia: "Solving social problems with a nudge". http://bit.ly/cplO1A

2/1: New microinsurance journal launched at http://micro-risk.com/. #microfinance

Week of January 24, 2010

1/28: Reading @IFMRTrust's response (http://bit.ly/d8eEgB) to our post (http://bit.ly/80FNV2) on their first multi-originator securitization.

1/27: "The Economics of #Microfinance" is on Stuart Rutherford's Top 5 list of books on the poor and their money. http://bit.ly/cZNOoP

1/27: From Princess Maxima: Microfinance needs to come as part of a rounded policy aimed at fighting poverty effectively. http://bit.ly/8uXp1g

1/25: Jonathan Morduch tells stories from the financial diaries on CBC: http://bit.ly/I8qo(use CTRL+F to search for Morduch) #microfinance

Topics: Big Picture, Commercialization, Portfolios of the Poor and Poverty