Marie Michael Library
Community-Based Microfinance for Financial Inclusion
Recommended readings
- Lee, N. (Ed.). (2008). Reaching the hard to reach: Comparative study of member-owned financial institutions in remote rural areas. Antigonish: Coady International Institute.
Finance and Development Impacts
- Flora, U. N., Ndabaga, E., & Odour, J. (2015). Effect of project model change on project performance in Rwanda: A case of World Vision’s Village Savings Loan Associations Project in Nyamata Area Development Programme. European Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 3(3), 1-14.
- Gash, M. & Odell, K. (2013). The evidence-based story of savings groups: A synthesis of seven randomized control trials. Arlington, VA: SEEP Network. (2.39 Mb pdf)
- Gordon Nembhard, J. (2014). The benefits and impacts of cooperatives.
- de Hoop, T., van Kempen, L., Linssen, R., & van Eerdewijk, A. (2014). Women’s autonomy and subjective well-being: How gender norms shape the impact of self-help groups in Odisha, India. Feminist Economics, 20(3), 103-135. (StFX only)
- Lavoori, V. & Narayan Paramanik, R. (2014). Microfinance impact on women’s decision making: A case study of Andhra Pradesh. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 4(11).
- Thuysbaert, B., Karlan, D., & Udry, C. (2012). Impact of Village Savings and Loans Associations: Findings from Ghana, Malawi and Uganda. Presented at IPA-ADB-JPAL Bangkok conference, September 1.
Financial Cooperatives and Credit Unions
- Alliance for Financial Inclusion. (2014). Rwanda’s financial inclusion success story: Umurenge Saccos. Bangkok, Thailand: AFI. (190K pdf)
- Kumar, V., Wankhede, K. G., Gena, H. C. (2015). Role of cooperatives in improving livelihood of farmers on sustainable basis. American Journal of Educational Research, 3(10), 1258-1266.
- Murray, A. (2011, October 31). Global 300 co-operatives generate 1.6 trillion revenue. Coop News.
- Ruete, M. (2014). Inclusive investment in agriculture: Cooperatives and the role of foreign investment (Investment in agriculture policy brief no. 2). Geneva: IISD.
- USAID. (2013). Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation (SAACO) training manual. (4.37 Mb pdf)
- WOCCU’s annual Statistical Report provides financial data for credit unions and financial cooperatives around the world.
- Zeuli, K. A. & Cropp, R. (2004). Cooperatives: Principles and practices in the 21st century. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Extension. (955K pdf)
Financial Literacy
- Gray, B., Sebstad, J., Cohen, M., & Stack, K. (2009). Can financial education change behavior? Lessons from Bolivia and Sri Lanka. Washington, DC: Microfinance Opportunities. (1.52 Mb pdf)
- International Labour Organization. (2011). Financial education for youth: Trainee’s guide. Kathmandu, Nepal: ILO.
- Population Council. (2016). Building girls’ protective assets: A collection of tools for program design. New York, NY: Population Council. (1.17 Mb pdf)
- Stack, K. (2006). Implementation guidance: Adult learning principles and curriculum design for financial education. Washington, DC: Microfinance Opportunities. (179K pdf)
- Wang, Y. (Ed.). (2014). APEC guidebook on financial and economic literacy in basic education. Singapore: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat.
Innovations in Financial Services Access
- Airtel Uganda. (2015). Introducing Airtel Weza for Village Savings and Loans Associations [Video file]. (3:40 min.)
- Boomyabancha, S. (2001). Savings and loans: Drawing lessons from some experiences in Asia. Environment & Urbanization, 13(2), 9-21. (StFX only)
- Bristol Pound. (2012). Bristol Pound feature on BBC1 Inside Out [Video file]. (10:55 min.)
- CanalInstitutoPalmas. (2011). 27 de Junho 2010 – Banco Palmas no France24 (English version) [Video file]. (2:23 min.)
- Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). (n.d.). Published by Community-Wealth.org, an initiative of Democracy Collaborative.
- Helms, B. (2006). Access for all: Building inclusive financial systems. Washington, DC: World Bank.
- Parikh, T., Ghosh, K. & Chavan, A. (2003). Design studies for a financial management system for microfinance groups in India. Paper presented at the 2003 Conference on Universal Usability, New York. (393K pdf)
- Yanyong Boon-Long. (2009). Participatory architecture [Video file]. (4:49 min.). A young architect from CODI facilitates the design process for a group of squatters.
Livelihoods, Value Chains, and Financial Services
- Ardic, O. P., Heimann, M. & Mylenko, N. (2011). Access to financial services and the financial inclusion agenda around the world: A cross-country analysis with a new data set. (Policy research working paper 5537). Washington, DC: World Bank. (866K pdf)
- Chambers, R. & Conway, G. R. (1991). Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical concepts for the 21st century (IDS discussion paper 296). Brighton: IDS. (186K pdf)
- Claessens, S. (2006). Access to financial services: A review of the issues and public policy objectives. The World Bank Research Observer, 21(2), 207-240. (StFX only)
- Kc, D., Acharya, K., & Mookherjee, R. (n.d.). Increasing women’s participation in community based livelihoods intervention: Lessons learnt from the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (BRLP). [n.l.]: IMFR Lead. (2.75 Mb pdf)
- Miller, C. & Jones, L. (2010). Agricultural value chain finance: Tools and lessons. Warwickshire, UK: Practical Action. (3.50 Mb pdf)
- Misra, R.S. (2009, Draft). ITC Choupal Fresh: A case in pro poor value chains. In M. Harper (Ed.), Inclusive value chains in India: Linking the smallest producers to modern markets. (371K pdf)
- Rengalakshmi, R., et al. (n.d.). ODL for ecopreneurship: Promotion of multiple livelihoods among the women SHGs in Tamil Nadu, India. (96K pdf)
Self-Help Groups
- Manohar, L. (2015). Growth of SHG-Bank linkage programme: A comparative study of six regions in India. International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies, 2(8), 28-37. (481K pdf)
- Nair, A. (2005). Sustainability of microfinance self-help groups in India: Would federating help? (Policy working research paper 3516). Washington, DC: World Bank. (358K pdf)
- Parikh, T., Sasikumar, K., & Olaganathan, S. (2006). Promoting quality bookkeeping in self-help groups: The Mahakalasm management information system. T. Sheldon & J. Hansel, eds. Washington, DC: SEEP Network.
Village Savings and Loans Associations
- Allan, A., Ahern, B., & Wilson, M. (2016). The state of linkage report: The first global mapping of savings group linkage. London: Barclays Bank PLC. (4.50 Mb pdf)
- CARE. (2015). The resilience champions: When women contribute to the resilience of communities in the Sahel through savings and community-based adaptation. Accra, Ghana: CARE International. (1.87 Mb pdf)
- International Rescue Committee. (2012). Facilitator guide: Village savings and loans associations (VSLA). New York: IRC. (18.10 Mb pdf)
- Langlay, N. (2014). The impact of ebola virus disease on Village Savings and Loans Associations, Montserrado, Margibi, Bong and Lofa counties. (1.17 Mb pdf)
- Plan International UK. (2016). The Banking on Change youth savings group model: From saving and learning to banking and earning. London: Barclays Bank PLC. (1.52 Mb pdf)
Microfinance Organizations and Databases
- CGAP: Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest, a comprehensive database of papers, case studies and manuals.
- FinDev Gateway, financial inclusion for development.
- Foundation for Development Cooperation, regional centre supporting research, information exchange and consulting for the Asia-Pacific.
- International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) includes materials on microfinance and food security.
- The Microcredit Summit, news and documents related to the annual Microcredit Summit.
- Microfinance: a way to help the poor build assets, papers by Mark Schreiner, on a range of topics.
- MIX Market, provides access to data, analysis, and tools that deliver insights into the financial inclusion sector.
- Poverty Assessment Tools, project by USAID’s Microenterprise Development division in collaboration with the IRIS Center (Microenterprise Advancement Project) of the University of Maryland. Website includes tools, studies and practitioner reviews.
- Enterprise Development and Microfinance (formerly Small Enterprise Development) is published quarterly by Practical Action Publishing. The website lists the tables of contents and abstracts of articles published. (StFX only)
- Virtual Library on Microcredit, this site has a variety of documents, summaries and research papers.
- World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) is the World Bank’s official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products.
Microfinance Reading and Tools
- Anderson, J. & Ahmed, W. (2015). Early insights from financial diaries of smallholder households (No. 102). Washington, DC: CGAP. (796K pdf)
- Bankable Frontier Associates. (2013). Rwanda Financial Diaries: Understanding the financial lives and product needs of Rwanda’s underserved consumers. Somerville, MA: BFA. (2.08 Mb pdf)
- van Bastelaer, T. (1999). Imperfect information, social capital, and the poor’s access to credit (IRIS Center working paper no. 234). College Park, MD: Center on Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector (IRIS), University of Maryland. (81K pdf)
- Brown, W. & Churchill, C. (2000). Insurance provision in low-income communities: Part II: Initial lessons from micro-insurance experiments for the poor. Bethesda, MD: Microenterprise Best Practices.
- Case studies and publications available from the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI).
- CGAP. (2003). Microfinance consensus guidelines: Definitions of selected financial terms, ratios, and adjustments for microfinance. Washington, DC: CGAP. (341K pdf)
- Cuevas, C. E. & Fisher, K. P. (2006). Cooperative financial institutions: Issues in governance, regulation, and supervision (World Bank working paper no. 82). Washington, DC: World Bank.
- Demirguc-Kunt, A., Klapper, L., Singer, D., & Van Oudheusden, P. (2014). The Global Findex database 2014: Measuring financial inclusion around the world (World Bank policy research working paper 7255). Washington, DC: World Bank. (7.12 Mb pdf)
- Elser, L., Hannig, A., & Wisniwski, S. (1999). Comparative analysis of savings mobilization strategies. Eschborn: CGAP. (74K pdf)
- FSD Kenya. (2015). An overview of the Kenya Financial Diaries research program. Reports, case studies, blogs and datasets were produced from the study.
- Goel, V. & Kaur, I. (2008). Strategic role of trade credit in chain coordination for the traditional farm business enterprises in Punjab, India. Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing, 20(2), 33-60. (StFX only)
- Grant, W. J. & Allen, H. C. (2002). CARE’s Mata Masu Dubara (Women on the Move) program in Niger: Successful financial intermediation in the rural Sahel. Journal of Microfinance, 4(2).
- Hammond, A. L., Kramer, W. J., Katz, R. S., Tran, J. T. & Walker, C. (2008). The next 4 billion: Characterizing BoP markets. Washington, DC: World Bank.
- Honohan, P. (2008). Finance in Africa: A diagnosis. Prepared for IMF seminar “African Finance for the 21st Century”, Tunis, Tunisia, March 4-5. (103K pdf)
- Klapper, L. & Nielsen, K. B. (2015, May 6). 10 insights on financial inclusion from the 2014 Global Findex [Blog post].
- Ledgerwood, J., Earne, J. & Nelson, C. (Eds.). (2013). The new microfinance handbook: A financial market system perspective. Washington, DC: World Bank.
- Lee, N. (2000). A gold thread: Building assets and courage with SEWA bank members (Draft). (54K pdf)
- Lee, N., Misra, R., Hamadziripi, A., Jain, A., Rutherford, S., & Cameron, D. (2006). Rural remote microfinance and selfish genes. Paper prepared for the Global Microcredit Summit.
- Massu, M., Michaud, L.-P., & Jain, A. (2017). Comparative evaluation on community-managed savings-led approaches in the Mekong. [n.l.]: CARE Australia. (3.34 Mb pdf)
- Meka, S. & Grider, J. (2016). De Fiado en Fiado: Credit to bridge expenses in Mexico Financial Diaries households. (3.83 Mb pdf)
- Morduch, J. (2012, May 2). Formality and informality: Lessons from the new Findex survey [Blog post].
- Roodman, D. (2012, February 12). The lessons of microfinance history [Blog post].
- Roth, J., McCord, M. J. & Liber, D. (2007). The landscape of microinsurance in the world’s 100 poorest countries. Appleton, WI: MicroInsurance Centre.
- Rutherford, S., et al. (1999). Savings and the poor: The methods, use and impact of savings by the poor in East Africa. Nairobi: MicroSave. (767K pdf)
- Seibel, H. D. (2003). History matters in microfinance (Working paper no. 5). Cologne, Germany: University of Cologne. (135K pdf)
- Seibel, H. D. (2005). Does history matter? The old and the new world of microfinance in Europe and Asia (Working paper/ University of Cologne, Development Research Center, no. 2005, 10). (265K pdf)
- World Savings Banks Institute. (2009). Beyond microcredit: The role of savings banks in microfinance: experiences from Latin America, Africa and Asia. Brussels, Belgium: WSBI. (813K pdf)