Recommended readings

• Lee, N. (Ed.). (2008). Reaching the hard to reach: Comparative study of member-owned financial institutions in remote rural areas. Coady 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.
• 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. 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). 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. University of Wisconsin-Extension. (955K pdf)

Financial Literacy

• Population Council. (2016). Building girls’ protective assets: A collection of tools for program design. Population Council. (1.17 Mb pdf)
• Stack, K. (2006). Implementation guidance: Adult learning principles and curriculum design for financial education. Microfinance Opportunities. (179K pdf)
• Wang, Y. (Ed.). (2014). APEC guidebook on financial and economic literacy in basic education. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat.

Innovations in Financial Services Access

• Airtel Uganda. (2015). Introducing Airtel Weza for Village Savings and Loans Associations [Video]. (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]. (10:55 min.)
• CanalInstitutoPalmas. (2011). 27 de Junho 2010 – Banco Palmas no France24 (English version) [Video]. (2:23 min.)
• Helms, B. (2006). Access for all: Building inclusive financial systems. World Bank.
• Yanyong Boon-Long. (2009). Participatory architecture [Video]. (4:49 min.). A young architect facilitates the design process for a group of squatters.

Livelihoods, Value Chains, and Financial Services

• Chambers, R. & Conway, G. R. (1991). Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical concepts for the 21st century (IDS discussion paper 296). 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). IMFR Lead. (2.75 Mb pdf)
• Miller, C. & Jones, L. (2010). Agricultural value chain finance: Tools and lessons. 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)
• Parikh, T., Sasikumar, K., & Olaganathan, S. (2006). Promoting quality bookkeeping in self-help groups: The Mahakalasm management information system. T. Sheldon & J. Hansel, eds. SEEP Network.

Village Savings and Loans Associations

• International Rescue Committee. (2012). Facilitator guide: Village savings and loans associations (VSLA). 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)

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.
• 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). CGAP. (796K pdf)
• van Bastelaer, T. (1999). Imperfect information, social capital, and the poor’s access to credit (IRIS Center working paper no. 234). Center on Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector (IRIS), University of Maryland. (81K pdf)
• 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. 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). 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). World Bank. (7.12 Mb pdf)
• Elser, L., Hannig, A., & Wisniwski, S. (1999). Comparative analysis of savings mobilization strategies. CGAP. (74K pdf)
• 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. 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. 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. CARE Australia. (3.34 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].
• 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)