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.
• 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.

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.)
• 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

• 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.
• 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)
• Case studies and publications available from the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI).
• 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)
• 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)
• 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].