The year 2022 marks an important anniversary in the field of economic development and poverty reduction. It was exactly 50 years ago that the shift from top-down industrial development to direct targeting of the poor began. The first salvo was launched by the International Labor Organization (ILO), whose April 1972 study of the persistent lack…
ACCESS has supported Vietnam’s microfinance sector since 2010. The following year, the government issued its microfinance development strategy, which raised hopes that the sector would enter a new growth phase that would enable it to make a significant contribution to financial inclusion. However, a decade later, the reality is that Viet Nam’s microfinance sector continues…
A decade ago, the finance ministers of the Asia-Pacific region established the Asia-Pacific Financial Inclusion Forum (APFIF) to identify policies and regulations that could expand the reach of financial services to the underserved, especially those at the base of the economy. Since its establishment in 2010, APFIF has contributed to policy reform and capacity building across…
Two economists who have spent their careers focused on understanding and fighting poverty, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, recently published an excerpt from their book Good Economics for Hard Times in Foreign Affairs magazine entitled “How Poverty Ends: The Many Paths to Progress—and Why They Might Not Continue”. In it, they argue that no one…
A tractor-rental app, an app providing information on markets, prices, weather, and other topics of importance to farmers, and an app linking agri-producers to financial service providers were some of digital technologies featured in the forum “Modernizing Myanmar’s Agriculture through Innovation” held on March 18, 2019. Organized by the US Agency for International Development (USAID),…
It has long been recognized that the money remitted by migrants is used to supplement the receiving family’s income and is therefore largely spent on consumption. To the extent that migrant families “invest”, the main uses are for housing (renovating the existing home or purchasing a house and lot) and for their children’s education. Only…
Member-based organizations like cooperatives are gradually growing in Myanmar. In 2017, two cooperatives in Kayin State were formed as a result of a project funded by the European Union (EU). This initiative was followed by a project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in another township of Kayin State. The cooperative formation…
If microfinance practitioners expect financial services to have an impact on incomes –– and a survey of BWTP members suggests this is the case –– then there is sufficient evidence that what the industry is doing now is not working (enough). Yet the industry’s priority is heavily weighted toward more of the same –– increasing…
Drawing on the experience of practitioners in the Pacific, this document provides and overview of client and credit risks, along with mitigation strategies and policies that financial services providers may wish to consider. Please use this publication as an overview to prompt further investigation, rather than a comprehensive manual that will limit risk. Read More
Description, learning objectives, and key contents for all ACCESS training courses and workshops. Read More
