What is Microfinance on the Development Gateway?

Bank in Bangladesh in the 1970’s starting taking off. Traditionally microcredit focused on providing small loans to low-income entrepreneurs who otherwise had no access to finance or would otherwise have to rely on informal sources of capital such as savings or family members. Now, the term microfinance encompasses a range of financial services such as loans, savings, hedging and even micro venture capital. Some also include in the scope of the microfinance definition financial services aimed at accommodating household needs (including health, education, etc.).

On the Development Gateway we focus our discussion on the provision of financial services to entrepreneurs and micro businesses in developing countries.

Who is it for?

Our primary target audience is microfinance institutions, including NGOs, credit unions, cooperatives and banks, but we welcome participation from anyone interested in the field.

What do we aspire to?

Our goal is to assist microfinance institutions in finding sustainable means of becoming as effective as possible at what they do by providing these institutions with a place to share experiences, discuss vital issues, keep up-to-date and find useful background material.

The knowledge sharing taking place at this platform therefore seeks to address the challenges that microfinance institutions face such as pressures to increase efficiency, expand their product offering, increase access to funds and increasing the impact of their services.

How can you participate?

The Microfinance team on the Development Gateway invites you to become an active member of our community by interacting directly with other members through the member directory (http://www.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/dg-directory) and sharing your own insights and information pertaining to the topic with the community. When you add content to the site an e-mail alert is automatically generated, alerting the community to your contribution. Your name will be displayed in relation to any content you add.

You can share articles, websites, reports and other material to our site by clicking on “add content here” on the site (http://www.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/dg-contribute). Content that is unavailable or cannot be easily found on the web is particularly welcome –in English, Spanish and French. Apart from linking to existing web-pages, you can upload files in Word, PDF, Excel, Powerpoint and other formats to the Development Gateway.

We welcome you to add news and events as well. If you do so, please post related events to our events calendar (http://www.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/calendar) and news to the news section (http://www.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/news).

All content submitted will be reviewed by the Microfinance team before it is published on the Development Gateway. This process generally takes 1-5 business days. Please see further editorial guidelines below.

Editorial framework

Content submitted to the Microfinance page should be related to the scope of the page as defined above, be relevant to microfinance institutions in developing countries and transition economies, and provide value added to the resources already provided on the site.

How can you become a partner on this site?

We are looking for partner organizations interested in creating highlights, sharing their content and facilitating knowledge-sharing in the field. Partners will be featured on this site, in newsletters that they contribute to and in all marketing material pertaining to the site. Partners will also benefit from networking with other partner organizations. Interested in exploring partnership opportunities? Please contact us at: microfinance@dgfoundation.org