Grameen Bank methodology is almost the reverse of the conventional banking methodology.

Conventional banks look at what has already been acquired by a person. Grameen looks at the potential that is waiting to be unleashed in a person. Conventional banks are owned by the rich, generally men. Grameen Bank is owned by poor women.

Micro-credit expert examines gender perspectives on access to finance and poverty alleviation.

The objective of the Expanding Microfinance Outreach and Improving Sustainability Project is to achieve operational sustainability for most microfinance service providers and help them scale up outreach of financial services to meet the needs and demands of many poor Afghans, especially women. This project only has one component; all the funding will be provided by Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA) to the microfinance service provider organizations as loan funds fo more...

The Taliban may have been stripped off their powers to legislate the lives of Afghanistan’s women, the latter, however, still are struggling to attain a decent living standard. Pawaz, which means “take flight” in Dari has been issuing small loans of $100 or less to around 600 of these women. Katrin Fakiri, who is the director of Parwaz, believes that the recovery rate of these micro loans are very impressive but a lot more is required to salvage the rural females of Afghanistan out of thei more...

This report presents the finding of an eighteen month rural livelihoods monitoring and research project in Afghanistan. Afghanistan Evaluation and Research Unit conducted the project in partnership with seven other Non Governmental Organizations. The project involved 390 households spread over 21 villages in seven districts in seven provinces of Afghanistan.

The study was conducted to understand rural livelihoods in Afghanistan and it explored issues such as livelihood diversity, non-farm lab more...

The article describes in detail how respect for women's rights is built into the Model for self-financing, ecological, sustainable, local integrated development projects for the world’s poor promoted by the Dutch NGO Stichting Bakens Verzet (“Another Way”). The Model is in the public domain and available for use free of charge. It can be downloaded from website www.flowman.nl. The article covers rights under both the Draft charter for the rights of african women, Addis Abeba 28th March 20 more...

Client of ACCION-Unitus Alliance for India partner Swadhaar. Vasanti Amin runs a small tea and snack shop. She has received two loans from Swadhaar. Her first loan of US$125 enabled her to build a small rack in her kitchen on which to place the 'vada pav' - a fried potato snack - to keep it hot. Once she paid back her first loan, she got a second one for US$200 and used it to buy new products for her business, including potatoes and oil. With the money she made selling these good she paid for he more...

Client of ACCION partner Akiba Commercial Bank. In the small town of Mango at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Anna works tirelessly selling rice, oil, sugar and other food products out of her tiny storefront. Before owning her store, “life was miserable,” Anna explains. There was no work, and she resorted to asking for money in the street to take care of her parents and her daughter, Irene.

With a small loan from a relative, Anna began selling mangos and vegetables at the local market, but more...

WWB's mission is to expand low income women’s economic participation and power by opening access to finance, information and markets. WWB works toward achieving its goal in three ways: i)by providing and organizing support to affiliates who in turn offer direct services to low income women; ii) by building learning and change networks comprised of leading microfinance institutions and banks; and iii)by working with policy makers to build financial systems that work for the poor majority.

Given the opportunity to learn, even children living in debilitating poverty will have the chance to create a better future. This is the premise of Microschools of Opportunity™—a new initiative launched this year by Opportunity International, a dgmicrofinance Cooperating Organization. This initiative focuses on bringing the transformative power of education to those who need it most. Building on the proven success of microfinance programs, Microschools of Opportunity provides specialized loa more...