The Future of Microfinance
An ongoing series of video interviews with thought leaders from microfinance and beyond discussing the sector’s current challenges and continued potential.
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Interviews
Thursday
September 18
2014An Interview With Muhammad Yunus: The Godfather of Microcredit Shares His Views – And Concerns – About the Sector
Though he’s a tireless promoter of microcredit’s potential to help the poor, Muhammad Yunus hasn’t been shy in voicing his criticisms of its embrace of commercialism. In a video Q&A with NextBillion Financial Innovation – the first in a series of conversations with microfinance thought leaders – Yunus discusses his concerns about the industry’s direction, and points to ways it could improve.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Wednesday
October 22
2014‘Independence from Credit’: Pro Mujer co-founder Carmen Velasco discusses self-help groups, and how much profit is too much in microfinance
As a pioneer of microfinance in Latin America, Pro Mujer co-founder Carmen Velasco has had a front-row seat for the sector’s tumultuous evolution over the past two decades. In this video Q&A, Part Two in our series on The Future of Microfinance, she discusses the need for MFIs to help clients move beyond credit - and how self-help savings groups could make some microcredit providers obsolete.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Monday
March 16
2015‘This isn’t what we had once hoped it would be … so what should we do?’: Dean Karlan discusses the influential new studies on microcredit’s social impact
Discussion of the six recent microcredit RCTs has followed two general tracks. Within the sector, it has focused on how the studies can be used to improve products and social impact. But outside the sector, it has focused on how microcredit hasn’t lived up to the hype. Both of those currents came to the fore in our Q&A with Dean Karlan, President and Founder of Innovations for Poverty Action.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Guest Articles
Thursday
April 16
2015‘By making it available to people, you are almost by definition doing good’: Grameen Foundation CEO Alex Counts, on microfinance’s past and future
Microfinance has careened from hero to villain status over the years, before settling into its current persona as a useful but not transformative anti-poverty tool. Alex Counts has had a front-row seat in the sector’s turbulent development, as founder and long-time president/CEO of Grameen Foundation. He shares his frank perspectives on microfinance’s past and future in this video Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Friday
May 15
2015A Revolution in the Making: CGAP’s Greg Chen discusses how smartphones could transform financial inclusion and microfinance
Smartphone sales are exploding in emerging economies, with Latin America and the Middle East/Africa recording growth rates of 59 percent and 83 percent, respectively, last year. CGAP’s Greg Chen discusses how this new access could transform low-income people’s interactions with their financial services providers in this video Q&A, the latest in our series on the Future of Microfinance.
- Categories
- Technology
