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Housing Series: The Critical Shift Toward Asset Building
For over two decades, the partnership between the Citi Foundation and Habitat for Humanity International relied heavily on a "one house, one family," volunteer house-building model. But a shift to a strategy that increases the supply of financial products and services that accelerate financial inclusion is urgently needed.
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- Finance, Uncategorized
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Housing Series: The Case for Bundling Housing Finance With Housing Support Services
Studies suggest that between 20 to 30 percent of microfinance institution (MFI) clients use portions of their small business start-up or production loans for housing improvements. While MFIs see this as "leakage" for non-productive activities, "productive housing" should be viewed as both a livelihood strategy as well as asset creation.
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- Uncategorized
- Tags
- housing, microfinance
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Lessons Learned, Using Livelihoods to Combat Extreme Urban Poverty
Partners in Prosperity is the non-profit affiliate of Mimo Finance, a microfinance institution. The pilot project in Dehradun, India focused on livelihoods; training such as candle-making, small shops, and snack stands. PnP’s training and "starter kits" gave participants the jumpstart they needed without relying on government programs.
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- Uncategorized
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From the Roundtable: Reflections on Improving Microfinance
Citi Foundation recently hosted an interesting day-long roundtable that focused on the Center for Financial Inclusion’s (CFI) report on "Opportunities and Obstacles to Financial Inclusion." It’s an important report because it raises significant issues for the sector. The discussion focused on how to protect and educate legitimate borrowers.
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- Uncategorized
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For Arunachalam, MFI Industry Still Has Lessons to Learn
Ramesh Arunachalam, a development practitioner and staunch critic of the microfinance industry, recently published "The Journey of Indian Microfinance: Lessons for the Future." In a NextBillion interview, he suggests a practical framework that policy-makers and other stakeholders will need to follow in order for Microfinance to thrive once more.
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- Uncategorized
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Friday Roundup ? 9/30/11: The IFC’s 7 Business Models for Inclusion, Are There More?
The International Finance Corporation took a close look at its investment portfolio and found seven common traits of successful inclusive businesses. In its recently released report, Accelerating Inclusive Business Opportunities, the IFC highlights those models - from micro distributions to smallholder procurement. Did the IFC miss any?
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- Uncategorized
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Calling Africa’s Social Entrepreneurs
Africa may seem to be a bit lost on the inclusive-market-social-entrepreneurship-map. Most big MFI funds have only small portfolios in the area, and the BIG success stories cited are often from India. But there’s a LOT going on. A team from Queen’s University has set out to find out how much, what, and where - and will make their insights public.
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- Social Enterprise
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Where’s the Bank? Proximity is Critical, So Why Aren’t Academics Writing About It?
Most academic papers on access to finance focus on behavioral economics and product design issues, but skip proximity and cost of access. Yet if there is one common element in all successful microfinance schemes it’s been finding ways to get closer to customers. An argument for learning how the nuances of distance influences market behavior.
- Categories
- Education