| dc.description.abstract | The proceedings brief the outcomes of the third Imp-Act thematic group meeting on
understanding the wider impacts of micro finance (MF) as a part of the three-year Global
Impact Assessment Project funded by Ford Foundation. The main objective of this
thematic group meeting was deepening the understanding of issues around the direct and
indirect impacts of MF services on clients and non-clients, their communities and the
local and national economies. The proceeding summarizes findings of all the 17 papers
presented by different authors coming from all over the world during the first two day
sessions. The authors mainly shared experiences of different MF institutions working in
Latin American, South Asian, African and Sub-Saharan countries and their impacts on
the changes in socio-political and economic lives at micro, meso- and as well as macro
levels. It is also documented all the issues raised during discussions, which have taken
place after each and every presentation. There is a consensus in understanding that
although it is now well established about the positive contribution of the sector in the
development chain, for better understanding of MF impact at different levels there is a
need for detailing out further certain issues on, for example, i. Group formation: Need for
distinguishing between good/bad approaches; ii. Research should have appeal across
disciplines for maximizing impact; iii. Need to think about strategy & methods; iv.
Strategy & tactic's (research areas, international approach, dissemination); v. Studies on
strategic partnership to provide credit plus plus; vi. Trend and implications of
commercialization in MF; vii. Gender needs to be a core underlying theme in all analysis;
viii. Financial services (product innovation, spreading and deepening coverage) ix. Need
to focus on markets and multi market outcomes; x. Networking to maximize value added
and xi. Gender as an agenda and also as a theme. | en_US |
