Syed M. Hashemi

Syed concentrates on identifying pro-poor innovations and disseminating best practices related to poverty outreach and impact, including the development of social performance indicators for tracking changes in the social and economic levels of MFI clients. Syed directed the Program for Research on Poverty Alleviation at Grameen Trust and taught development studies at Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. Syed has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Riverside. He speaks English, Bangla, and conversational Hindi.

By Syed M. Hashemi

Research

Reaching the Poorest: Lessons from the Graduation Model

This paper highlights the lessons learned from the CGAP–Ford Foundation Graduation Program, a series of 10 pilot projects in eight countries.
Blog

Ethiopia Graduation Pilot Underway

The 500 participants in this graduation pilot have been selected in 10 communities that are particularly poor, ecologically diverse (both dry and dry-wet zones) and relatively accessible for REST staff.
Research

Toward a Social Performance Bottom Line in Microfinance

This Brief discusses the industry's growing interest in social performance and new advances in measuring social performance and developing guidelines and tools for reporting.
Research

Sustainability of Self-Help Groups in India: Two Analyses

This Occasional Paper reports on two separate studies of SHG programs. Part I looks primarily at the financial viability of SHG programs. Part II proposes a methodology for designing SHG programs to ensure their sustainability.
Research

Beyond Good Intentions

This Focus Note highlights the emerging emphasis on social performance in microfinance and reviews some of the assessment tools recently developed.