Donor Briefs

Working With Savings & Credit Cooperatives

August 1, 2005

This Donor Brief addresses how donors can support savings and credit cooperatives to increase access to financial services. It highlights the advantages of working with these groups as well as some of the unique challenges of doing so.

Building Capacity for Retail Microfinance

June 1, 2005

This Donor Brief addresses how funding agencies -- public donors, international NGOs, private foundations, and investors -- can help meet the challenge of developing retail capacity.

Funding Microfinance Technology

April 1, 2005

This Donor Brief offers guidance on how to ensure microfinance providers follow good investment and management principles when choosing and implementing new technologies.

Maximizing Aid Effectiveness in Microfinance

February 1, 2005

This Donor Brief covers five key elements to improving the way in which development assistance agencies and other funders support financial systems for the poor.

Supporting Microfinance in Conflict-Affected Areas

December 1, 2004

This Donor Brief addresses how supporting microfinance in devastated and fragile communities can be successful when donors work in concert, select qualified partners, are patient, are willing to take risks, and are prepared to pay higher costs.

Housing Microfinance

August 1, 2004

By applying good microfinance practice to housing finance, a range of financial institutions are beginning to offer much-needed housing finance services to low-income people. This Donor Brief outlines how donors can support these institutions and expand sustainable housing finance.

The Role of Governments in Microfinance

June 1, 2004

Understanding the limited but constructive role governments can play in building financial systems is key to ensuring poor people's permanent access to quality financial services. This Donor Brief explains how experienced donors can support governments to develop sound policy frameworks and encourage vibrant and competitive microfinance, rather than directly providing financial services.

The Impact of Interest Rate Ceilings on Microfinance

May 1, 2004

Interest rate ceilings imposed by governments to protect poor people unfortunately often have the opposite effect. Customers do need protection from predatory lending practices, and this Donor Brief offers other options governments and donors can use.

How Donors Can Help Build Pro-Poor Financial Systems

February 1, 2004

This Donor Brief outlines a practical way that donors can work, individually or on collaboration, to support pro-poor financial systems that ensure permanent access to financial services for significant numbers of poor people.

Microinsurance

December 1, 2003

Microinsurance is one of the many financial services that can help poor people protect themselves from risk. This Donor Brief provides practical dos and don'ts for donors interested in supporting this promising but still largely untested field.

Financial Services for the Rural Poor

October 1, 2003

This Donor Brief clarifies the confusing terminology related to rural finance and identifies the main constraints to financial services in rural areas. It also pinpoints specific issues donor agencies face internally to effectively support financial services for the rural poor and offers helpful guidance.

Microfinance and HIV/AIDS

September 1, 2003

This Donor Brief addresses how microfinance can play a role in helping families affected by HIV/AIDS and how microfinance institutions can plan for the institutional risk posed by this epidemic.

The Impact of Microfinance

July 1, 2003

This Donor Brief looks at how donor funding for microfinance can be powerful as a complement to investment in other social services.

Regulation and Supervision of Microfinance

May 1, 2003

This Donor Brief provides a simple and clear summary of the increasingly complex issues in microfinance regulation and supervision. It includes definitions of key terms, clear guidelines, and options for donor action.

Microfinance Means Financial Services for the Poor

March 1, 2003

This Donor Brief summarizes the vision and strategy of CGAP members to bring microfinance to the scale required to serve millions worldwide.

Credit Components

February 1, 2003

Designed as inputs to larger projects with limited life spans, credit components run the risk of failing to provide the intended target groups with permanent access to financial services. This Donor Brief outlines some ways to make the most of credit components and minimize their downsides.

Microfinance and the Millennium Development Goals

December 1, 2002

The eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, education, women's empowerment, and the other Millennium Development Goals are rightly the focus of donors and governments. This brief gives the evidence for how microfinance can play an important part in achieving these goals.

Why Donors Need to Understand Product Development

November 1, 2002

Product development in microfinance makes a lot of sense because clients need more than one type of loan or service. MFIs often ask for support to expand their product line, but developing products is not easy. This Donor Brief provides guidelines for donors who want to make the best use of funds for product development.

Microfinance Transparency and Reporting to Donors

October 1, 2002

Knowing and understanding the components that contribute to transparency in microfinance is half of battle. It is also particularly useful to know how donor reports can enhance transparency for the whole microfinance sector. This Donor Brief provides suggestions for achieving better transparency in reporting.

Making Sense of Microcredit Interest Rates

September 1, 2002

Why do microfinance institutions (MFIs) charge such high interest rates to the poor? This Donor Brief gives donors a quick reference to use when answering questions about seemingly high microcredit interest rates. It also explains how donors can tell if an MFI's rates are too high and suggests what to do.