Brigit Helms

How Donors Can Help Build Pro-Poor Financial Systems

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.

Apex Institutions in Microfinance

Many apex institutions have dubious track records. This Donor Brief explains how donors can recognize a good apex institution and then support it, thus avoiding common donor mistakes with apexes.

Water, Water Everywhere, but Not a Drop to Drink

"Water" in this title refers to donor funds for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Strong MFIs have an oversupply of donor funds, it seems money is everywhere. But many smaller and promising MFIs cannot get the funds they need to grow. This Donor Brief addresses how donor funding can become more effective.

Assessing the Relative Poverty Level of MFI Clients, Case Studies

The Poverty Assessment Tool (PAT) was developed for CGAP by the International Food Policy Research Institute. The multi-dimensional Poverty Index constructed by the tool is targeted at donors and investors who require a standardized, globally applicable set of poverty indicators to make poverty-focused funding decisions and to compare MFIs across regions and countries.

Those Who Leave and Those Who Don’t Join

Understanding client exit and nonparticipation can shed important light on the financial service preferences of clients and help programs learn about the limitations of their existing products and mechanisms. Such lessons can drive the development of innovative, demand-driven microfinance products and systems, benefiting both the institution and the clients.