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Getting The Proof To The Top Of The Pile

Policymakers are swamped. They have a wide range of interest groups talking to them all the time, they have large numbers of papers and emails and phone calls to deal with every day. So if you approach them with a brilliant evaluation that is fifty pages long, complete with graphs and tables and lots of Greek equations, it will go straight to the bottom of the stack. And stay there.

And Now from East Asia—The Good News

East Asia is witnessing a relatively stable growth when it comes to microfinance.

What Good Is Mobile Banking if the Phone Isn’t Charged?

Driven by mobile phone customer needs, neighborhood vendors with mains electricity and/or access to a power generator typically offer mobile phone charging as a value added service.

Kiva.org Meets Facebook in China?

Casey Wilson is the Co-founder and CEO of Wokai, the first person-to-person microfinance platform for China. Wokai means “I start” in Mandarin. What’s happening in China? China has the second largest potential microcredit demand in the world, next to India. Yet the total loan portfolio of China’s non-government microfinance sector is only $200 million, in contrast to India, whose microfinance sector is projected to reach $3 billion by the beginning of 2010.

The Other Side of the Interest Rate Argument

High interest rates is not a universal problem. In fact, China is facing the opposite issue: interest rates charged by MFIs are too low.