With the wide gap in access to formal credit for MSMEs in South and East Asia, micro-businesses often borrow from unreliable sources at exorbitant rates. Based on our Corner Shop Diaries research, this blog explores how and why corner shops take loans and the sources from which they borrow.

This blog offers five key insights drawn from early data of our Corner Shop Diaries research in India and Indonesia.

This report discusses the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of low- and middle-income (LMI) people in Bangladesh toward COVID-19 and its impact on their lives. It also provides recommendations for policymakers to design suitable interventions that can help the LMI segment recover from the pandemic.

This note focuses on the situation of COVID-19 in India and the government’s communication efforts during the pandemic. Based on MSC’s research with low- and middle-income households, it highlights how these efforts can be strengthened through the adoption of a Social Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) campaign.

This note examines the impact of initiatives targeted towards women empowerment, in light of the budgetary allocations of the Government of India. It also highlights the challenges for women to access these benefits and the factors that must be considered to make a program successful and more gender-centric.