In this video series-3, Stuart Rutherford, co-author of “Portfolios of the Poor” talks about the financial products that poor people need from MFIs. He also describes the behaviour of people in managing daily expenses when income is irregular and their vulnerability to emergencies.
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Portfolios of the Poor: Key Lessons
In this video series-2, taking the conversation further with Graham A.N. Wright, Stuart Rutherford, co-author of “Portfolios of the Poor”, shares the key lessons of the book in terms of poor people’s financial behaviour. Informing that poor people lead complex financial lives basically not only due to meager but irregular income. Sharing his research work in Bangladesh, India and South Africa, he opines that poor people can certainly save and he talks about various saving mechanism poor employ such as clay piggy bank, under the mattress etc. He further talks about group savings and pool savings as well.
Savings Mobilisation in SHGs: Opportunities and Challenges
This focus note explains the reasons why the poor save in SHGs. As per the study conducted by GTZ in 1997; the important factors which the poor keep in mind before accessing savings facility of an institution are:
security,
convenience,
liquidity and
positive returns
The note further explores how financial institutions like banks and MFIs lend to SHGs based on their internal savings. The groups usually intend to access external funds, which are available at rates lower than market. But for reasons states above the organisations faces the challenge of ‘savings’ being just used to fulfil the minimum eligibility criteria to access loans from external sources. However, these challenges can be overcome through strategies like:
Offering customised and voluntary savings products to the SHG members, formation of a professionally run external fund from where SHGs can draw when cash flow needs are higher than usual etc.
Portfolios of the Poor: Introduction
In this video Bob Christen, director of the Financial Services for the Poor initiative at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, introduces the groundbreaking book, Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day. He talks about the research behind the book and how complex transactions of poor were captured during the exercise. He adds that the authors of the book recorded and analysed the financial diaries of a group of households in Bangladesh, India and South Africa.
Portfolios of the Poor: Introduction
In this video series-1, Stuart Rutherford co-author of “Portfolios of the Poor” and the founder of SafeSave Bangladesh shares his inspiration behind the research on financial diaries that was the foundation of the book. He discusses the importance of listening to clients and explains the research that went behind the book.
Compartamos Controversy Leadership and Responsibilities
In this video Richard Rosenberg, consultant to CGAP, discusses how the Compartamos IPO affected investors and competitors, and whether the experience was a singular event or is likely to be repeated. He further explains the existence of social as well as commercial investors of Compartamos and their varied goals. He also discussed the relation between interest rate and profits of Compartamos.