MSC’s “Low-Income Lives” is a series of publications that uncovers how the poor manage on small incomes. These insights have emerged from a large body of careful, evidence-based, and in-depth research in selected geographies. The writings provide an opportunity to learn about the lives of the poor as they deal with small incomes, based on solid data from groundbreaking field research.
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Riding (the) rocket to digitised microfinance
Each month, SAJIDA foundation, an NGO in Bangladesh receives loan repayments from almost 10,000 clients across five of their branches using mobile money. These repayments record roughly 25,000 transactions totaling BDT 50 million (around USD 600,000).
Sep 6, 2018
Managing loan repayments
The use of credit is an essential part of how low-income households manage to smooth their consumption in the face of “double-whammy” combinations of income and expenditure shocks. The big push for microcredit in the past decade has led to an abundance of microfinance providers and other providers that offer standardized products.
Sep 20, 2018
How the poor borrow
This is the third in a series of short articles about the findings of a daily ‘financial diary’ research project. A description of the project can be found on its website.
Sep 29, 2018
Low Income Lives – Education
In the first edition of MicroSave’s ‘Low-Income Lives’, Stuart Rutherford looks at education, using data from the Hrishipara Daily Financial Diaries project which records the flow of money from households in Bangladesh.
Feb 23, 2018
Low Income Lives – Family Food Shopping
In this edition of MicroSave’s ‘Low Income Lives’ series, Stuart Rutherford uses data from the Hrishipara Daily Financial Diaries to study how poor people in Bangladesh buy food.
Feb 23, 2018
Water and Sanitation in Dhaka’s Low-Income Settlements, Bangladesh
Author draws on data collected in three low-income settlements to outline how much residents pay for water and sanitation (WatSan) services in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
May 29, 2018
SHGs should balance or break
In the words of NABARD, “internal savings mobilized by its members is the core of the SHG”. Banks size their loans to SHGs as a multiple of the savings accumulated. Strangely though, it is not routine for banks to verify SHG balance sheets before lending. Few SHGs try to balance their books, and even fewer have provisions for audits. In the SHG-bank linkage model, the size of bank loans is determined by the size of the SHG corpus, more than by any other single factor. As a result, SHGs face very strong systemic incentives to neglect errors that overstate their collective savings or understate losses.
Jul 16, 2019
The relative risks to the savings of poor people
In view of the highly risky nature of saving in the informal sector, it is probably necessary to think more about helping clients understand the relative risk of saving in these semi-formal institutions. It should also be noted that the evidence from this study suggests that poor people do value some form of external accountability.
Jul 16, 2018
Two perspectives on savings services
There are no magic formulas for designing appropriate savings products for poor people: it requires market research and careful, systematic product development. But the rewards for the Microfinance Institutions that undertake these exercises in terms of profits and client loyalty can be remarkable, and well worth the investment.
Jul 16, 2018
What do informal groups teach us about what poor people want in their financial services?
The research undertaken for Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya over the last six years demonstrates how Kenyans want their money to help them live well.
Jul 16, 2018
Why are friends and family central to the financial choices of Kenyans?
So is it just because people do not have access to formal services that these social networks are important or are there dimensions of this borrowing that have an intrinsic value?
Jul 16, 2018
Microfinance for Water and Sanitation: Opportunities and Challenges for MFIs
This note discusses the utility of Microfinance for Water and Sanitation and the opportunities and challenges for Microfinance Institutions.
May 29, 2018
Smart Meters to Enhance Access to Water Services in Rural Africa
Also known as intelligent or multi-functional water meters, smart meters can measure water levels, leakages, and water quality.
May 29, 2018
Long Hours for Low Pay in the ‘Formal’ Economy: the Lives of Bangladesh’s Garment Workers
From July 2016 to August 2017 Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) conducted the Garment Worker Diaries project in three countries—Bangladesh, Cambodia, and India. This blog highlights what MFO found through its research.
Apr 2, 2018
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