News
Savings Groups 2013 Conference and Harnessing the Power of Cross-sectoral Programming to Alleviate HIV/AIDS and Food Insecurity
On March 5- 6, 2013 Graduation Program lessons and research findings so far will be shared at Savings Groups 2013 Conference, organized by Oxfam and the Harnessing the Power of Cross-sectoral Programming to Alleviate HIV/AIDS and Food Insecurity event, sponsored by SEEP.
Abijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo visit the Scale-up of Bandhan’s Targeting the Hard-Core Poor (THP) Program
Abijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo visit the scale-up of Bandhan’s Targeting the Hard-Core Poor (THP) program in the district of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal. Both researchers are working on assessing the impact of Bandhan’s THP program through a rigorous randomized controlled trial implemented by the Centre for Micro Finance at Institute for Financial Management and …
The ‘graduation model’ in microfinance
Over the last decade around the globe, the microfinance sector has seen cycles of tremendous boom and bust. Alongside, the sector has had more than its fair share of controversies, affected as it is by political machinations in countries like India and Bangladesh. Starting from allegations of unbridled commercialisation to that of unethical practices contributing …
Fundación Capital to hold Extreme Poverty Policy Forum in Cartagena
Leaders in social development will participate in two-day forum for strengthening policies to address extreme poverty in the region. For further information check: http://www.proyectograduacion.org/eventograduacion
World Bank Blog Post on Socio Economic Consequences of Food Price Spikes
High food prices, especially when they have increased suddenly and unexpectedly, have been found to hurt many poor people around the world. The Global Monitoring Report 2012: Food Prices, Nutrition, and the Millennium Development Goals (GMR) finds that the food price shock that peaked in early 2011 pushed nearly 50 million people into poverty. On …
3ie-LIDC Seminar – Reaching the Poorest: Lessons from the Graduation Model, Tuesday 24th April, 2012
The seminar is part of the 3ie-LIDC series ‘What works in international development’. Abstract: Microfinance is about extending financial access to poor and excluded people. However, apart from a few notable exceptions, microfinance has not typically reached extremely poor people—those at the lowest level of the economic ladder. The majority of the world’s estimated …
The Men Who Made Microfinance Work
A recent article in Forbes India highlighted the work of Chandra Shekhar Ghosh founder of Bandhan and Samit Ghosh founder of Ujjivan. “The Tale of Two Ghoshs is a story of two different personalities. Two different methods. Two successful companies. Why Chandra Shekhar Ghosh of Bandhan, and Samit Ghosh of Ujjivan are beacons of hope …
Cash Transfers do not address the Underlying Causes of Women’s Poverty
New article on the Guardian’s Poverty Matter Blog discusses why women need more than just small amounts of cash to escape poverty – the limited ‘empowerment’ of income support should be coupled with training and employment. Read the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/mar/07/cash-transfers-not-addressing-women-poverty
Working with participants who “don’t know money”
In this new blog post Steve Werlin explains how Fonkoze staff works with those ultra-poor participants who “don’t know money.” “In some cases, that means that someone can’t distinguish different denominations; in some, it means that they can’t do the simple arithmetic necessary to calculate change” Basic financial literacy training is conducted “by paying close …
The story of Mecianie Casseus in Haiti
The new post by Wilson Ozil, Regional Director for CLM, on Steve Werlin’s blog tells the story of Mecianie Casseus is a forty-seven-year-old mother of ten. As Oranie Pierre’s story posted last month, Mecianie’s story touches upon issues of gender relations within the CLM program: “She said that the program has done so much for …
About the Graduation Program
The CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program is a global effort to understand how safety nets, livelihoods, and microfinance can be sequenced to create pathways for the poorest to graduate out of extreme poverty, adapting a methodology used by BRAC in Bangladesh.
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