Written by Mosieh U Ahmed, Syed Khairul Islam, Md. Abul Quashem, and Nabil Ahmed, commissioned by the International Labor Organization (ILO), and published by CGAP Working Group on Microinsurance, Case Study No.13, September 2005, 62 pages, available at: http://www.microfinancegateway.org/files/27889_file_Bangldesh_Health_Good_and_Bad_Practices_No._13.pdf Continue Reading »

This article on the Society for Social Services (SSS) Health Microinsurance (HMI) program is the third in a series of MicroCapital case studies on HMI schemes in Bangladesh. Please also refer to Part I on Grameen Kalyan; Part II on the HMI scheme of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC MHIB); and Part IV, a wrap-up of the CGAP research paper “Health Microinsurance: A Comparative Study of Three Examples in Bangladesh”. As explained in the Grameen Kalyan article, public health services in Bangladesh are urban-based, elite-biased, and curative-oriented (p.vi), and the World Health Organization (WHO) identified inadequate healthcare financing mechanisms to be one of the biggest obstacles to improving health outcomes of the poor. Continue Reading »

This article on the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee’s (BRAC) Micro Health Insurance for Poor Rural Women in Bangladesh (MHIB) is the second in a series of MicroCapital case studies on Health Microinsurance (HMI) schemes in Bangladesh.  Please also refer to Part I on Grameen Kalyan; Part III on the Society for Social Services (SSS); and Part IV, a wrap-up of the CGAP research paper “Health Microinsurance: A Comparative Study of Three Examples in Bangladesh”.  The Grameen Kalyan article explained that public health services in Bangladesh are urban-based, elite-biased, and curative-oriented (p.vi), and that the World Health Organization (WHO) identified inadequate healthcare financing mechanisms to be one of the biggest obstacles to improving health outcomes of the poor.

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Panel discussion and book launch of “Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day” by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlando Ruthven.

May 7, 2009, 6:00pm-8:00pm, New York University Law School, Lipton Hall, 108 West 3rd Street, New York, NY 10012 Continue Reading »

This article on Grameen Kalyan is the second in a series of MicroCapital case studies on Health Microinsurance (HMI) schemes in Bangladesh.  Please also refer to Part II on the HMI scheme of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC MHIB); Part III on the Society for Social Services (SSS); and Part IV, a wrap-up of the CGAP research paper “Health Microinsurance: A Comparative Study of Three Examples in Bangladesh”.

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Gateways to Global Poverty Reduction and Financial Inclusion: Linking Savings and Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs)

April 29, 2009, 9:30am-11:00am EST, New American Foundation Head Office, 1899 L Street NW, Washington DC, 4th Floor Continue Reading »

Speaker’s Corner 32: Value Chains for Vulnerable Populations

April 28 - 30, 2009, participate online: http://www.microlinks.org/ev.php?ID=37239_201&ID2=DO_COMMUNITY Continue Reading »

Second Annual Global Forum to Examine Development in the Midst of Economic Downturn

April 17, 2009, Grand Hyatt New York, 109 East 42nd Street at Grand Central Terminal, New York, NY Continue Reading »

“Unlike the Grameen Bank, BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) is not well known outside Bangladesh, but that will change, because BRAC is undoubtedly the largest and most variegated social experiment in the developing world,” writes Ian Smillie (p1), the author of recently published “Freedom From Want” (Kumarian Press, 2009). The 283-page book is a tribute to the gigantic Bangladeshi nongovernmental microfinance and development organization, which today operates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, the Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Upon a backdrop of the history of Bangladesh, “Freedom From Want” traces the growth of BRAC from its origins in 1972 as a small social relief project for victims of the 1970 cyclone and 1972 Liberation War. It provides a biography of BRAC Founder and Chairperson, Fazle Hasan Abed. And, it documents the launch of BRAC’s various development initiatives and its expansion into Asia and Africa as it grew to become the multinational, multifaceted development institution that it is today. Continue Reading »

Microenterprise and Development Institute Ghana 2009

April 27 to May 9, 2009, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Accra, Ghana Continue Reading »

Written by Jessica Murray and Richard Rosenberg, published in May 2006 as Focus Note Number 36 by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), 15 pages, full text available at: http://www.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.2577/FocusNote_36.pdf Continue Reading »

Written by Robert Peck Christen, working draft made available for field-testing, recommendations invited at r.christen@bouldermicrofinance.org, released June 2005 by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), 39 pages, full-text available at: http://www.microfinancegateway.org/files/26200_file_26200.pdf Continue Reading »

Women’s World Banking Global Meeting, Investor Forum, Global Meeting Dinner, and Capital Markets Conference

April 27-May 1, 2009, New York City, New York Continue Reading »

In Brazil, ‘catadores’ (Portuguese for ‘collectors’) generally live on the edge of the city in squatter settlements, or in ‘favelas’ (‘inner-city slums’). Others are homeless and use their cart for shelter. Each day, catadores search for recyclable materials (p7) and separate them into categories: paper, cardboard, plastics, glass, metal, etc. Often accompanied by their children, catadores work in conditions that are unsafe and unsanitary. They are stigmatized (p18) as scavengers, and are often harassed. Yet according to Jutta Gutberlet, a professor at the University of Victoria (Uvic), catadores provide an important environmental service (p18) to the community. In Brazil, as in other countries where waste management is a problem, the informal recycling industry recovers valuable resources and re-inserts them into the production cycle; it prevents otherwise environmentally detrimental materials from being discarded; and it helps to clean up the streets, providing a healthier living environment. In 2005, with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Dr. Gutberlet initiated a partnership between Uvic and the University of São Paulo to establish the Participatory Sustainable Waste Management (PSWM) project in metropolitan São Paulo. The purpose (p8) of the project is to increase the income generating abilities of the catadores, and harness the environmental services they provide, by enhancing their structural capacity to collectively commercialize their materials. Microfinance (p2), as a source of working capital and emergency funds, is a fundamental component of this effort. Continue Reading »

Written by Robert Cull, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, and Jonathan Morduch, and based on data from the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX Market), released May 2008 as Policy Research Working Paper Number 4630 by the World Bank Development Research Group, 40 pages, available at: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2008/05/27/000158349_20080527095250/Rendered/PDF/wps4630.pdf Continue Reading »

“Is there a business in micro health insurance?” This was the central question posed by a recent article published in INSEAD Knowledge, a newsletter of international business school INSEAD (Institut Européen D’Administration des Affaires). The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that beyond inadequate healthcare delivery systems, inadequate healthcare financing mechanisms is one of the biggest obstacles to improving health outcomes of the poor. However, although sustainable micro life insurance products have experienced recent growth in certain parts of the world (see this MicroCapital article on the success of Allianz Life Indonesia), a sustainable and scalable micro health insurance model remains elusive. Continue Reading »

Pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer Inc., and international non-profit, PlaNet Finance, have announced that they will collaborate on a research project to study the healthcare needs of low-income households in China. For Pfizer, the project will be a market analysis. As explained by a Pfizer press release, “The study will examine the availability and existing sources of medicines, patient purchasing patterns, and the level of access to medical services.” PlaNet Finance President Jacques Attali explained what role the non-profit dedicated to microfinance has in the healthcare study: “PlaNet Finance… has developed specific programs that link microfinance to healthcare - leveraging existing microfinance institution (MFI) infrastructure to implement awareness and prevention campaigns for malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases.” He also explained that PlaNet Guarantee, a subsidiary of PlaNet Finance, has developed life and health microinsurance products for low-income populations. Ultimately, each organization aims to identify models that will allow them to expand provision of medicines and healthcare services to low-income Chinese. Continue Reading »

Pakistani Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) found themselves in heavy criticism at a workshop on the state of microfinance held in Islamabad.  The workshop was organized by the Planning Commission of the Government of Pakistan to revisit the policies in place for MFIs and determine recommendations for the future of the industry.   Continue Reading »