Elisabeth Rhyne, the Managing Director of the Center for Financial Inclusion, an organization founded by US-based nonprofit ACCION International, wrote an article that recently appeared on The Huffington Post website [1] outlining best practices that could help nonprofit microfinance institutions (MFIs) keep their social mission while transforming themselves into for-profit operations. Continue Reading »

John Cookson, a writer for an online “forum for connecting people and ideas,” Big Think, recently wrote a blog entry entitled “Microfinance: For Community or for Gain?” which questions the present-day motives of microfinance institutions (MFIs) quoting Jonathan Morduch, Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Continue Reading »

The Microcredit Summit Campaign, a project initiated in 1997 by the RESULTS Educational Fund, a US-based advocacy organization that aims to alleviate hunger and poverty, is requesting that each of its member institutions submit an Institutional Action Plan (IAP). Continue Reading »

In response to the upcoming IPO (initial public offering) of SKS Microfinance, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI) with more than 3.5 million borrowers, Mr Michael Schlein, President and CEO of ACCION International, and Mr Michael Chu, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and former CEO of ACCION, discuss the role of microfinance and the capital markets in fighting poverty in a Forbes magazine article. Continue Reading »

CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), an independent policy and research center, recently announced the winners of its 2009 Microfinance Photography Contest. Continue Reading »

MicroSave, a technical assistance, training and technical resource center for microfinance organizations, has released a podcast discussing issues surrounding the controversially lucrative 2007, USD 458 million initial public offering of the Mexican microfinance bank, Compartamos. Continue Reading »

Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Lead Researcher, Mr Adrian Gonzalez, has published a report on MIX titled, “Analyzing Microcredit Interest Rates: A Review of the Methodology Proposed by Mohammed Yunus.” Continue Reading »

ADA (Appui au Développement Autonome), a non-governmental organization specializing in microfinance, has launched the first issue of its “Discussion Paper” series, a publication aimed at initiating debate among microfinance professionals. Continue Reading »

MFTransparency, founded in July of 2008 as part of a global initiative to promote transparent pricing in the microfinance industry, has launched a blog to complement its website. Continue Reading »

Blog Action Day (BAD08) is an annual nonprofit event focused on uniting the world’s bloggers, podcasters, and videocasters to post about the same issue on the same day. The goal is to raise awareness and generate a global discussion on one issue. The theme this year was poverty and the event took place on October 15^th. Beginning this year the organizers will be compiling a selection of the best posts from the day into a short report for distribution to NGOs and the public, to showcase some of the innovative ideas and actions that came out of the dialogue. The event generates a huge influx of web searches on the theme and organizers estimate that 13 million individuals visited over 12 thousand participating blogs. Continue Reading »

Wishing each of you health and happiness, MicroCapital is closed this week to provide the hard-working people who bring you the candid voice for microfinance investment a well-deserved vacation. We would like to thank all our readers for the tremendous reception you have afforded us in 2006 and we eagerly look forward to serving you with excellence, tenacity and candor in 2007. From our family to yours, sincere best wishes.

The wave of generalist news articles on microfinance after the Nobel Peace Prize continues unabated. Recently an informative and well-written piece about investment in the microfinance sector was featured in the Wall Street Journal Europe (WSJE). The piece can be found on the WSJE website as well as on the author Bruno Giussani’s own blog called Lunch Over IP. If you are only going to forward one generalist article to your business-minded friends on microfinance this season, this is your best bet.

Continue reading “Best Generalist Article in the Crowd”

Looking back on November, one of the main things that took place was the meeting of major players in the microfinance industry at the Global Microfinance Summit at Halifax, Nova Scotia. The newsflood in the wake of Prof Yunus’ Nobel win caused inadequate coverage of this event. Here are a few articles on the summit that have been written about.
Continue reading “Some Interesting News Articles on the 2006 Global Microfinance Summit”

Since MicroCapital first started tracking the news wires, we have never seen anything close to amount of microfinance press currently being published. BusinessWeek recently contributed to this continuing flood of coverage with a special report highlighting the involvement of the “tech elite” in the microfinance sector. The piece opens, as many of the articles do: with praise of Clinton Global Initiative’s and the Gates Foundation’s grants to industry players and a tribute to recent Nobel Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus’ MFI, Grameen Bank. It then continues with an example of how microfinance can change lives, in this case referencing a Malawian woman who used loans from the NGO, Opportunity International, to grow her business.

Continue reading “BusinessWeek Praises the Involvement of the ‘Tech Elite’ in the Microfinance Sector”

In the United States, today we celebrate “Thanksgiving”, a day dedicated to family and community when we express our gratitude for the blessings in our lives. From our family to yours, we wish you the very best and thank you for your support.

Continue reading “The MicroCapital Blog Authors”