The latest edition of Health Policy and Planning, which is published by the Oxford Journals division of Oxford University Press, includes a paper that examines the benefits of integrating microfinance with health protection services and makes recommendations intended to inform policy and program design for expansion of the practice. The paper can be found at http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/02/21/heapol.czr014.abstract

Conducting a review of multiple studies, the authors conclude that microfinance institutions (MFIs) are capable of contributing to health improvements by increasing client knowledge that leads to behavioral changes and by enhancing access to health services by decreasing financial, geographic and other barriers [1].

Sheila Leatherman, the paper’s lead author and a professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, points out that, “while the quality of some of the studies is uneven, the evidence of positive health benefits in diverse areas such as maternal and child health, malaria and other infectious disease, and domestic violence would indicate that the microfinance sector offers an underutilized opportunity for delivery of health-related services to many hard-to-reach populations [1].” The paper recommends that more rigorous research be performed to inform policy and guide program implementation, but that useful evidence now exists pointing towards a “clear opportunity, perhaps even an imperative, for the microfinance and public health communities to engage with each other more actively and collaboratively [1].”

The paper was co-authored by Marcia Metcalfe, the Director of Microfinance and Health Protection at California-based international development nonprofit Freedom from Hunger; Christopher Dunford PhD, President and CEO of Freedom from Hunger; and Kimberley Geissler, PhD student and research assistant at the University of North Carolina.

By: Alexandra Pattee, Research Associate

About Oxford Journals: Oxford Journals is a division of Oxford University Press, a department of Oxford University. Oxford Journals publishes academic and research journals of which two-thirds are published in collaboration with learned societies and international organizations.

About Freedom from Hunger: Freedom from Hunger, formerly called “Meals for Millions”, is an international development nonprofit based in the US state of California. Freedom from Hunger seeks to fight chronic hunger and poverty through “self-help solutions”. As of 2010, Freedom from Hunger works with 112 partner organizations in 17 countries to deliver microfinance, education and health protection services to 2.4 million women and families in Africa, Asia and Latin America. As of 2009, Freedom from Hunger reported total assets of USD 6.07 million.

[1] PRLog Press Release, “Benefits of Integrating Microfinance and Health Protection Services Published”, http://www.prlog.org/11366136-benefits-of-integrating-microfinance-and-health-protection-services-published.html

MicroCapital.org Article, February 21, 2011, “Freedom from Hunger Microfinance and Health Protection (MAHP) Initiative Reaches Peru, Vietnam, Cambodia; Expands in India”, http://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-freedom-from-hunger-microfinance-and-health-protection-mahp-initiative-reaches-peru-vietnam-cambodia-expands-in-india/

MicroCapital.org Article, September 2, 2010, “Freedom from Hunger Publishes Results of Four-year, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-Funded Grant Program to Bring Combination of Microfinance and Healthcare Options to Rural Poor in Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, India and the Philippines”, http://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-freedom-from-hunger-publishes-results-of-four-year-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-funded-grant-program-to-bring-combination-of-microfinance-and-healthcare-options-to-rural-po/

MicroCapital.org Article, May 28, 2010, “Freedom from Hunger Research Team in Davis, California, Attempts to Reconcile Opposing Arguments Regarding the Effect of Microfinance”, http://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-freedom-from-hunger-research-team-in-davis-california-attempts-to-reconcile-opposing-arguments-regarding-the-effect-of-microfinance/

MicroCapital’s Microfinance Universe: Oxford Journals, http://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=oxford+journals

MicroCapital’s Microfinance Universe: Freedom from Hunger, http://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=freedom+from+hunger

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