Clients in Context: The Impacts of Microfinance in 3 Countries

Publication Date: Jan 2002
Published by: USAID- AIMS - Assessing the Impact of Microenterprise Services
Document Type: Paper (PDF)

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Do investments in microfinance reach the poor and help to alleviate their poverty?

Do investments in microfinance reach the poor and help to alleviate their poverty?
USAID tries to answer this challenge by commissioning longitudinal impact assessments

This paper addresses a series of questions:

• who benefits from microfinance?
• how do clients benefit from microfinance?
• are benefits concentrated within the enterprise, or do they spill over into the household?
• are benefits experienced differentially within the household?
• are certain types of clients likely to benefit more?
• how do clients use microfinance services within the larger context of the household economy and within the existing environment of opportunities and constraints?

• continuing to focus on serving women clients
• expanding efforts to promote more appropriate products, independent savings, insurance and other forms of social security
• encouraging group lending and other forms of group organisation
• complementing microfinance with other forms of gender awareness raising and advocacy
• promoting women?s leadership development through their participation in microfinance programme