Microfinance Gateway>From Access to Impact: Microcredit and Rural Livelihoods in Afghanistan

affiliate language sites: Français عربي Español

Home

Library

Jobs

Training and Events

Organizations

Consultants

Library » From Access to Impact: Microcredit and Rural Livelihoods in Afghanistan

From Access to Impact: Microcredit and Rural Livelihoods in Afghanistan
Jun 2009, Kantor, P.

Studying impact of microcredit availability on informal credit systems and livelihoods

This paper describes microcredit's effect on existing informal credit systems and livelihoods in rural Afghanistan. It also makes recommendations to improve the functioning of the microcredit sector in Afghanistan.

The study investigates household livelihoods and credit use in one village each in Kabul, Bamiyan and Balkh. The study found that providing access to credit is not sufficient to ensure positive impacts on client livelihood security or MFI viability. Findings include:

Microfinance in Afghanistan needs to become more client-led;
Context matters to the successful implementation of microcredit;
Study villages did not have activities that were profitable enough for clients to easily repay microcredit;
Clients often prioritized microcredit repayment over repaying informal credit, incurring considerable cost;
Afghanistan has a vibrant informal credit system.

The paper makes recommendations to improve the ability of the microfinance sector in responding to rural client needs. They include:

Making microfinance part of an integrated rural development approach;
Expand microcredit to microfinance to address risk reduction as well as income growth;
Expand performance monitoring to include indicators of client viability;
Learn from informal credit systems.

Add Review


*First Name:		*Last Name:
Organization:
*Email:
*Country:
(rollover stars to select rating)
Review Title:

Review Text:
I do not want my name, email, or organization to appear with my review. (Country will always appear with posted reviews.)

By clicking "Submit" you confirm that you have read and consent to our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

Download this Document

Journal Volume/Pages:
74

Publisher(s):
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit