Determinants of microcredit repayment in federations of Indian self-help groups via New at IFPRI
Since the establishment of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1976, microfinance has boomed. As of December 31, 2007, 3,552 microcredit institutions had reached 154 million clients worldwide, about 106.6 million of whom were among the poorest when they took their first loan. Such expansion can be at least partly attributed to the widely adopted practice of group lending in microfinance programs. In contrast to individual lending, group lending (or joint liability) grants a loan to a group of borrowers, and the whole group is liable for the debt of any individual member in the group.
Innovations in rural and agriculture finance
Innovations in... Combining extension services with agricultural credit via New at IFPRI
India has nearly 90 million farm households. More than 80 percent of these farmers operate on a small or marginal scale, farming less than two hectares of land. They also usually have one or two buffaloes or cows, reared for milk and dung. Most of these small and marginal farmers fall below the poverty line. To reduce overall poverty in India, it is important to enhance the incomes of small and marginal farmers.
Innovations in rural and agriculture finance
Innovations in Insuring the Poor
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focus18_13.pdf(330.7KB)... Innovations in rural and agriculture finance via New at IFPRI
Most rural households lack access to reliable and affordable finance for agriculture and other livelihood activities. Many small farmers live in remote areas where retail banking is limited and production risks are high. The recent financial crisis has made the provision of credit even tighter and the need to explore innovative approaches to rural and agricultural finance even more urgent.
Innovations in rural and agriculture finance: Overview
Financial literacy
Community-based financial organizations
Rural banking in Africa... Rotting rice via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group
New Issues of Child Dev., Diversity in Health & Care, Global R2P, Refugee Watch, Women’s Asylum News via Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog
Child Development, vol. 81, no. 4 (July/August 2010) [contents]- Includes a special focus on disasters and their impact on child development; a number of the preprint versions of these articles are available in the documents section of the Society for Research in Child Development web site, including "Defining Best Practice in Care and Protection of Children in Crisis-Affected Settings: A Delphi Study."Diversity in Health and Care, vol. 7, no. 2 (June 2010) [contents]- Mix of articles; includes "Social support and health: immigrants' and refugees' perspectives" and "Improving reach: promoting engagement by building bridges between refugee women and the voluntary sector."Global Responsibility to Protect, vol. 2, no. 3 (June 2010) [contents]- Focus is on R2P and international law.Refugee...
Frustrated with Corruption…Then What? via CIPE Development Blog
cover of the IWA survey on corruption in Afghanistan
The findings (summarized in this NYT story) of a recent Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) survey on corruption attitudes are interesting if not unsurprising: corruption is widespread, bribe amounts have increased over the years, and corruption is perceived as a normal part of dealings with the state.
Perhaps, the most startling statistic is that average bribes among those who paid them (28% of Afghan households have paid bribes at least once last year) amount to about 30% of per capita income (!!!). If that’s not enough to convince you of the magnitude of the problem, consider this – the amount of bribes more than doubled in the period between 2007 and 2009, reaching $1 billion. And, coinciding with trends in other... Access, adoption, and diffusion via New at IFPRI
This paper assesses long-term impacts of vegetable and polyculture fish production technologies on a variety of measures of household and individual well-being in Bangladesh. In 1996–1997, households were surveyed in three sites where nongovernmental organizations and extension programs were disseminating agricultural technologies—about two to six years after the technologies were first introduced. The same households were reinterviewed in 2006–2007.
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ifpridp00995.pdf(1.1MB)... New Issues of KANERE, RSQ, Ref. Voices, Ref. Watch via Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog
Kakuma News Reflector (June 2010) [full-text]- Mix of articles in this blog-format news service from Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya.Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 28, nos. 2-3 (2009) [selected full-text]- UNRWA has made three articles available in full-text from RSQ's special issue on "UNRWA and the Palestinian Refugees 60 Years Later."Refugee Voices (Spring 2010) [full-text]- From the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly. Lead article focuses on refugee community interpreters.Refugee Watch Online [full-text]- This is the online counterpart to the print version of Refugee Watch, published by the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group. To commemorate World Refugee Day, the electronic edition posted a number of articles from writers across South Asia that reflect on the displacement situation in a range...
Gender Diversity of Corporate Boards in Pakistan via CIPE Development Blog
Exploring the long-term impact of development interventions within life-history narratives in rural Bangladesh via New at IFPRI
This paper explores the long-term effects of a set of development interventions within the life trajectories of people in rural Bangladesh, using findings from 293 life-history interviews and an accompanying set of focus group discussions conducted in 2007. The paper uses various methods to address the challenge of assessing the long-term impact of development interventions. It then goes on to discuss what was learned about the impact of microfinance, educational transfer, and agricultural technology development programs from the life-history narratives.
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ifpridp00991.pdf(679.5KB)... Corruption in Afghanistan via CIPE Development Blog
Emergence of Sri Lanka in European fish trade via New at IFPRI
This paper examines European Union (E.U.) demand for chilled fish fillets assuming product heterogeneity due to country of origin and assesses the structural adjustment in demand as indicated by the increase in imports from Sri Lanka since the tsunami in December 2004. The primary objective of this research is to assess how Sri Lanka’s fish exports affected fish exports from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda (Lake Victoria region).
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ifpridp00978.pdf(445KB)... Bangladesh Food Security Investment Forum via New at IFPRI
Pakistan policy advocacy building momentum via CIPE Development Blog
The medium-term impact of the primary education stipend in rural Bangladesh via New at IFPRI
This paper investigates the long-term impact of Bangladesh’s Primary Education Stipend (PES) program on a range of individual and household welfare measures using a unique longitudinal study spanning the years 2000 to 2006. Using covariate and propensity score matching and difference-in-difference methods, the program is shown to have negligible impacts on school enrollments, household expenditures, calorie consumption, and protein consumption.
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ifpridp00976.pdf(1.5MB)... Sarpanch raj: is the President all powerful? via New at IFPRI
The policy of mandated representation (reservation) for disadvantaged social groups in Indian village councils or Gram Panchayats has been the subject of numerous studies. The implicit, and often unstated, assumption that underlies most of these studies is that the president of the council is the only one who wields effective power. However, the Gram Panchayat is comprised of several elected representatives, each of whom represents a village; and, in principle, a voting mechanism governs decision making within the Gram Panchayat.
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ifpridp00972.pdf(430KB)... Afghan businesses bullish on Afghanistan via CIPE Development Blog
Afghan perceptions of the local economy. (CIPE/Charney Research)
On May 6, CIPE released the findings of its Survey of Afghan Businessmen conducted in December/January 2010. The sample surveyed over seven hundred businesses across Afghanistan, focusing on the needs and policy views of mostly small businesses in manufacturing, construction, services, and retail. The news was largely good in terms of Afghan views of their business prospects. Thirty eight percent said their businesses had increased over the past year, and thirty seven percent reported hiring more employees during that time. This seems to fit with an earlier ABC poll from last January which indicated that people were finding work — altogether calling into question many of the negative stories otherwise emanating... How to overcome the governance challenges of implementing NREGA via New at IFPRI
Large-scale social safety net programs such as India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) are difficult to implement due to governance challenges related to elite capture, leakages, and corruption. The ability to identify how the governance challenges of program implementation can be met requires detailed insights into the actual process of program implementation, with clear views on the source of leakage and mismanagement, the sensitivity of program implementation to the influence of different actors, local power structures and informal bureaucratic processes.
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ifpridp00963.pdf(2.7MB)... How to overcome the governance challenges of implementing NREGA via New at IFPRI
Large-scale social safety net programs such as India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) are difficult to implement due to governance challenges related to elite capture, leakages, and corruption. The ability to identify how the governance challenges of program implementation can be met requires detailed insights into the actual process of program implementation, with clear views on the source of leakage and mismanagement, the sensitivity of program implementation to the influence of different actors, local power structures and informal bureaucratic processes.
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ifpridp00963.pdf(2.7MB)... Bad Socioeconomic Conditions – Major Cause of Corruption in Pakistan via CIPE Development Blog
Short and long-term effects of the 1998 Bangladesh flood on rural wages via New at IFPRI
Natural disasters have particularly devastating impacts on economic growth in developing countries because they impede the accumulation of capital. The resilience of labor markets is crucial especially for the poor who rely only on labor to diversify their income portfolio and buffer against risk. Such a risk management strategy may become more challenging as global climate change increases the frequency of natural disasters. We use the Bangladesh Flood Impact panel household survey to evaluate how the 1998 “flood of the century” affected wages in Bangladesh.
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ifpridp00956.pdf(454.5KB)... When you wish upon a star via CIPE Development Blog
Women in developing countries worldwide wish for many things – equality, education, safe communities, businesses, clean water… This week, the Vital Voices Global Partnership is honoring an extraordinary Pakistani woman for her leadership in bringing many women from wishing to working. Roshaneh Zafar has spent the last 15 years working to develop the Kashf Foundation, modeled on the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Although Kashf, which means miracle, focuses on providing microfinance to women in Pakistan, it offers much more than just financial services and enterprise development. The Kashf Foundation provides women in Pakistan the opportunity for legitimacy.
In Pakistan, a significant number of women are not registered at birth. Without a national identity card (NIC), women... Change that can last via CIPE Development Blog
Shabnam is a student at Zinab Kobra High School who by the age of 19 had picked up skills such as netting, sewing, tailoring, and beading. Wahida is a student at Ferdowsy High School who has always dreamed of being a tailor. Nayla is another student at Ferdowsy who spent her spare time under the Taliban learning how to net beads and make necklaces and rings for herself and her friends, but there were no opportunities to sell her wares. These three young women are part of the estimated three percent of students who have gone on to start their own businesses after taking an entrepreneurship class at their high school as part of CIPE’s Tashabos program. In the U.S., by comparison, 0.29 percent of the adult population starts a business in a given year.
Shabnam had already been... Pakistani Chambers – Becoming One Voice for Business Community via CIPE Development Blog
Kashif Shabbir, President of the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, delivers a joint declaration from the All Pakistan Chamber President's conference.
After four years of efforts to bring them together, this week, through CIPE’s assistance, 20 leading chambers from across Pakistan including representation from Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) spent two days at a conference to discuss economic challenges faced by Pakistani businesses, and business readiness to meet the challenges of economic recovery.
There are forty city chambers in Pakistan. Historically, these chambers were over politicized and biased to lobby for individual gains rather than serving the business community at large. Same was the case with the FPCCI, the only umbrella... Filming for Freedom via CIPE Development Blog
Is Grameen the new Starbucks? via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group
Making Pots of Money via CIPE Development Blog
CIPE often hears from its partner organizations in the field how difficult it can be to get the local business community to support their work monetarily. This is a particular problem for groups that work to bring more people into the business community, focusing on encouraging youth and women to become entrepreneurs. One of CIPE’s partners in Nepal, Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation, found a simple and cheap way to start raising money within their local community for their work with youth, while at the same time building a brand for the organization.
Samriddhi’s logo is a pot. It was an image pulled from the local Buddhist practices, symbolizing prosperity. When Samriddhi had trouble getting the business community involved in its projects with youth entrepreneurs,... Optimal stock for the public food grain distribution system in Bangladesh via New at IFPRI
The search for an estimate of the optimal stock of public foodgrain has been a constant and intense demand from donors and policymakers in Bangladesh. The meaning of optimality has, however, remained different to different persons. A general perception in these debates is that there may be a precise figure that represents the optimal level of public stock. Optimality implies minimization of cost or maximization of net gains in achieving an objective.
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fb4.pdf(2.6MB)...