June 10, 2010 - Grameen Foundation today released a new report that takes a fresh look at recent studies on microfinance’s effectiveness in alleviating poverty. Titled, Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Another Look, it notes that studies have shown that microfinance helps poor people better cope with financial shocks that often upend their lives. It also points out the difficulties in isolating microfinance’s impact from the myriad forces at play in poor people’s lives.
Written by Kathleen Odell, assistant professor of economics at Dominican University’s Brennan School of Business, Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Another Look is one of the most comprehensive reviews of microfinance impact studies that have been conducted since 2005. It updates a 2005 Grameen Foundation paper by Nathanael Goldberg (Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Stock of What We Know) which reviewed almost 100 studies which were conducted between 1970 and 2005.
Both reports are available below.
Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Another Look [1], Kathleen Odell (2010)
Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Stock of What We Know [2], Nathanael Goldberg (2005)
Links:
[1] http://www.grameenfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Updated2_Measuring the Impact of Microfinance - Taking Another Look.pdf
[2] http://www.grameenfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Measuring-Impact-of-Microfinance.pdf