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Microfinance encompasses a broad range of financial services targeted at low income individuals seeking to build income and assets. There has been extensive research on the role of microfinance institutions (henceforth “MFIs”) in developing countries on poverty reduction, particularly for female clients. In contrast, research on MFIs operating within the United States is more limited. This study seeks to fill this gap in the literature and is one the first to focus on the impact of an MFI on female clients in the US using data from a Philadelphia-based MFI. The study examined the factors affecting outcomes of female entrepreneurs as compared to their male counterparts measured by changes in financial capability, repayment history, household incomes, and sustainability. Although the study does not statistically support the existence of differences between the outcomes for female and male clients of the MFI, the data does indicate positive outcomes for the clients. The business survival rates on average are above national indicators. The personal credit scores for MFI clients reflect improvement subsequent to receiving loans. This study utilized survey instruments and a focus group study to identify barriers to the success of female entrepreneurs. Noted barriers such as lack of access to capital, lack of relevant business knowledge provide a foundation for future research study. / Business Administration/International Business Administration

Yes / The current emphasis in the microfinance industry is a shift from donor-funded to commercially sustainable operations. This article evaluates the impact of access to microloans from the Khushhali Bank - Pakistan's first and largest microfinance bank which operates on commercial principles. Using primary data from a detailed household survey of nearly 3000 borrower and non-borrower households, a difference in difference approach is used to test for the impact of access to loans. Once the results are disaggregated between rural and urban areas there is a positive impact in rural areas on food expenditure and on some social indicators.

Debates on whether microfinance remains an effective measure to eradicate poverty and empower women have continued with a bigger question of if an alternative model is available to outweigh the problems of group-based solidarity-based lending scheme. This dissertation aims to study if and how a Lembaga Perkreditan Desa (LPD) – a community owned microfinance – affects women's agency in household and society, and most importantly to observe if it has long term effects on the reconstruction of gendered roles and relations. This study employed participation observation and semi-structured interviews for data collection because each method allowed the exploration of multi layered information and tacit values that other data collection methods do not provide. I spent four months conducting participant observation with female LPD clients from four villages and eight semi-structured interviews around Bali. This study concludes that social capital affects LPD's performance. Impacts of social capital on LPD are posited to occur through the immersion of LPDs into the village governance system that renders members' loyalty, trust, and respect, and the adoption of shared customary laws to name a few. LPD is also proven to strengthen social capital by increasing interdependence among community members; boosting the members' sense of belonging, trust, and responsibility for community development. However, LPD does not necessarily foster women's social capital. This study also found that access to LPD corresponds to women's agency in the household decision-making process. Three features of cooperative decision-making in household are 1) the ability to switch roles in the loan application process, 2) any LPD related financial decisions will involve women's opinion or approval in it, and 3) women have the control over the allocation and repayment of the loans from LPD. Furthermore, I argue that LPD facilitates women's social mobility by ensuring that their access to LPD remains intact. Moreover, LPD causes intergenerational impacts when women are involved in the lending-saving mechanism. Lastly, this study argues that LPD has long-term effects on the reconstruction of gendered roles and relations in Balinese society. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation investigates the impacts of Lembaga Perkreditan Desa (LPD) – a community-owned village bank – to Balinese women from the perspective of four female LPD clients residing in various villages in Bali. In general, the study aims to gain understanding about rural Indonesian women in navigating their opportunities in male-oriented microfinance system. The study found that members of society – female and male – develop a shared understanding, norms, trust, and resources to strengthen their ties among each other called as community capital. My dissertation found that there exists a two-way relationship, instead of one way, between social capital and LPD. Derived from those reciprocal relationship, I argue that LPD may empower women in household and society, though it also may disempower them due to the LPD’s rules. Furthermore, LPD affects women’s capacity to make decisions in their households. These decisions including the ability to choose the right and most practical role when applying for loans and most importantly the capacity to manage the use of loans. LPD corresponds to women’s economic attainment and mobility across villages, yet, it does not correspond to the development of their professional networks. Moreover, LPD creates impacts across generation due to its lending mechanism, payment procedures, and financial benefits from allocating the loans for income generating activities. Lastly, if the LPD transforms the current and future relationships among men and women in household and society? my study found that LPD, through its immersion into the village system and customary values that guide the life of all community members, paves the way for women’s empowerment today and in the future.

In The Gambia, financial sustainability and poverty alleviation have been largely based on the assumption that analysis of macro level growth will bridge the gap between the formal and informal sectors; alleviate poverty and exclusion, ignoring other important factors such as political, social, cultural and religious issues. The government, microfinance outlets and international development agencies have implemented many measures to bring the masses into the formal economy to no avail. This dissertation explores Reliance Financial Service and the role of the Osusus in poverty alleviation, and how the Osusus are the edifice of microfinance and economic sustainability in The Gambia. Firstly, Osusus are small microfinance groups where participants receive substantial amounts of money to meet planned heavy expenditure commitments. To put things into perspective, Osusu is one of the oldest community based microfinance institutions in The Gambia, it has mostly resisted formalization. It is a social and financial system, where members contribute a set sum of money each week or month that is then allocated to one member. This has given some women a degree of independence and solidarity. Secondly, despite women being the largest segment of the Gambian population, disparities in gender roles, illiteracy, high unemployment and the lack of mainstreaming the interest and needs of women in national policy and the system tends to leave many women economically disadvantaged. Hence, this dissertation found that the provision of microfinance services in the form of micro-credit, insurance and micro-savings could be a great sustainability tool to create equity, uplift the economic and social status of women in society. Also, women could use these services towards productive consumption such as feeding their families, sending their children to school, affording healthcare and engaging in productive economic activities to increase their income. Empirically, it examines the microfinance outlook in The Gambia, its impacts on socio-economics ramifications on the country. It also examines the role of microfinance, contextually Reliance Financial Services Kafoo scheme, as a viable alternative poverty-alleviation avenue. / Ph. D.

Le Nicaragua connaît un déficit en logement très préoccupant. Celui-ci est du en grande partie à l’incapacité du secteur financier à satisfaire la demande des familles à faible revenu. De nombreuses initiatives ont été mises en place par des organismes provenant des trois sphères sociétales pour pallier ce problème. Certains l’ont fait avec succès d’autres sans. Aujourd’hui bien que ces initiatives aient comme objectif de répondre au problème existant, le déficit continu de se creuser. Ce mémoire propose une analyse des causes du problème afin de comprendre pourquoi les initiatives mises en place ne fonctionnent pas comme elles le devraient. Il met en avant le manque de coordination qui existe enter les acteurs et démontre que l’ensemble du secteur fonctionne selon une organisation « en silo » révélatrice d’un manque de cohérence des politiques de financement du logement. Enfin il analyse les origines possibles d’une telle organisation et des incohérences politiques qui l’ont amenée. Par cette analyse, il tente de déterminer la part de responsabilité relative imputable à l’État nicaraguayen et à l’Aide Publique au Développement qui est la principale source de fonds de tous ces programmes. / Nicaragua suffers of a very important housing deficit. The bulk of it is due to the inability of the finance sector to attend low income families. Numerous initiatives were implemented by organization from the three societal sectors to alleviate this problem. Some were successful, others were not. Today, although the objectives set by these initiatives seems to respond the existing problem, the deficit keeps on deepening. This thesis offers to analyse the causes of the problem and to understand why the implemented initiatives are not functioning as they should. It emphasizes the lack of coordination existing and demonstrates that the whole sector functions in accordance with a silo approach which is itself indicative of a lack of housing finance policy coherence. Finally, it analyses the possible origin of such an organization and of the policy incoherence that brought it. Through this analysis it attempts to clarify the respective accountability of the Nicaraguan State and the ODA which is the main financing source of these programs.

La microfinance, dont l’un des objectifs est de combattre la pauvreté, consiste en la fourniture de produits financiers à tous ceux qui sont exclus du système bancaire classique. Elle est née dans les années 1970, s’est diffusée dans les pays du Sud et s’est révélée être, en quelques décennies, un vecteur de développement. Cette thèse met en évidence ses limites et ses dérives, sans nier certains de ses succès. Au Tchad, dans certains cas, elle a produit des effets pervers et a conduit à l’endettement. L’étude menée répond à un travail de terrain pluridisciplinaire, conjuguant des approches financières et socio-culturelles. Les données recueillies proviennent de nos méthodes et techniques mises en place au cours de diverses enquêtes menées à N’Djaména et à Moundou entre janvier 2009 et mars 2012. Notre recherche a montré, entre autres, comment et à quel niveau se situe l’intervention de la microfinance auprès des populations défavorisées. Dans cette optique, nous avons analysé les obstacles rencontrés et précisé les conditions requises pour que ce type d’outil puisse être efficace, le secteur informel ainsi que l’économie sociale et solidaire étant susceptibles – en tant qu’outils de lutte contre l’exclusion – de rétablir le lien social / Microfinance, which one of the objectives is combating poverty, is the provision of financial products to all people who are excluded from the traditional. It emerged in the 1970s, spread in the countries of the South and proved to be, in a few decades, an instrument of development. This dissertation highlights his limits and his drawbacks, without denying some of its success. In Chad, in some cases, it has produced perverse effects and led to debt. This study is a pluridisciplinary field work, which aligns financial and socio-cultural approaches. Our research has shown, among others, how and at what level is situated the intervention of microfinance to the poor. In that process, we analyzed the obstacles and specified the conditions required so that this type of tool could be effective, the informal sector and social solidarity and economy etc. restore the social ties as they are effective for combating exclusion

Pour cet ensemble géopolitique dont les origines remontent aux années 70, l’heure des choix stratégiques a sonné. C’est pourquoi ce travail dont le thème est « Francophonie et microfinance » interroge l’utilité de l'Organisation internationale de la Francophonie sur la scène internationale dans un contexte de bouleversements économiques majeurs. En effet, au regard de sa vocation première d’union géoculturelle, la Francophonie peut-elle s’approprier l’outil économique qu’est la microfinance ? Notre contribution interroge donc également la microfinance, pour en saisir la dynamique mondiale. A travers la description du phénomène qu’elle représente, ce qui importe est d’identifier les acteurs, les raisons qui motivent leur choix pour cet outil et les limites auxquelles les nations ou acteurs internationaux se heurtent dans la pratique de la microfinance. Il s'agit d'une approche centrée sur des études de cas (France, Québec, Gabon et Sénégal) qui, dans un dialogue interdisciplinaire, convoque la théorie des organisations pour mettre en lumière les initiatives de l'OIF et leurs limites en même temps que cette étude s'inscrit dans le champ des relations internationales explorant les collaborations entre l’Organisation, son environnement, et les populations francophones en leur qualité de bénéficiaires finales. / For this geopolitical union whose origins date to the 1970s, the time for strategic choices has come. That is why this thesis "The Francophonie and Microfinance" questions the usefulness of the Organization on the international scene, in a context of major economic upheavals. Indeed, with regard to its primary geocultural purpose, can the Francophonie appropriate this economic tool? Our contribution therefore also queries microfinance to understand how it works all over the world. Through the description of the phenomenon it represents, what matters is to identify stakholders, the reasons that motivate their choice for this tool and the limits to which nations or international actors face in its practice. This approach based on cases (France, Quebec, Gabon and Senegal) calls the theory of organizations to put in effect the initiatives of the Francophonie and their limits, in an interdisciplinary dialogue. This study also fits into international relations exploring collaborations between the Organization, its environment, and French speaking populations as final beneficiaries.

Poor loan repayment causes the decline and failure of some microfinance institutions. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that microfinance (MFI) leaders use to reduce loan default in the base of the pyramid market. The study population included 6 MFI leaders, 12 borrower community-based groups, and 4 staff members of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA Rwanda) who reduced MFI loan default in Rwanda. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 3 MFI leaders, 3 ADRA Rwanda staff members, and 3 members of borrower groups. Data were also collected through focus groups with 3 borrower community-based groups comprising 6 to 8 members. Additional data were collected through the analysis of MFI and ADRA Rwanda organizational documents. The Varian group lending model was the conceptual framework for the study. Data analysis involved methodological triangulation and the Gadamerian hermeneutics framework of interpretation. Four major themes emerged: intrapreneurship and environmental business opportunities, favorable loan repayment conditions, strategies for choosing borrower groups, and loan use monitoring. A sustainable microfinance institution can produce social change by providing microfinance loans that clients can use to start and grow microenterprises that can become the source of income for improving the lives of clients and their family members. Findings may also be used to create economic growth through the participation of more people in economic activities in the base of the pyramid market.