<p>Microfinance is not a new development. Its origin can be traced back to 1976, when Muhammad Yunus set up the Grameen Bank, as experiment, on the outskirts of Chittagong University campus in the village of Jobra, Bangladesh. Since then several microfinance institutions came up and have succeeded in reaching the poorest of the poor, and have devised new ground-breaking strategies with time for the fulfillment of their vision. These included the provision of collateral free loans to poor people, especially in rural areas, at full-cost interest rates that are repayable in frequent installments. Borrowers are organized into groups and peer pressure among them, which reduced the risk of default. Microfinance is now being considered as one of the most important and an effective mechanism for poverty alleviation. These are also effective mechanisms through which to disseminate precious information on ways to improve the health, education, legal rights, sanitation and other living standards, which are of relevant concerns for the poor. Above all, many micro-credit programs have targeted one of the most vulnerable groups in society – women, who live in households with little or almost no assets. By providing opportunities for self-employment, many studies have concluded that these programs have significantly improved women's security, autonomy, self-confidence and status within the household.</p><p>Our thesis is about microfinance and to investigate the impact of microfinance on the poor people of the society with the main focus on Bangladesh. We mainly concise our thesis through client’s (the poor people, who borrowed loan from microfinance institutions) perspective and build up our research based on it. Therefore, the objective of this study is to show how microfinance works, by using group lending methodology for reducing poverty and how it affects the living standard (income, saving etc.) of the poor people in Bangladesh. So on the light of our research objective; we have developed our research question, which is:</p><p>What is the impact of Microfinance on living standards, Empowerment and poverty alleviation of the poor people in Bangladesh?</p><p>We consider ourselves between the Positivist and Interpretivist researchers. Because, our main goal is not only to find out the mechanism of microfinance in Bangladesh, but also to find out that how this mechanism helps poor people to improve their living standards as: income, savings etc. By doing so, we believe that it will give us an upper hand, specially when it comes to finding answers to the questions raised in the problem statement.</p><p>One of the most important aspects of microfinance is savings mobilization, which is discussed in the theory part. Besides these, microfinance methodology, solidarity, human development and liquidity are also discussed in the theoretical framework.</p><p>Several microfinance institutions are working in Bangladesh for the last few decades. Grameen Bank, BRAC, ASA and PROSHIKA are some of the prominent MFIs in Bangladesh. These institutions are working tremendously to the empowerment, poverty reduction and improvement of living standards for the poor people in Bangladesh. Now, they are not only working in Bangladesh but also providing help and support, and are the source of motivation to other MFIs around the world.</p><p>We have chosen our sample based on the random sampling technique, from one district (Chittagong) in Bangladesh and we interviewed the people who are already involved in microfinance activities. Therefore, the accuracy of the analysis heavily relies on the data provided by the people, we interviewed.</p><p>From the analysis of data, we found that microfinance has the positive impact on the standard of living of the poor people and on their life style. It has not only helped the poor people to come over the poverty line, but has also helped them to empower themselves. There is an argument that the interest rate of MFIs is high, but we traced that most of the respondents of our interview, did not agree on this issue and found it to be reasonable. Inspite of the debate about higher interest rate, MFIs are contributing not only in alleviating the poverty and improving the living standards of the poor people, but also in offering extensive human development programs in Bangladesh.</p>

Peru's microfinance market is dynamic and is comprised of a plethora of financial institutions that offer numerous microfinance services. With increasingly more institutions adding microfinance to their loan portfolio, and with no interest rate cap on microloans in Peru, what impact will this growing market have on the poor? In the past, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have had clients abuse the system, but increased transparency between microfinance institutions and new managing practices are now used to minimize adverse selection. Yet as the microfinance market expands with more large banks gaining control how are borrowers, particularly the most vulnerable, going to be impacted? This, paper evaluates the dynamics of how microfinance institutions have emerged and evolved throughout Latin America and then introduces an atypical model, the Uniones de Credito y Ahorro (UNICA). Six UNICA programs from rural villages outside Cayaltí are evaluated using both aggregate loan data that measures the frequency of loan use in the village, and surveys with open-ended response questions to bring in UNICA members' perspective. With the data collected this paper attempts to understand the diverse factors that make the UNICA approach different from the traditional Latin American model. And ultimately strives to discover whether the UNICA model provides distinctive benefits to the borrowers and the financial markets that are not provided by traditional Latin American MFI models.

Microfinance is not a new development. Its origin can be traced back to 1976, when Muhammad Yunus set up the Grameen Bank, as experiment, on the outskirts of Chittagong University campus in the village of Jobra, Bangladesh. Since then several microfinance institutions came up and have succeeded in reaching the poorest of the poor, and have devised new ground-breaking strategies with time for the fulfillment of their vision. These included the provision of collateral free loans to poor people, especially in rural areas, at full-cost interest rates that are repayable in frequent installments. Borrowers are organized into groups and peer pressure among them, which reduced the risk of default. Microfinance is now being considered as one of the most important and an effective mechanism for poverty alleviation. These are also effective mechanisms through which to disseminate precious information on ways to improve the health, education, legal rights, sanitation and other living standards, which are of relevant concerns for the poor. Above all, many micro-credit programs have targeted one of the most vulnerable groups in society – women, who live in households with little or almost no assets. By providing opportunities for self-employment, many studies have concluded that these programs have significantly improved women's security, autonomy, self-confidence and status within the household. Our thesis is about microfinance and to investigate the impact of microfinance on the poor people of the society with the main focus on Bangladesh. We mainly concise our thesis through client’s (the poor people, who borrowed loan from microfinance institutions) perspective and build up our research based on it. Therefore, the objective of this study is to show how microfinance works, by using group lending methodology for reducing poverty and how it affects the living standard (income, saving etc.) of the poor people in Bangladesh. So on the light of our research objective; we have developed our research question, which is: What is the impact of Microfinance on living standards, Empowerment and poverty alleviation of the poor people in Bangladesh? We consider ourselves between the Positivist and Interpretivist researchers. Because, our main goal is not only to find out the mechanism of microfinance in Bangladesh, but also to find out that how this mechanism helps poor people to improve their living standards as: income, savings etc. By doing so, we believe that it will give us an upper hand, specially when it comes to finding answers to the questions raised in the problem statement. One of the most important aspects of microfinance is savings mobilization, which is discussed in the theory part. Besides these, microfinance methodology, solidarity, human development and liquidity are also discussed in the theoretical framework. Several microfinance institutions are working in Bangladesh for the last few decades. Grameen Bank, BRAC, ASA and PROSHIKA are some of the prominent MFIs in Bangladesh. These institutions are working tremendously to the empowerment, poverty reduction and improvement of living standards for the poor people in Bangladesh. Now, they are not only working in Bangladesh but also providing help and support, and are the source of motivation to other MFIs around the world. We have chosen our sample based on the random sampling technique, from one district (Chittagong) in Bangladesh and we interviewed the people who are already involved in microfinance activities. Therefore, the accuracy of the analysis heavily relies on the data provided by the people, we interviewed. From the analysis of data, we found that microfinance has the positive impact on the standard of living of the poor people and on their life style. It has not only helped the poor people to come over the poverty line, but has also helped them to empower themselves. There is an argument that the interest rate of MFIs is high, but we traced that most of the respondents of our interview, did not agree on this issue and found it to be reasonable. Inspite of the debate about higher interest rate, MFIs are contributing not only in alleviating the poverty and improving the living standards of the poor people, but also in offering extensive human development programs in Bangladesh.

Texte remanié de: Thèse de doctorat--Étude du développement économique et social--Paris 1, 2001. / Bibliogr. p. 246-260.

Thèse de doctorat : Sciences économiques : Paris 12 : 2004. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre.

Reproduction de : Thèse de doctorat : Sciences économiques : Lyon 2 : 2006. / Le jury s'est prononcé en faveur de la diffusion de la thèse en décembre 2007. Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr. Index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (M.A.)--California State University, Chico. / Includes abstract. "Located in the Chico Digital Repository." Includes bibliographical references (p. 148-157).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 176 p. : ill. (some col.), maps. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-158).

For over two decades, development practitioners, scholars, and institutions have celebrated microfinance—broadly defined as the provision of small-scale financial services to the world’s poor—as an effective tool for poverty alleviation and local economic development. Critics of microfinance, however, suggest that there is little clear evidence to support the claims that microfinance lifts the poor out of poverty and fosters local economic development. In this thesis, I explore some of the challenges to microfinance in northern Nicaragua by exploring a case study of a group of borrowers who have confronted microfinance and exposed some serious problems. Since 2008, thousands of microcredit clients in Nicaragua have expressed their extreme frustration with microfinance and its detrimental effects in their lives. In this case, Nicaraguans caught up in the microfinance scheme risk losing their homes and livelihoods and falling into greater poverty. These borrowers, organized as El Movimiento de Pequeños Productores, Comerciantes y Microempresarios del Norte (the Movement of Producers, Merchants and Small Business Owners of the North), demand new terms on their microcredit debts and new client protections. I explore the reaction and the demands of these borrowers and their direct and indirect critiques of the microcredit sector, its practices and its alleged goals. I argue that the resistance of the MPCN reveals the political and economic rationale and neoliberal ideology behind microcredit as a poverty alleviation intervention, and their contestation challenges its underlying logic. These critiques and demands provide us with a foundation for rethinking the prevailing market-oriented approaches to development. / text