Knowledge Products of Microfinance – a Synthesis of Consolidated Replies
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Knowledge ProductsKnowledge of Microfinance Knowledge Products of Facilitating Agencies Many thanks to all who contributed to this synthesis! for Microfi nance Community of Practice If you have further information on any of the topics in the synthesis, please Microfinance send it to Solution Exchange for the Microfi nance Community in India at [email protected] A Synthesis of Consolidated Replies Disclaimer: In posting messages or incorporating these messages into synthesised responses, the UN accepts no responsibility for their veracity or authenticity. Members intending to use or transmit the information contained in these messages should be aware that they are relying on their own judgment. Copyrighted under Creative Commons License “Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 2.5”. Re-users of this material must cite as their source Solution Exchange as well as the item’s recommender, if relevant, and must share any derivative work with the Solution Exchange Community. Solution Exchange is a UN initiative for development practitioners in India. For more information please visit www.solutionexchange-un.net.in A Synthesis of Consolidated Replies An Initiative of United Nations Country Team in India The offi ce of the UN Resident Coordinator 55, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi - 110 003, India Tel.: (91 11) 2462 8877; Fax: (91 11) 2462 7612 E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.un.org.in This synthesis of the Consolidated Replies is sponsored by: United Nations Development Programme 55, Lodhi Estate New Delhi - 110003 Solution Exchange An Initiative of the United Nations in India Poverty The United Nations in India, has since 2005, supported a knowledge-sharing initiative to help improve Microfi nance Community development effectiveness in support of India’s Five Year Plans and the Millennium Development Goals. This initiative branded as ‘Solution Exchange’ develops ‘Communities of Practice’ for sharing knowledge and Vision of Microfi nance Community experience among practitioners from the government, NGOs, private sector, academia, activists, etc. The UN serves as a catalyst and plays a facilitative role, offering a free, impartial space where all development The Microfi nance Community works to reduce poverty through microfi nance professionals are welcome to participate. initiatives and innovations leading to enhance fi nancial inclusion; helping to develop appropriate technical, organisational, operational and policy environment to achieve Solution Exchange is focussed on practitioners, and brings out tacit experiential knowledge sitting in the MDGs relating to the eradication of Extreme Poverty & Hunger and targets set out in heads of practitioners, for the use of others through sharing. This leads to enhanced knowledge capture, Eleventh Five Year Plan. storage, and use. Solution Exchange seeks to empower practitioners by offering them “knowledge on demand” based on solutions from their peers. It has led to enhanced capacities of individuals and institutions, Focus Areas infl uence on programme implementation, infl uence on policies, and has made changes in knowledge and Creating an enabling policy and operational environment for promoting fi nancial attitude of practitioners. Today there are thirteen functional Communities of Practice. inclusion Enhancing the ‘depth’ of microfi nance by addressing disadvantaged groups and Active Communities of Practice and their Facilitating Agencies ‘breadth’ of microfi nance in terms of reaching out to remote and disadvantaged areas. Decentralization – UNDP Work & Employment –ILO; UNDP Microfi nance for specifi c sub-sectors, cluster, for sustainable Livelihoods Strengthening range of microfi nance products and services Water – UNICEF; UNDP Microfi nance – UNDP, ILO Promoting Innovative products and diversifi cation of Financial Services Identifi cation, propagation and use of innovative MF delivery mechanisms Food & Nutrition Security – FAO ICT for Development – UNESCO; Facilitating in development of organisational structures UNDP Focus on grassroots level microfi nance operation issues Promoting new technologies, systems and tools for fi nancial inclusion, management Gender – UNIFEM; UNICEF Disaster Management – UNDP of MF Projects Maternal & Child Health – WHO; UNFPA; Climate Change – UNDP For further information about the Microfi nance Community UNICEF Karnataka Community - UNICEF Visit: http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/index.php and click on the AIDS – UNAIDS Microfi nance Community link. Contact: [email protected] Or Education – UNESCO; UNICEF Resource Team Navin Anand Monika Khanna Resource Person and Moderator Research Associate These Communities of Practice (CoP) are people who share similar concerns and interests, through electronic 55, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi 110003, 55, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi, 110003, e-mail groups and face-to-face interactions, with the common objective of problem-solving. The initiative India India has been in operation since 2005, and has grown dramatically over its three years of existence. At present Tel.: 91-11-24628877, Ext. 373 Tel.: 91-11-24628877, Ext. 327 it has thirteen Communities of Practice, with a membership base of nearly 14,000 members and 24,000 Fax: 91-11-24627612 Fax: 91-11-24627612 subscriptions (a member may be subscribed to multiple Communities). [email protected] [email protected] *Please visit www.solutionexchange-un.net.in to get a better idea of Solution Exchange Knowledge Products of Microfinance A Synthesis of Consolidated Replies Peer Reviewers External Reviewers Mr. Harish Chotani and Mr. Brij Mohan Internal Reviewers Prema Gera (Head, Poverty Unit, UNDP India) and Pankaj Shrivastav (M & E Analyst, UNDP, India) Compilation, Synthesis Papers and Overview Dr. Navin Anand (Resource Person) and Monika Khanna (Research Associate) Microfinance Community of Practice, Solution Exchange, United Nations Editing Peter Westman Design, layout and printing New Concept Information Systems Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi Foreword Solution Exchange is a knowledge sharing initiative The synthesis papers present an overview of the of the United Nations in India, targeted at helping discussions held within the Community on these development practitioners to move towards attaining themes. More importantly, they also identify the national and Millennium Development Goals. The strategically crucial issues that need to be taken up Microfinance Community of Solution Exchange brings for discussion in the coming year. together persons working on financial services for meeting basic needs, enhancing investment in For practitioners of microfinance this volume is a income generating and asset-building activities, and reference book for trouble shooting and problem addressing risks for the poor. Since its inception in solving on day-to-day problems faced by them in October 2006, it has emerged as a neutral platform implementing microfinance at grassroots. For others, to connect grassroots workers, Micro Finance it should be useful for guiding future work on various Institutions, banks, private sector and government innovative issues (e.g. ‘Health Mutuals’, Microfinance agencies, and has issued about 50 knowledge products in disaster affected areas, Micro health insurance, in the form of Consolidated Replies (CRs) to queries. Housing microfinance for the poor, etc.). The document The incorporation of suggestions by the microfinance will be of special interest to agencies working on community into Reserve Bank of India guidelines on financial inclusion of the most disadvantaged groups mobile banking payments is an illustration of the in India, such as UNDP and ILO. The volume also lists catalytic policy role that the microfinance community agencies and experts working on various topics within has started playing in the country. Microfinance, who may be available as a common pool resource to guide formulation of new projects and to The Advisory Group for the community (called the design ongoing projects. “Resource Group”) appreciated these stand-alone CRs the community has brought out in the past two years. UNDP is open to partner organisations in different However, they expressed an urgent need for synthesising states translating this document into regional these CRs around common themes, and issuing the languages and disseminating it to a wider audience. synthesis as separate value added knowledge products. The current volume is the first of such attempts. In I look forward to this publication being used widely addition to containing all CRs issued so far by the to work towards achieving financial and economic Microfinance Community, it also contains a synthesis of inclusion of the poorest and the disadvantaged the CRs around the following themes: sections in the country. • Microfinance Products, Services and Delivery Mechanism Best Wishes, • Microfinance for Livelihoods and its Sub sectors • Microfinance for Inclusion Deirdre Boyd • Microfinance Technologies, Tools, Processes and Country Director Systems United Nations Development Programme • Enabling Policy and Institutional Environment New Delhi, India for Microfinance Foreword iii Acknowledgements The ‘Knowledge Products of Microfinance - A Synthesis of Consolidated Replies’ is a joint product of Solution Exchange, United Nations and United Nations Development Programme, India. The preparation of this synthesis document owes a great deal to all the contributors of 50 Knowledge Products incorporated in this document. These contributors are from almost all the states of India and from a variety of organisations