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Measuring Depth of Outreach : Tools for Microfinance

Author

Listed:
  • Meyer, Richard L.

    (Senior Research Specialist, Ohio State University)

  • Nagarajan, Geetha

    (Programme Manager, Microbanking Standards Project)

  • Dunn , Elizabeth G.

    (Research Assistant Professor, University versity of Missouri-Columbia)

Abstract

The microfinance industry has made good progress in improving understanding about issues related to institutional performance. Increasingly, outreach and sustainability have been adopted as the two main criteria used to assess the performance of Microfinance Organizations (MFOs). The concept of institutional sustainability has been debated and refined, methods have been developed to use MFO accounting data to measure sustainability, and several studies have reported the level of and trends in the sustainability of many MFOs.1 The conceptualization and measurement of outreach is not as well developed. On the one hand, some aspects of outreach are easy to measure (e.g. the number and gender of clients served) and are regularly reported by MFOs. On the other hand, little progress has been made in developing simple tools to measure the depth of poverty of the clients served, that is how far down in the income distribution do the MFOs reach. A frequent question is whether or not MFOs reach the poorest of the poor. Loan size is often used as a proxy indicator for the poverty level of clients in the absence of better measures, but it is suspected of being a poor approximation

Suggested Citation

  • Meyer, Richard L. & Nagarajan, Geetha & Dunn , Elizabeth G., 2000. "Measuring Depth of Outreach : Tools for Microfinance," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 26(2-3), pages 173-199, June-Sept.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:badest:0400
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Hari Bansha Dulal & Chris D Gingrich & Roger R Stough, 2008. "Do Microfinance Programmes Really Serve the Poor? Evidence from Rural Southeast Nepal," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 3(2), pages 253-268, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Proxy reporting; Proxy statements; Rural poverty Undercoverage; Correlation coefficients;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines

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