University Meets Microfinance
Editor: PlaNet Finance Deutschland e.V.
ISSN 2190-2291
The University Meets Microfinance programme (UMM) presents its first "UMM Award": Each year, the UMM Awards honour outstanding theses on microfinance and give recognition to the work of young researchers. The UMM Award winners are selected by a committee of professors and microfinance practitioners, and recognize theses presenting innovative research topics and approaches.
Microfinance has gained scale and recognition over the last decade. Today, Microfinance Institutions reach approximately 150 million low-income people who were previously excluded from formal banking systems, with financial services which include credit, savings, insurance and money transfer. This rapid expansion has also come with increasing challenges.
Research on microfinance provides new insights into these challenges and can foster innovation in the sector.
In 2009, 720 practitioners, students and professors from 14 universities of the European Union participated in UMM. The programme is co-financed by the European Union and was initiated by PlaNet Finance and Freie Universität Berlin with the aim of strengthening the cooperation between European universities and microfinance practitioners. In addition to promoting research publications, UMM offers microfinance seminars in partnership with European universities, mentorship and field research scholarships for Bachelor, Master and PhD students, and organizes regular workshops with UMM participants.
University Meets Microfinance on MikrofinanzWiki
-
Daniela Röttger
Agricultural Finance for Smallholder Farmers
Rethinking Traditional Microfinance Risk and Cost Management Approaches
€19.90ibidem152 PagesEven though traditional microfinance has successfully paved the way for offering financial services to low-income populations without traditional collateral, many microfinance institutions (MFIs) are still...Available -
Nicole Tode
Transforming Microfinance Institutions
A possible way to go for Moroccan Microcredit Associations
€19.90ibidem140 PagesNicole Tode evaluates the possible institutional development of Moroccan microcredit associations which intend to transform themselves from the status of non-governmental institutions (NGOs) into regulated...Available -
Thilo Klein
Why Do India’s Urban Poor Choose to Go Private?
Health Policy Simulations in Slums of Hyderabad
€19.90ibidem90 PagesWhy does a large proportion of India’s urban poor choose to pay for private health services when public services are essentially free of charge? Drawing from previous research, this study takes the underprovision...Available -
Funmilayo A. Akinosi, Daniel Nordlund, Alejandro Turbay
Sustainable Microfinance
Redefining the Socio-Economic Mission in Microfinance
€19.90ibidem106 PagesAs stated by the Brundtland Report, the authoritative document on sustainable development, the pressure of poverty creates environmental stress by factors like overcrowded cities, deforestation, and overuse...Available -
Anna Custers
Furthering Financial Literacy
Experimental Evidence from a Financial Literacy Training Programme for Microfinance Clients in Bhopal, India
€19.90ibidem80 PagesAnna Custers' study presents evidence from a randomised field experiment that was conducted in Bhopal, India. It delivers a two-fold contribution to the burgeoning field of financial literacy theory. Firstly,...Available -
€19.90ibidem96 PagesThe recent global macroeconomic crisis creates an exceptionally interesting possibility to investigate the linkages of the microfinance sector to mainstream markets and its connections with domestic markets...Available
-
Maria Cristina De Lorenzo
Microfinance Investment Funds: An analysis of profitability
€19.90ibidem112 PagesIn the traditional financial system, profit and social solidarity have often represented a dichotomy hard to beat. In this scenario, the Microfinance Investment Vehicles (MIVs) are emerging as tools to...Available -
Oliver Rogall
Microfinance and Vulnerability to Poverty
The Evidence from Rural Households in Cambodia
€19.90ibidem142 PagesLow income households are faced with various types of risks, increasing their vulnerability to poverty. In Cambodia, conditions of the rural poor - with the majority engaged in agriculture - are characterized...Available -
€19.90ibidem180 PagesSelf-Help Group (SHG) microcredit is emerging as a springboard of developmental finance for Income Generating Activities (IGAs) in rural areas of India, serving the cause of the landless, small, and marginal...Available
-
€19.90ibidem108 PagesMicrofinance 2.0 examines the role of reputation-based intermediaries on the world’s largest peer-to-peer online lending platform. This marketplace as well as other recently opened lending websites allow...Available