IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soudev/v3y2008i2p253-268.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Microfinance Programmes Really Serve the Poor? Evidence from Rural Southeast Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Hari Bansha Dulal

    (The World Bank Washington D.C. USA)

  • Chris D Gingrich

    (Eastern Mennonite University Harrisonburg, Virginia USA)

  • Roger R Stough

    (George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia USA)

Abstract

During the past 25 years development organisations worldwide have increasingly relied on microfinance programmes to help alleviate poverty and achieve various development objectives. These programmes typically aim to provide financial services to poor households that otherwise cannot access formal financial markets. One such example programme is the Grameen Bikas Bank (GBB) in rural southeast Nepal. While GBB targets poor households, the evidence reveals that the vast majority of GBB clients are relatively wealthy, as measured by land ownership and other socioeconomic indicators. In addition, GBB’s poor clients also feel less satisfied with its services than do wealthy clients, suggesting that GBB has not adequately tailored its products to the needs of the poor. Possible reasons for GBB’s shortcomings include Nepal’s caste system, rigid loan repayment schedules, and below-market interest rates on loans. Remedies to improve GBB’s outreach to the poor include flexible repayment schedules, higher interest rates, and increased staffing to recruit poor households and monitor their loans.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soudev:v:3:y:2008:i:2:p:253-268
    DOI: 10.1177/097317410800300204
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097317410800300204
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/097317410800300204?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan Morduch, 1999. "The Microfinance Promise," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1569-1614, December.
    2. Navajas, Sergio & Schreiner, Mark & Meyer, Richard L. & Gonzalez-vega, Claudio & Rodriguez-meza, Jorge, 2000. "Microcredit and the Poorest of the Poor: Theory and Evidence from Bolivia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 333-346, February.
    3. Mark M. Pitt & Shahidur R. Khandker, 1998. "The Impact of Group-Based Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 958-996, October.
    4. Zeller, Manfred, 1994. "Determinants of credit rationing: A study of informal lenders and formal credit groups in Madagascar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(12), pages 1895-1907, December.
    5. 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.
    6. Lynn Bennett & Mike Goldberg & Pamela Hunte, 1996. "Ownership and sustainability: Lessons on group-based financial services from South Asia," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(2), pages 271-288.
    7. Shantana R. Halder & Paul Mosley, 2004. "Working with the ultra-poor: learning from BRAC experiences," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 387-406.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sadia Farooq, 2018. "Performance Evaluation of Microfinance Providers Using Data Envelopment Analysis: The Profitability Perspective," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 5(1), pages 111-123, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amin, Sajeda & Rai, Ashok S. & Topa, Giorgio, 2003. "Does microcredit reach the poor and vulnerable? Evidence from northern Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 59-82, February.
    2. Simon Zaby, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Microfinance: Influential Authors and Documents, 1989–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos, 2019. "20 years of research in microfinance: An information management approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 183-197.
    4. Dan Brockington & Nicola Banks, 2014. "Exploring the Success of BRAC Tanzania’s Microcredit Programme," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 20214, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    5. Naveen K Shetty, 2008. "The Microfinance Promise in Financial Inclusion and Welfare of the Poor: Evidence from Karnataka, India," Working Papers 205 Keyword : Banking, Mi, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    6. Hisaki KONO & Kazushi TAKAHASHI, 2010. "Microfinance Revolution: Its Effects, Innovations, And Challenges," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 48(1), pages 15-73, March.
    7. Flore Gubert & François Roubaud, 2005. "Analyser l’impact d’un projet de Micro-finance : l’exemple d’ADéFI à Madagascar," Working Papers DT/2005/14, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    8. Ulrike Vogelgesang, 2000. "Investigating Microfinance: Caja Los Andes, Bolivia," GK working paper series 2001-01, Post Graduate Programme "Allocation on Financial Markets", University of Mannheim, revised Nov 2001.
    9. Okten, Cagla & Osili, Una Okonkwo, 2004. "Social Networks and Credit Access in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1225-1246, July.
    10. James C. Brau & Gary M. Woller, 2004. "Microfinance: A Comprehensive Review of the Existing Literature," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 9(1), pages 1-28, Spring.
    11. Harianto Harianto & M. Parulian Hutagaol & Iman Widhiyanto, 2019. "Sources and Effects of Credit Accessibility on Smallholder Paddy Farms Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Government Subsidized Credit Program in Indonesia," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 9(5), pages 1-10.
    12. M. Kabir Hassan, 2002. "The Microfinance Revolution and the Grameen Bank Experience in Bangladesh," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(3), pages 205-265, August.
    13. Abu S. Shonchoy, 2015. "Seasonal Migration and Microcredit During Agricultural Lean Seasons: Evidence from Northwest Bangladesh," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 53(1), pages 1-26, March.
    14. Munshi Sulaiman & Mehnaz Rabbani & Vivek A. Prakash, 2010. "Impact Assessment of CFPR/TUP: A Descriptive Analysis Based on 2002-2005 Panel Data," Working Papers id:2567, eSocialSciences.
    15. Schreiner, Mark & Woller, Gary, 2003. "Microenterprise Development Programs in the United States and in the Developing World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1567-1580, September.
    16. Menkhoff, Lukas & Rungruxsirivorn, Ornsiri, 2009. "Village Funds in the Rural Credit Market of Thailand," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Frankfurt a.M. 2009 45, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    17. Prabirendra Chatterjee & Sudipta, Sarangi, "undated". "Social Identity and Group Lending," Working Papers UWEC-2005-06-R, University of Washington, Department of Economics.
    18. van Staveren, I.P., 2002. "Social capital :What is in it for feminist economics?," ISS Working Papers - General Series 19126, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    19. Wijesiri, Mahinda & Yaron, Jacob & Meoli, Michele, 2017. "Assessing the financial and outreach efficiency of microfinance institutions: Do age and size matter?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 63-76.
    20. Tanjinul Hoque Mollah & Sharmin Shishir & Wahid Ullah & Takaaki Nihei, 2019. "Assessing NGOs micro-credit programs: a geo-spatial and socio-economic scenario from rural Bangladesh," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 66(2), pages 79-99, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soudev:v:3:y:2008:i:2:p:253-268. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.