Is microfinance making a difference?

One of the difficulties in assessing the effectiveness, impact and sustainability of microfinance has been the reliance on anecdotal evidence of its positive effects; however in the past few years better and more reliable research, based on empirical analyses and conducted with more effective research methodologies, has been advancing.

The 'Second European Research Conference on Microfinance' provided a much-needed platform for the presentation of the latest research on a variety of pressing topics related to microfinance. Eight keynote speakers presented their innovative ideas during plenary and panel discussions each day; this included Dr. Paul Mosley (University of Sheffield UK) on ‘Innovations in Microinsurance’ and Klaas Molenaar (Triodos Facet) on ‘The importance of microfinance for entrepreneurship development’.

Parallel to these plenaries and panel discussions, each day some of the 60-plus international scholars in attendance at the conference presented their own research papers across a wide variety of themes. This included such themes as ‘Microfinance and the financial crisis’, ‘Gender and microfinance’, ‘Poverty impact and social impact’, and ‘New contributions to microfinance theory’. One high point of the weekend event was the Grand Conference Evening on Friday evening, which featured the official launch of Marc Labie’s new book The Handbook of Microfinance which Professor Labie (University of Mons, Belgium) co-edited with Prof. Beatriz Amendariz (University College London, UK and Harvard University, US).

Note

For those interested in joining the European Microfinance Platform’s upcoming event, European Microfinance Week, designed for European microfinance professionals working with developing countries and scheduled for 2-4 November 2011 in Luxemburg, see event details.

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Papers presented at the conference