Microfinance over the last 10 years | Reflections and suggestions for the future

The UK's All Party Parliamentary Group on Microfinance recently celebrated 10 years' of raising awareness of microfinance and the role it can play in reducing poverty. At an event, hosted by CARE International, Dr Ajaz Khan (lendwithcare.org's Microfinance Advisor) reflected on the last 10 years and made some suggestions for the future.

Since the All Party Parliamentary Microfinance Group was started 10 years ago, although I am sure the link is coincidental, microfinance has become much more widespread and received increasing recognition – the United Nations proclaimed 2005 as the year of microcredit, one of the pioneers of modern microfinance Muhammad Yunus and Grameen won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and perhaps the ultimate accolade of all, as my children pointed out, in 2010 microfinance was featured on an episode of The Simpsons.

Microinsurance: A safety net for the poor?



© CARE/ Josh Estey



It is becoming widely acknowledged that the provision of financial services to the poor is critical in the fight to alleviate poverty. One such financial service, which has been implemented relatively widely and successfully throughout much of the developing world, is microcredit. However, access to credit alone is not enough to guarantee financial security or stability. After all, microfinance is not just the provision of small loans but the provision of a whole host of financial services and includes microsavings, money transfer and microinsurance as well.