MICROFINANCE EUROPEAN DIALOGUE CONFERENCE Luxembourg, 1719 October 2005

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MICROFINANCE EUROPEAN DIALOGUE CONFERENCELuxembou
rg, 17-19 October 2005

• The Role of Research Topics and Implications
• By Hans Dieter Seibel
• seibel_at_uni-koeln.de

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The strengths and weaknesses of academic research

• Strengths
• Discovering new topics
• Systematic, comparative long-term research
• Objectivity
• Wide dissemination
• Weaknesses
• Gap between basic and applied research
• Lack of communication with practitioners
• Lack of longitudinal studies (eg, of impact)
• Lack of historical studies in MF

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An example Discovering, upgrading and linking
informal finance

• Discovering informal savings credit
  associations
• Westermann, 1900s Herskovits, 1930s...
• Systematic studies Seibel, 1960s
• Insights Self-reliance, viability, outreach,
  self-regulation
• Theoretical empirical follow-up
• Social systems and MF

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Applied options upgrading, downgrading, linking

• 1960s Upgrading nonformal FIs (proposed)
• 1980s Linking nonformal FIs to banks
• Feasibility studies in Africa and Asia
• Pilots in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand,
  Nigeria
• 1990s mainstreaming SHG banking in India
• 2005 1.6m SHGs120m households
  credit-linked
• TC studies of banks, SHGs in India
• 1980/90s Downgrading banks
• 1990s Financial systems development and
  microfinance
• 2000s Transforming/upgrading MFIs into (micro-)
  banks
• Greenfielding microbanks
• Appropriate regulation eff. supervision of
  MFIs
• Reforming agricultural development banks

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Recommendations

• Collaboration between academic and applied
  funding agencies
• Long-term collaboration of donor agencies with
  research institutions
• Funding of experimentation and innovation
• Packaging of results for practitioners
• Support longitudinal impact studies
• Support historical research on microfinance
• Support systems of delegated supervision of MFIs

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Suggested readings http//www.uni-koeln.de/ew-fa
k/aef/

• WP 1985-1 Saving for Development A Linkage
  Model for Informal and Formal Financial Markets
• WP 2003-5 History Matters in Microfinance
• WP 2005-1 What matters in rural and microfinance