Workshop Proceedings of Imp-Act Thematic Group Meeting on Understanding the Wider Impacts of Microfinance

This paper briefly presents the presentation made at the thematic group meeting held in Bangladesh under the Imp-Act project funded by Ford Foundation in January 2002. Thirty six participants from all over the world attended the meeting. Some of the participants and the subject of their paper were:

• Sajjad Zohir (BIDS, Bangladesh)and Imran Matin (BRAC, Bangladesh): Wider impact of microfinance institutions: Issues and concepts;
• Naila Kabeer (IDS, UK): Wider impacts and social change: Processes and outcomes;
• Anup Dash (CYSD, India): Self-help groups and democratic governance in India;
• Pail Mosley (University of Sheffield, UK): Micro insurance: India, Ethiopia and Uganda;
• Kate Roper (Small Enterprise Foundation, South Africa): Practitioner approaches to measuring impact of microfinance on the poorest of the poor;
• Reynaldo Marconi/Carmen Velasco (PRO MUJER/FINURAL, Bolivia): Group dynamics, gender and the impact of microfinance in Bolivia.

The workshop examined the theme of wider impacts of microfinance with respect to economic, social, cultural and group dynamics. It also focused on preparation of an action plan of the future research work on the theme of wider impacts. The paper concludes by describing various time-bound action plans of different groups to create a measurement tool for the assessment of wider impacts of microfinance.