Rural Finance Nepal (RUFIN) is a joint Nepali-German project, implemented by the Agricultural Development Bank of Nepal (ADBN), with technical assistance from the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ). RUFIN aims at bringing sustainable financial services to the rural poor. The...

Over the last decade, Nepal has turned into a microfinance laboratory, exploring various approaches to provide financial services to the rural poor, both in the hill and plain areas of the country. The list of institutions and programs engaged in rural finance is long and includes informal...

That has to be uppermost in our minds as we think about what microfinance means. For IFAD, the finance issue is crucial to the task of reducing rural poverty. We do not insist on any particular institutional model. The demand for financial services is very diverse even among the poor, and we...