This Conference brings together the financial experience of rural and agricultural microfinance institutions and the experience of the Common Fund and other agencies with promoting commodities and small and micro-entrepreneurs producing, processing and marketing commodities. We expect that this...

Microfinance is not a recent development, and neither is the development of regulation and supervision of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Every now developed country has its own history of microfinance. It is important to recognize this because it presents a view different from that of many in...

Two thirds of the Fund?s current projects have a rural finance component; about 21% of the Fund?s resources are dedicated to rural finance.2 Most of IFAD?s target group are small producers engaged in agric ultural and non-agricultural activities in areas of widely varying potential. Direct...

This paper explores the implications of Unified Growth Theory for the origins of existing differences in income per capita across countries. The theory sheds light on three fundamental layers of comparative development. It identifies the factors that have governed the pace of the transition from...