Improving the livelihoods of poor households and transitioning more women back to the labor force is a major challenge in South Asia. Self-employment promoted through women's groups has often been cited as a promising intervention towards this end. However, the evidence on the impact of such...

Financial market imperfections remain pervasive in developing countries, constraining potentially profitable investment decisions, especially for rural smallholder farmers. Warrantage is an innovative model of rural finance with the potential to overcome credit, storage, and commitment...

This paper studies the impact of a program that provides grants for technical assistance on the interest rates and outreach of credit unions in Mexico. Credit unions financing rural borrowers received grants in different years. The study uses propensity score matching and relies additionally on...

Improving rural credit markets requires a good understanding of the root causes of market failures and taking necessary steps to address them. This paper investigates the role of productivity shocks in borrowers' repayment choices. Using a framed field experiment that simulated a repeated...

The study, conducted assesses the current state of agricultural finance in the Republic of Kosovo (Kosovo) and determine ways to improve the provision of finance to Kosovo's growing agricultural economy. The study is aimed at informing the full range of stakeholders about the best options to...

This diagnosis is part of the World Bank's technical assistance to the Haitian authorities regarding financial inclusion and financial sector development. The industrial development fund (FDI), a public instrument under the umbrella of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), maintains...

The agricultural sector plays a critical role in the Zambian economy. The share of the agriculture sector's GDP financed by the banking sector is among the highest in Africa. Nearly half the population is working in agriculture. Yet less than 5 percent of institutional credit goes to small and...

This policy note (PN) provides an analysis of the rural finance system in Brazil. The PN aims to inform policymaking on agriculture finance policies at a relevant time for the reform agenda. Its main objective is to provide recommendations on potential reform areas for agriculture finance, in...

Simultaneity of borrowing, withdrawal of savings, and loan defaults due to the pronounced seasonality of ag-riculture often leads to investment failure of rural financial institutions. Lack of borrowing leads to lack of in-come- and consumption-smoothing, and in turn, causes inefficient resource...

This case study describes the history and business model of the Rural and Community Bank (RCB) network in Ghana, analyzes its performance, identifies key issues, and makes recommendations on the way forward. The study analyzes the service delivery and financial performance of the RCBs. Before...