This paper aims at gaining deeper understanding of the possible effects of combined microfinance (CMF) on social and economic performance outcomes. By means of a case-study on the City of Bridgetown (COB), one of the leading credit unions in Barbados, it explores the possible limits, challenges...

Product diversification involving simultaneously microcredit, savings or insurance services –also called combined microfinance (CMF)- can both leverage and challenge policy outcomes. This paper reviews two complementary questions in this regard: Which are the possible effects of CMF on public...

Documented deficiencies in traditional social transfer mechanisms have led to the emergence of alternative methods for reducing poverty. In many countries, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have become popular instruments for redistributive pro-poor policies. While microcredit programmes have...

Worldwide, microcredit organizations are gradually transforming to multi-servicing organizations offering additional financial services. This paper examines whether combining microcredit with insurance and/or savings enhances their economic performance by increasing their efficiency,...

Guaranteeing the rights of children does not only imply a legal and moral responsibility. It also has implications for economic and social policies, and in particular for the allocation of a country’s financial resources. Children in the Eastern Caribbean are the majority of the poor and most...

Children’s rights matter in Small Island Development States (SIDS), where high levels of social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities co-exist. In 2007, a UNICEF organizational review expanded upon the recommendation that UNICEF should further invest in strategic thinking, knowledge...

Over the last ten years, performance management for health sector systems has received increased attention. In many countries privatisation, decentralisation, user involvement and cost containment have changed the structure and the functioning of health delivery dramatically. The role and...

There is a growing interest in combined micro-finance schemes delivering both micro-insurance and micro-credit products to provide a more comprehensive response to existing market failures often leading to a lack of access to financial services for excluded populations. Despite its increasingly...