Rotating savings and credit associations (RoSCAs) are, next to moneylenders, the most prevalent type of informal finance around the world. In 1988, Seibel & Shrestha traced the evolution of the dhikuti, as RoSCAs are called in Nepal, and published the results under the title Dhikuti: The Small...

Rotating savings and credit associations (RoSCAs) are, next to moneylenders, the most prevalent type of informal finance around the world. In 1988, Seibel & Shrestha traced the evolution of the dhikuti, as RoSCAs are called in Nepal, and published the results under the title Dhikuti: The Small...

The principles of Islamic finance are laid down in the sharia, Islamic law. Islamic finance, comprising financial transactions in banks and non-bank financial institutions formal and non-formal financial institutions, is based on the concept of a social order of brotherhood and solidarity. The...

Only relief achieves short-term poverty reduction, but is ineffective in the long run. Sustainable poverty reduction can only be attained through well-designed long-term development measures. For example, Indonesia is considered one of the most successful countries with regard to poverty...

Microfinance comprises microsavings, microcredit and other financial services such as microinsurance and microleasing. Small amounts of savings are col-lected: daily, weekly, at market days, after harvests or irregularly. They are then transformed into microloans which are repaid in...

Forays into Islamic microfinance have been few and scattered and of limited outreach. Some have been mandated by the state, but lack popular demand, as in Iran; other have emerged in response to popular demand, but lack regulatory support by the state, as in Syria. This has provided the...

The policy of development through subsidized credit has largely failed. Development policy is presently being reoriented towards savings mobilization supplement by credit programs based on personal savings. Formal financial markets are ineffective in mobilizing savings in Third World countries...