Articles
Freedom from Hunger staff share what we have learned by writing commentary, articles and chapters for trade publications, technical journals and books. We are pleased to provide the following list of published works authored or co-authored by Freedom from Hunger staff both past and present, all of which are available for free download in pdf format or by link to other websites. In a few cases, the article has been published by a journal that provides access only by subscription or payment per article. We also provide access to any French or Spanish versions we know of. The titles are listed by the date of publication, starting with the most recent articles and working backward in time. We also provide complete citation information for the convenience of researchers wanting to cite the publication in their own work. We sincerely hope you will find these articles useful for broadening your understanding of value-added microfinance and related topics.
Microfinance against malaria: Impact of Freedom from Hunger’s malaria education when delivered by rural banks in Ghana.
You may purchase the article at Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (link will open in a new window).
Abstract
A community randomized pre-test/post-test design was used to compare the knowledge and behaviors of microfinance clients receiving malaria education (n = 213) to those receiving diarrhea education (n = 223) and to non-client controls (n = 268). Comparisons assessed differences at follow-up as well as within-group changes over time.
Linking Health to Microfinance to Reduce Poverty
Abstract
The June 2010 issue of the highly-regarded Bulletin of the World Health Organization published an article by Freedom from Hunger’s Trustee Sheila Leatherman and President Chris Dunford entitled “Linking Health to Microfinance to Reduce Poverty.” In the words of the WHO Bulletin editor, “Sheila Leatherman & Christopher Dunford describe the positive effects of linking microfinance with health services.” To read this, the first of many publications about to emerge from the four and a half years of our Microfinance and Health Protection (MAHP) initiative, click here.
Credit unions and rural banks reaching down and out to the rural poor through group-based microfinance.
You may purchase the article at Ingenta Connect (link will open in a new window).
Abstract
Over the past 15 years, the experience of credit unions in francophone West Africa, Ecuador, Madagascar and the Philippines and rural banks in Ghana shows that adding group-based microfinance (village banking) to existing, locally owned financial institutions in provincial towns is a lower-cost, effective and sustainable alternative to building microfinance institutions de novo in order to extend microfinance to poorer women (many of them so poor their families are chronically hungry), especially in rural areas.
All aboard! Adding new wheels to the microfinance locomotive.
Get the article at Microfinance Insights (link will open in a new window).
Abstract
Over the last several decades, microfinance institutions have created an infrastructure of service delivery to the poor. Tens of thousands of microfinance field officers fan out across the developing world every day to meet groups of borrowers.
Business training for microfinance clients: how it matters and for whom.
Get the article at Microfinance Gateway (link will open in a new window).
Abstract
This study evaluates the impact of adding entrepreneurial training to a microfinance program. It measures the impact of a business training program for female microentrepreneur clients of a group banking program of FINCA Peru, an MFI that sponsors village banks for poor, female microentrepreneurs.
Enhancing the impact of microfinance: Client demand for health protection services on three continents.
Abstract
This paper is based on the market research that Freedom from Hunger and five microfinance institutions conducted in 2006 to understand the impact of health on poor livelihoods and their ability to repay loans. It also examines the need for health financing in Bolivia, Bénin, Burkina Faso, India and the Philippines.
Financing healthier lives: Empowering women through integration of microfinance and health education.
Get the publication at United Nations Population Fund (link will open in a new window).
Abstract
This document is an update of an earlier edition published in 2006 and primarily focuses attention on the strategy of integrating microfinance services with health education. Highlighted within are MCS's and UNFPA’s joint global efforts to empower women using this strategy, employing methodology developed by and receiving training in its use by a key partner, Freedom from Hunger.
How microfinance can work for the poor: The case for integrating microfinance with education and health services.
Get the article at Microfinance Gateway (link will open in a new window).
Abstract
This paper examines the development of a strategy that can offer the poor access to a coordinated combination of microfinance and other development services to meet their multifaceted needs.
The road to client assessment: Travel tips.
Get the article at SEEP Network (link will open in a new window).
Abstract
Advocating a complete management information system to track the achievement of financial, institutional and social objectives, this paper discusses tracking systems to monitor progress made by the institution towards achieving program objectives.
Evidence of microfinance’s contribution to achieving the Millennium Development goals.
Get the article at Microfinance Gateway (link will open in a new window).
Abstract
The paper states that microfinance can only be a major contributor to achieving the first seven Millennium Development Goals when it creates direct and positive impacts on the lives of the "extreme poor" (a.k.a. the "very poor" living on roughly a dollar a day or less) as well as the better-off poor.