Assessing Small and Medium Forest Enterprises' Access to Microfinance: Case Studies from The Gambia

Tomaselli, Maria Fernanda; Timko, Joleen; Kozak, Robert

doi:10.1080/00220388.2012.740018

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…This allows them to convert the raw forest products into products that satisfy the value sought by the market. Increasing resource value has been touted as an incentive to manage forest resources more sustainably (Dawson et al 2014;FAO 2010FAO , 2014Tomaselli et al 2013). …”

Section: Community Perception Of the Improved Forest Management For Smentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The provision of microfinance services is necessary for building financial and business management capacity of rural communities (FAO, 2005;Demont 2013). Access to credit enables the rural communities to acquire the necessary capital and equipment to start up and/ or expand their enterprises (Tomaselli et al 2013). This allows them to convert the raw forest products into products that satisfy the value sought by the market.…”

Section: Community Perception Of the Improved Forest Management For Smentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does participatory forest management program lead to efficient forest resource use and improved rural livelihoods? Experiences from Mua-Livulezi Forest Reserve, Malawi

et al. 2015

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This study evaluates the efficacy of Improved Forest Management for Sustainable Livelihoods Program (IFMSLP) in communities adjacent to Mua-Livulezi Forest Reserve, Malawi. The program is specifically aimed at alleviating poverty and enhance rural livelihoods through promoting greater community involvement in forest management while providing access and associated benefits. The study therefore evaluated the effect of the program on community organisation, forest access, forest use, product availability and commercialisation of forest products. The results show that despite the program putting in place strategies for the people to access different products for different uses; forest use is restricted mainly to subsistence use rather than cash income. The main forest product collected by the people for livelihood was firewood, mainly for cooking and heating. This is an indication that forests are an important natural capital for subsistence rather than cash income. Gender, location of the village, and distance to the nearest forest area were significant predictors of households' forest use. Introduction of the co-management program has not brought out the expected outcomes in areas of community organization, forest access, forest product availability and commercialisation of forest products. A multi-institutional approach is recommended to draw upon diverse talents and experiences from individual institutions both government and non-governmental in order to achieve meaningful social change.

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Section: Community Perception Of the Improved Forest Management For Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Community Perception Of the Improved Forest Management For Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Does participatory forest management program lead to efficient forest resource use and improved rural livelihoods? Experiences from Mua-Livulezi Forest Reserve, Malawi

et al. 2015

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“…This study adopts the title of loan officers. 2 Microfinance generally includes a range of financial services, including loans, savings deposits, insurance and money transfers provided to low income clients who lack formal financial access (Tomaselli et al, 2013). In this study we focus on provision of microcredit in a group-based lending methodology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, group-based microfinance programmes usually rely on work practices such as 'regular' visits by loan officers and frequent contact with borrowers through group/centre meetings, making the client-loan officer interface critical to realising the developmental goals of microfinance. In addition, loan officers are also responsible for recruiting and screening of potential clients, managing every element of a loan's process, training of clients, following up repayments (Dixon et al, 2007;Labie et al, 2009;Tomaselli et al, 2013) and maintaining MFI portfolio quality (Ross and Denzer, 2011). The sustainability and performance of microcredit/microfinance depends heavily on the efficiency of loan officers, who take much of the burden involved but operate in difficult work environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfinance and Loan Officers’ Work Experiences: Perspectives from Zambia

Siwale

2016

The Journal of Development Studies

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The article studies the challenges faced by microfinance institutions in Zambia, whose remit it is to provide financial services to the poor. It focuses on loan officers -the agents of delivery on the ground. With reference to loan officers' experiences and words, the paper examines how gender and class shape and structure their day to day encounters. The study finds that different social spaces -'the office' and 'the field' -and wider context explains the gendered, culturally complex and multidimensional nature of developmental work at grassroots level. Social expectations emerge as major pressure points more for female loan officers than their male counterparts, making them less suitable for microfinance work, which has traditionally targeted poor women. However, in the process of delivering financial services, managers and clients not only come to depend on loan officers to maintain the quality of services provided, but also place varied and often conflicting expectations on them. Notwithstanding loan officers' critical role in the functioning of microfinance, less scholarship has focused on their work realities and how their everyday encounters at the grassroots with borrowers can leave them disillusioned with the seemingly 'noble' work of microfinance. Little is known, for example, about how social factors such as education, gender and location influence and complicate the work of loan officers in extending credit and other financial services to the poor. In addition, less is known about whether male and female loan officers consequently perform or are judged differently.As the analysis of two Zambian MFIs will show, these social factors do structure loan officer-client encounters and are capable of adding complexities to an already difficult jobespecially for female loan officers. Examining how education, gender and location intersect 1 Other titles such as field staff, credit officers and fieldworkers have also been used to refer to such MFI employees. This study adopts the title of loan officers. 2 Microfinance generally includes a range of financial services, including loans, savings deposits, insurance and money transfers provided to low income clients who lack formal financial access (Tomaselli et al., 2013). In this study we focus on provision of microcredit in a group-based lending methodology.

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“…Microfinance entails the delivery of financial services to poor and low‐income households without access to basic financial services for use in their microenterprises or productive purposes (CGAP, ; Chiu, ; Lebovics, Hermes, & Hudon, ; Tomaselli, Timko, & Kozak, ), thereby enabling them to raise their income and living standards. Thus, MFIs of different sizes, types, and legal status provide financial services to the poor that are deemed critical for eradicating poverty (Kimmitt & Munoz, ; Kauffman & Riggins, ).…”

Section: Microfinance and Ictsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Computing for social good: Supporting microfinance institutions in Zambia

Wakunuma

Siwale

Beck

2019

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

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We investigate whether information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be used to achieve social good as they are implemented in microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Zambia. We find through information gathered from interviews with MFI officials that their organizations are focused primarily on survival in a competitive financial climate. Additionally, our findings reveal that most MFI business within the context of ICTs only promotes social good by default and not by design. This means that social good is not a primary mover or something that MFIs plan to achieve when they integrate ICTs into their business models but that it happens because of the assumed mission of primarily serving the informal sector small business and microbusiness and the low-income clients.

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Assessing Small and Medium Forest Enterprises' Access to Microfinance: Case Studies from The Gambia

Cited by 18 publications

References 7 publications

Does participatory forest management program lead to efficient forest resource use and improved rural livelihoods? Experiences from Mua-Livulezi Forest Reserve, Malawi

Does participatory forest management program lead to efficient forest resource use and improved rural livelihoods? Experiences from Mua-Livulezi Forest Reserve, Malawi

Microfinance and Loan Officers’ Work Experiences: Perspectives from Zambia

Computing for social good: Supporting microfinance institutions in Zambia

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