New Website: InSight

Posted by on November 22, 2002

ACCION International is pleased to announce InSight, a new publications series available free-of-charge at http://www.accion.org/pubs. As short, frequent, one-topic bulletins, InSight is intended to share the results of our work with the microfinance community as quickly and efficiently as possible. The series will highlight practical applications, policy viewpoints and ongoing research. The results presented can be considered basis for further discussion and insight into what’s ahead for ACCION.

Initial topics in the series:

InSight Number 1: ACCION Poverty Assessment Framework
http://www.accion.org/micro_pubs_list.asp_Q_P_E_IS1
Karen Horn Welch, October 2002
To understand and measure the poverty level of microfinance clients, ACCION is undertaking a multipart poverty assessment project.

InSight Number 2: Economic Profile for 15 MicroKing Clients in Zimbabwe
http://www.accion.org/micro_pubs_list.asp_Q_P_E_IS2
Leah Hendey and Elisabeth Rhyne, October 2002
This report provides a profile of 15 clients from one branch of MicroKing Finance in Harare, Zimbabwe, using information provided by clients and observed by loan officers during the credit evaluation process.

InSight Number 3: ACCION Policy Statement: Making Microfinance Transparency
http://www.accion.org/micro_pubs_list.asp_Q_P_E_IS3
Elisabeth Rhyne, October 2002
Financial transparency – the widespread availability of relevant, accurate, and comparable information about an institution – is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone in the evolution of microfinance. Transparency opens the door for microfinance to become integrated into financial systems because the participants and guardians of the financial system demand high quality information to guide their informed judgments about microfinance institutions.

InSight Number 4: Building the Homes of the Poor – One Brick at a Time: Housing Improvement Lending at Mibanco/Peru
Warren Brown, due out December 2002
The “microfinance of housing” is an emerging and promising practice among microfinance institutions. A household’s first loan might replace temporary scrap wood walls with cement, a second loan might replace a worn zinc roof with reinforced concrete, and a third might add an additional room. This paper summarizes the results of a case study on the largest housing improvement lending program in the ACCION Network.

For more information, please email:
Patty Lee
ACCION International
plee@accion.org