Asad Ghalib
(Liverpool Hope University)
Fariya Hashmat
(Lahore School of Economics)
Discussant:
Syeda Ayesha Subhani
(Lahore School of Economics. Kashf Foundation)
Format:
Panel
Stream:
Politics and political economy
Location:
Palmer G.01
Sessions:
Thursday 29 June, -, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Microfinance institutions during and after the pandemic: Assessing their support and the ensuing social and economic impact on programme beneficiaries.
Panel P14 at conference DSA2023: Crisis in the Anthropocene: rethinking connection and agency for development.
Amidst longstanding debates on microfinance as a tool for poverty reduction and empowerment, the pandemic had a profound effect on these institutions in developing countries. This panel evaluates if, how and to what extent they supported their beneficiaries during and after the pandemic.
Long Abstract:
The outbreak of the pandemic resulted in a significant effect on microfinance institutions and their beneficiaries all across the world. Research has shown that more than two-thirds of the borrowers have had their livelihoods to be either completely shut down or severely impacted in one form or other by the pandemic.
Given the significant ensuing impact on borrowers' livelihoods, this panel invites empirical contributions that focus on aspects such as:
-How were beneficiaries impacted across various social and economic dimensions? We will be looking forward to contributions that capture short and long-term impact across both rural and urban areas.
-How did microfinance institutions respond to the pandemic? What sort of safety mechanisms did they put in place for their clients, if any? Were these sufficient and sustained? We welcome perspectives from practitioners and academics.
-A number of state-led initiatives across the world offered safety nets through cash and non-cash transfer programmes. We welcome contributions that carry out empirical assessments of how, and to what extent such interventions aid borrowers in sustaining their microenterprises.
-To what extent has the pandemic introduced new forms of governance and new political regimes in the management of microfinance?
We welcome contributions that look critically at the role of the various MFIs across the globe.
Against a global trend, a Paraguayan microfinance institution saw low default rates during the pandemic. This study explores the reasons behind the high repayment rates and how these affect clients’ lives, and discusses the central role of relationships between loan officers and clients.
Paper long abstract:
The pandemic has left many microfinance institutions struggling: as the livelihoods of microfinance clients were shattered, credit defaults increased. However, Fundación Paraguaya, a Paraguayan microfinance institution providing holistic anti-poverty programming, has not seen such grave effects on its portfolio. This raises the question what factors have contributed to the institution’s good performance, how the high repayment rates have affected clients’ lives, and what other microfinance organizations can learn from this experience.
To answer these questions, a study was carried out based on the analysis of administrative data and qualitative interviews with loan officers and microfinance clients. Results suggest that the high repayment rates are due a range of factors, including a strong commitment to the institution; continued contact between loan officers and clients which generated a feeling of support in times of uncertainty; a focus of the program on problem-solving capacities; and the institution’s flexibility and adaptability in offering financial solutions, among others. However, the study also suggests that the high repayment rates came at some cost to clients, who reported feeling high levels of stress and forgoing meals in order to be able to repay. Still, clients also expressed (and, in fact, demonstrated) their commitment to keeping in good standing with their loan committees and officers, indicating the value that the organization has to them.
Overall, the study results contribute to the literature by exploring the complex relationship between loan officers and clients, underscoring the value that such relationship building has for both sides.
This paper provides an empirically grounded analysis of the Cambodian microfinance landscape during the COVID-19 crisis. It shows that the pandemic accelerated lending as a shock absorber for clients in the short term but at the cost of insecurity and rising levels of over-indebtedness.
Paper long abstract:
The reliance of the Cambodian economy on tourism, construction, and garment exports left it particularly exposed to the global economic shock triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. This shock naturally flowed through the financial system. The microfinance sector was vulnerable due to market saturation and extremely high levels of household debt. This paper evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on the Cambodian microfinance sector. It triangulates this impact by utilizing three data sources: client interviews, financial industry data and loan officer surveys. The research finds that a large proportion of clients were negatively affected by the economic shock of COVID-19 due to decreased income. Financial service providers provided relief through loan restructuring, grace periods and interest rate cuts. Despite flexibility, clients were nonetheless forced to internally migrate, reduce consumption, sell assets and borrow additional funds from formal and informal sources. The profitability of financial service providers was marginally lower from 2020-2022 but the majority remained profitable. This enduring profitability is due to the continuing increase in loans outstanding, despite the economic shock, and relaxing of capital reserve requirements by the National Bank of Cambodia. Loan restructuring and continued provision of credit appears to have provided short-term respite to borrowers, at the cost of prolonging and deepening levels of over-indebtedness. The slow recovery of many sectors, such as tourism, suggests that such over-indebtedness is unlikely to abate. Sustained competition and the continued expansion of loans through digital channels, such as mobile money, is argued to exacerbate the risks of an eventual debt crisis.
A qualitative exploration of the consequences of pandemic on the rural livelihood of microfinance borrowers in the context of economic and social factors; private MF providers and state interventions in Pakistan
Paper long abstract:
This Qualitative study assess the impact of Covid-19, and how it resulted in the loss of income for micro-entrepreneurs in rural areas. Based on first-hand primary data collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with microfinance beneficiaries, during the lock-down, provides a deep insight to how the lives of poor were impacted across different dimensions of well-being. Among other aspects, respondents mentioned how their businesses were negatively impacted due to the lock-down and how it affected them. They were also very clear in terms of the State-led initiatives to provide them support through the ‘Ehsaas’ programme. Some mentioned about other forms of aid that they received through different charitable organisations and NGOs, etc. A profound sentiment that borrowers exhibited related to the treatment that they faced by their respective lenders. Savings and the rising cost of living and the ensuing impact on their stress levels was also repeatedly mentioned. The paper offers important public policy-related implications and provides avenues for further research.
A study showing how microfinance instiutions in Zambia's Copperbelt region responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Paper long abstract:
This study examined how MFIs in Zambia’s Copperbelt region responded to the effects the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected through key informant interviews with seven MFI professionals. The results showed that the pandemic presented both challenges and opportunities for MFIs. The pandemic disrupted services delivery, including cash transactions and financial literacy sessions. MFIs responded by transitioning to digital services, imposing lending restrictions, and rationing loan amounts for certain types of businesses. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of how MFIs in developing countries can adapt to the challenges of the pandemic and continue to serve their communities.
We explore how rural women and men benefit from microfinance and training by an entrepreneurship program, and how those resources affect their agency in Colombia. Women and men benefited differently from resources. Women gained power and some faced time poverty linked with entrepreneurship.
Paper long abstract:
International agencies propose women's empowerment to reduce gender inequalities in rural settings. Nonetheless, little research focuses on how the resources provided by organizations translate into empowerment, and on the complexity of the empowerment process - the negative and positive aspects. Based on Gender and Development and Feminist Political Ecology scholarships, we understand how rural women and men benefit differently from the resources provided by an entrepreneurship program and how those resources affect women's agency, both positively and negatively.
We studied the case of a nationwide program that delivers one-to-one training, mentoring, micro-credits, and saving accounts to rural people that aim to start or have a small business in departments highly affected by the armed conflict in Colombia. This program started in December 2019 (just before COVID-19), and by December 2021 it had 2,127 active rural participants across 13 of the 32 departments in the country. We analyzed a survey with all the participants and delved into 68 semi-structured interviews with participants in two departments.
Preliminary results suggest that women and men perceived different benefits and barriers from the program. Also, women perceive that they are gaining power. They affirm that their self-esteem and sense of agency increased due to the program and starting a small business, as well as their voice within the household. The perceived changes are associated with the training and the close relationship with the staff. However, some of the women face gender-based violence, time poverty, and loss of status associated with having a small business.
This study explores the economic and social impact of COVID-19 on the borrowers of micro-credit loans keeping in view the Sustainable Development Goals of reducing poverty and hunger in the rural Punjab in Pakistan.
Paper long abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic brought untold misery to millions around the world. For those who were already struggling to make ends meet, this was a particularly bad times. This study was conducted to assess the impact of the outbreak, and how the ensuing lock downs resulted in the loss of income for micro-entrepreneurs and endangering their food security in rural areas. This study, based on first-hand primary data collected from the microfinance beneficiaries, during the lock-down, provides a deep insight to how the lives of poor were impacted across the dimensions of poverty and hunger. Amongst other aspects, respondents mentioned how their businesses were negatively impacted due to the lockdown and how it affected them. our findings reveal that the pandemic has increased the income and food vulnerabilities of the microfinance beneficiaries. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that the pandemic has made the microfinance borrowers more food insecure because of their inability to withstand the idiosyncratic shocks in terms of their consumption levels.. The paper offers important public policy-related implications and provides avenues for further research.
A conceptual integration of impact bonds (typically oriented towards large, Western investors) and microfinance (community-focused financial inclusion and economic development) in providing outcome-oriented delivery of public services (primary education) in community schools in Zambia: A Case Study
Paper long abstract:
Until recently, funding for community-school based primary education in Zambia often relied on direct/indirect parental fees. At the end of 2021, the Zambian government introduced a new free education policy, prohibiting such payments. Instead, for the first time, most community schools now receive a direct operating grant from the government.
My research focused on the impact of this new policy on a small-N sample of urban community schools in Ndola/Zambia. My findings show that the new grants are typically insufficient in offsetting the loss from previous fee-based funding. Especially for schools without external donors, this can result in existential challenges and thus presents a risk to the access to, and quality of, education for vulnerable student populations, especially post-pandemic.
Political reasons have so far made a resolution to this situation difficult. Building on the concept of social extraction (Lust and Rakner, 2018) I outline how modifications to the traditional impact bond concept, combined with microfinance-driven processes and structures, might offer innovative ways for government and parents to partner in the public-private provision of services such as primary education.
My paper outlines the requirements and roles of the various parties involved in what I term a Community Impact Bond [CIB] approach and points to unresolved questions and conceptual challenges of this concept.
Note: this presentation is based on my recently completed MSc dissertation (unpublished) at the University of Edinburgh.
Through lockdowns, reverse migration, and deaths, women of SHGs supported by a CSO in Central India led relief programs and received aid, debited years of savings in SHGs, leveraged loans and delved into active village governance. This work studies processes, relationships and role of women in it.
Paper long abstract:
The pandemic raged through India in two waves - bringing lives and livelihoods to a standstill and then a carnage. Both waves played out disparately in the lives of the marginalized Adivasi women in Madhya Pradesh, India. Across two districts, eleven Federations of Self Help Groups run by committees of local women, supported by a Civil Society Organisation, continued unabated microfinance services while also extending relief in varied forms to its members. When avenues for procuring ration or agricultural inputs and opportunities for wage labour were scarce, the Federations supplied everyday essentials and farm and off farm inputs to its members. This support was set on certain conditions though, each member’s participation within their groups. This study explores the nature of these microfinance institutions, its terms and conditions, its participants and their relationship to the SHGs through the COVID crisis. It analyzes the entanglements of CSO supported SHG members in private microfinance institutions and government aided groups during the pandemic and their role in each.
During the second wave and the subsequent failure of public healthcare systems led to concentrated efforts for strengthening rural governance through the network of SHGs, leading to an initiative termed Hissedari Sabhas, a platform created to discuss and engage on people’s rights and entitlements. This work then probes into these nascent institutions to ensure social security as institutes of the people, honed by CSOs and studies its complementarity to microfinance institutions and the labour of women in the process of empowerment - financially and socially.
The study assesses the impact of the pandemic on the rural poor of Pakistan through a household-level survey. It applies the multidimensional poverty measurement model to analyse data.
Paper long abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the economy and livelihoods of people worldwide. Beneficiaries of microfinance were particularly at risk, given their already precarious conditions.
In order to analyse the impact of the pandemic on the living standards, vulnerability, income levels, health conditions and employment opportunities across rural areas of Pakistan, a detailed household survey was conducted in the southwestern part of Punjab.
The study sets out to explore whether the rural poor could achieve stable poverty eradication during the COVID-19 pandemic. It applies the multidimensional poverty measurement model to analyse data. Findings revealed that the overall level of multidimensional poverty vulnerability index (MPVI) of the surveyed households was low and the MPVI of each dimension varied significantly. Second, COVID-19 increased households’ vulnerability to multidimensional poverty.
The study proposes various measures in response to the impact of the pandemic to assist rural households in poverty-stricken areas, in an attempt to assist them towards a stable path out of poverty and vulnerability.
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