Microfinance Institutions and the Core Poor in Bangladesh: A Review of Their Operations

This paper presents the findings of a study that investigated the impact of Microfinance Institutions in Bangladesh on the core poor i.e. those living on less than $1USD/day and the correlation between the presence of these institutions and poverty in the five Divisions that were examined in the country. Bangladesh is one of the most populous countries in the world with a high level of poverty. This study looked into the operations of these Microfinance Institutions between 1995 and 2005 to establish the correlation between their presence and the poverty level in the locations where they have a strong presence and a weak presence. The study looked into the efforts of Microfinance institutions in poverty alleviation to see if they focused solely on the poor or also catered to the challenges of the core (extremely) poor people that had no valuable possessions or collaterals to obtain loans from them in addition to examining the support of the top three Microfinance Institutions for the vulnerable especially poor women in terms of empowerment in the period under review. This paper concludes with implications of the presence of microfinance institutions for poverty reduction in a geographical location and recommendations for further research.