This paper focuses on an especially important set of social impacts resulting from climate change in South Asia, namely the displacement of vast numbers of people as a consequence mainly of sea level rise along the coasts and secondarily from … Read More
Publications
From Outlays To Outcomes: Getting Development From Development Expenditure
On August 25th 2009, Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research and Centre for Development Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research organized a conference entitled: “From Outlays to Outcomes: Getting Development from Development Expenditures”. The conference aimed to create a … Read More
Advocacy-oriented Strategy: Background Thoughts for ICICI Foundation
This background note provides a high-level overview of the basics of advocacy, why it is important, and how best-in-class organizations approach the topic. Its secondary objective is to showcase various options for structuring an advocacy-oriented organization backed up by programming, … Read More
User Innovation & e-Governance Design
This paper provides an analytical case study of an Indian NGO’s efforts to engage city government officials in developing and refining an e-governance system for tracking public grievances and city performance in redressing these. It is a draft of a … Read More
Business Correspondent Model: A Preliminary Exploration
Since its inception in 2006, various banks have promoted the BC model in all corners of the country, though few of these efforts have scaled up beyond modest pilots. There is scarce documentation on how these pilots work in the … Read More
A Closer Look at Consolidation: The Sonata-Jeevika Acquisition
This case study takes an in-depth look at the first acquisition in Indian microfinance, Sonata Finance’s purchase of Jeevika Livelihood Support Organisation’s entire microfinance operations in August 2007. The insights presented in the case study will be useful for microfinance … Read More
Impact of Business Training on Microfinance Clients
This document summarizes initial results from a CMF impact evaluation on the effects of business training among SEWA Bank clients. This study examines the impact of a short training course on business and financial skills for self-employed women in Ahmedabad.
Environmental Sustainability Index for Indian States: Informing Environmental Action
The Environmental sustainability index tracks the environment performance of 28 states of India and projects the ability of the states to protect their environment in the coming years. Collating secondary data from published and credible sources, ESI measures the state … Read More
Fighting Malaria with Microfinance: A Case Study on Biswa Microfinance Utilizing Microcredit Contracts to Increase the Use of Insecticide Treated Bednets
This case study sheds light on BISWA microfinance’s pilot project in which they offered self-help group (SHG) members across 50 villages the opportunity to purchase ITNs through cash or credit contracts. The case study focuses on the process of developing … Read More
The Importance of Hold-up in Contracting : Evidence from a Field Experiment
This paper explores how the relationship specificity of an investment affects the ex-ante structure of contracts and the ex-post resolution of an ensuing hold-up problem.