Remittances, Microfinance and Development: building the links
Volume 1: a global view

Editor: Judith Shaw, 2006 (123 pages)

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At a time when other financial flows from developed to developing countries are in stagnation or decline, remittances from migrant workers have expanded in the last decade to become a key input to national and household economies in many developing countries. It is clear that the funds migrant workers send home can provide an important resource for creating sustainable local economic options. Recent research has linked remittances with poverty reduction and with increased household savings and small business investment.

Migrant workers and their families need financial products which make it easier to send, receive and manage international money transfers, and to save and invest their income. Microfinance is well-suited for remittance-linked financial services, particularly among poor and geographically isolated populations. Because they are poor, many remittance recipients fall outside typical bank client profiles, but are well within the market segment targeted by microfinance agencies. By extending remittance-linked services to the ‘unbanked’, microfinance has the potential to promote broad-based development while vastly expanding the volume of remittance flows mediated through financial institutions.

This volume responds to growing interest in the potential of microfinance to leverage the developmental impacts of remittances, by bringing together the work of prominent academics and practitioners in Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. It is intended as a resource for donors, policy-makers and practitioners in designing policies and systems that maximise the developmental impacts of remittances.

Editor Judith Shaw Contents Introduction (Judith Shaw & Robyn Eversole)

1 Remittances as development option: framework of key issues (Robyn Eversole)

2 Migration, remittances and the South Pacific: towards investment against vulnerability (Richard Brown & John Connell)

3 Mismatched perceptions: views on remittance obligations among remittance senders and recipients (Tolu Muliaina)

4 Trade liberalization, remittances, poverty and income distributions of households in Ghana (Vijay K. Bhasin & Camara K. Obeng)

5 Money transfers: taking advantage of the market opportunity (Jennifer Isern, Rani Deshpande & Judith van Doorn)

6 Remittances and MFI intermediation: issues and lessons (Manuel Orozco & Eve Hamilton)

7 How money moves in cash-based markets: money transfer services in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (Cerstin Sander)

8 Remittances, microfinance and community informatics: development and governance issues (Scott Robinson)

9 Overseas migration in the household economies of microfinance clients: evidence from Sri Lanka (Judith Shaw)

10 Bibliography on migration and remittances (Geoff Bertram)