Despite the considerable economic growth of the Asia-Pacific, poverty continues
to be a major problem. One key way to create sustainable livelihoods and to
provide poor households an escape route from poverty is microfinance. Since the
early 1980s, microfinance practitioners have proven that the poor are
creditworthy, capable of utilizing scarce capital efficiently in viable
incom-generating projects and able to pay back their loans. This book collects
the experience of microfinance practitioners in 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific
region to describe the present state of the art. It is designed to provide an
overview of the subject: why it is so essential to poverty reduction; what is
the