The Microfinance Insider is a forum for graduate students engaged or interested in working in the field of microfinance. Through weekly posts and comments we hope to inspire students and foster the creation of a knowledge community of bloggers with a commitment to financial access and first hand industry information.


Tuesday, June 9, 2009

EUROPEAN BOOK TOUR: Portfolios of the Poor


The office is quiet this week: FAI directors and staff are in Europe promoting the launch of Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day. Comprised of the financial “diaries” of over 250 families in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa, Portfolios of the Poor tracks the financial practices of the poor with unprecedented detail. Households maintained meticulous records for a year, reporting on their income, savings, expenses, and loans, every two weeks. This attention to detail revealed an unexpected lesson about poverty: the poor lead complex and active financial lives; not despite being poor, but because they are poor.


Published less than a month ago, Portfolios of the Poor has already received a considerable amount of press:


May 26

Noted Times columnist Nicholas Kristof reviews the book here:


May 18

Portfolios of the Poor is featured in the New York Times Idea of the Day, an editor-run blog dedicated to "highlighting the most interesting writing on the Web."


May 17

Portfolios of the Poor co-author, Daryl Collins, discusses the complex and sophisticated instruments with which the poor manage their unpredictable incomes in a Boston Globe article.


May 14

PRNewswire New York reviews Portfolios of the Poor.


May 14

The Economist magazine features Portfolios research and stories.


February 14

An early review from the Financial Times highlights lessons of Portfolios of the Poor.



2 comments:

ashley alfred said...

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and this trend is not about to change. Among those urban dwellers in the developing world, more than a third lives in a slum or extremely precarious conditions. But numerous socially minded individuals are uncovering new ways to provide decent quality homes at affordable costs to low-income populations – helping small property owners become landlords, providing standardized housing units in recycled shipping containers, lending building material for self-improvements, etc. MYA.

Anonymous said...

World has become a very different place to live in.

50% off on watchindia.tv
offer valid till 10th jan 2010