Catch the Highlights of Portfolios of the Poor Virtual Conference

• Portfolios of the Poor: Overview

• The “Triple-Whammy” of Poverty – Lessons from Portfolio of the Poor: How the world’s poor live on $2 a day

• Borrowing to Save: Perspectives from Portfolios of the Poor

• How do the poor deal with risk?

• Research Methodologies

• Creating Better Portfolio: Core Financial Products for the Poor

• Portfolios of Bangladesh’s Poor

• Bob Christen: Introducing the book - Portfolios of the Poor

• Stuart Rutherford on "Portfolios of the Poor". Part 1

• Stuart Rutherford on "Portfolios of the Poor". Part 2

• Stuart Rutherford on “Portfolios of the Poor”. Part 3

• Stuart Rutherford on “Portfolios of the Poor”. Part 4

• William Easterly on “Portfolios of the Poor”

• Jonathan Morduch on “Portfolios of the Poor”. Part 1

• Jonathan Morduch on “Portfolios of the Poor”. Part 2

• Yaw Nyarko on “Portfolios of the Poor”

• Richard Rosenberg on “Portfolios of the Poor”. Part 1

• Richard Rosenberg on “Portfolios of the Poor”. Part 2

• Richard Rosenberg on “Portfolios of the Poor”. Part 3

• Sukhwinder Singh Arora on “Portfolios of the Poor”

• Daryl Collins on “Portfolios of the Poor”. Part 1

• Daryl Collins on “Portfolios of the Poor”. Part 2

More than 2.7 billion people worldwide live on $2 or less a day. They manage to put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads, plan for medical emergencies, and even save for retirement. How do they do it?

The groundbreaking book, Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day, addresses this question by spending a year recording the financial diaries of a group of households in Bangladesh, India and South Africa.

MicroSave and the Financial Access Initiative (FAI) successfully completed the virtual conference on Portfolios of the Poor which ran for two days. The conference discussed how to turn lessons from the financial diaries into real, on-the-ground solutions for improving the lives of the poor.

This event was moderated by co-authors Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, and MicroSave’s Graham Wright.
Dates: June 8-9, 2010
The following topics were discussed during the conference:
Day 1: Understanding How Poor People Manage their Money – Lessons from “Portfolios of the Poor”

1. How do poor people meet the challenges of managing their money? What mechanisms do they use?

2. What are the three needs that drive financial behaviour of the poor? This discussion will examine

   1. managing basics;

   2. coping with risk and

   3. raising lump sums

3. Why do microfinance institutions (MFIs) play such a small role in poor people’s efforts to manage their money?

Day 2: Designing Financial Services for the Poor – Lessons from “Portfolios of the Poor”

1. What are the four key factors in the design of financial services for the poor

   1. Reliability

   2. Convenience

   3. Flexibility

   4. Structure

2. How should MFIs respond to the three basic types of financial services needed by the poor to:

   1. manage money on a day-to-day basis;

   2. build savings over time; and

   3. borrow money for a wide variety of purposes?

3. Do interest rates matter?

4. Does this type of market research really matter for MFIs?

You can still read the discussions here.

For more information send your questions to madhu@MicroSave.net

Media articles on PoP Virtual Conference Series

1. Series 1: How Poor People Manage their Money – Interaction with PoP Authors; Microfinance Focus

2. Series 2: Role of MFIs in Managing Poor People’s Money: Interactions with PoP Authors; Microfinance Focus

3. Series 3: Does Interest Rate Matters in Microfinance: Interactions with PoP Authors; Microfinance Focus

4. Three Opportunities for Microfinance Providers; The Hindu