In a follow-on from Monitor's excellent 2009 report 'Emerging Markets, Emerging models' report that looked at more than 350 market-based solutions to poverty and environmental challenges in India, this new paper looks at ways to leverage MFI Networks to distribute non-financial products and services.

From the abstract:

"Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have realized considerable success in India by providing credit services to the poor in order to encourage them to pull themselves out of poverty. The growth of MFIs has drawn the attention of other organizations looking to provide goods and services to members of the 'B60,' (the bottom 60% of the income distribution). Some pilot projects that aim to use MFI networks to distribute non-financial products and services have taken place. Few have been successful, and most have stopped short of scale.

Monitor's research has examined previous and ongoing experiments with MFI channel expansion and has identified five models of leveraging MFI networks that show the greatest potential. We have shown that mode selection for a given product provider and MFI will be critical to the success of an expansion venture. We highlight the attributes of suitable products and provide examples matched against each of the five viable business models.

Finally, we present a series of key recommendations for organizations launching expansion ventures - both MFIs and product providers - that should help such initiatives to be both effective and impactful in the future."

Link to download report