Reaching the Hard to Reach: Literature Review

This paper summarizes findings of a study to assess the outreach that can be expected by different types of member-owned institutions (MOIs), and the key controllable factors that affect it. It seeks to find ways to support MOIs so that they continue to provide affordable financial services to remote rural populations.

MOIs can achieve impressive outreach through growth and replication. They typically recover their costs and meet client’s demand at a lower cost than that incurred on alternatives. The study focuses on key drivers of outreach, namely, internal governance, networks and linkages, and regulation and supervision. The analysis is based on literature review and focuses on MOIs providing credit and savings services in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The paper concludes with donor strategies and guidelines for supporting and strengthening MOI outreach and governance. Finally it poses a series of questions that need to be answered to further improve MOI outreach and governance.