Promising Practices in Rural Finance: Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean

By Mark D. Wenner, Javier Alvarado, Francisco Galarza (04/03, En, Es)

The creation and deepening of financial markets are factors that undoubtedly contribute to the development of nations. Access to financial services enables individuals from low-income sectors to seek new business opportunities, acquire assets, manage risks more efficiently, and cope with fluctuating incomes.

The expansion of microfinance in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean that has taken place over the last decades has benefited significant sectors of the population. Yet, financial services have made several limited inroads in rural areas, and large sectors of the population still do not have access to formal finance.

Promising Practices in Rural Finance addresses the challenges of creating and deepening rural financial markets in the region from two complementary perspectives: a theoretical analysis of the reasons why there has not been greater outreach in rural sectors and studies for cases that have had partial, but valuable, success in Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica and Peru.

The book examines difficulties that are typical of rural financial transactions, studies the lessons that the "microfinance evolution" offers these sectors, analyzes how some of the obstacles to such service provision have been overcome in a few countries, and reviews how socioeconomic and regulatory measures have influenced rural finances in the region.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Javier Alvarado, Francisco Galarza and Mark D. Wenner
SECTION ONE

THEORETICAL OVERVIEW OF RURAL FINANCE AND

POLICY FRAMEWORK

Chapter 1

Rural Finance in Latin America and the Caribbean:

Challenges and Opportunities

Mark D. Wenner and Francisco J. Proenza

Chapter 2

Lessons for Rural Finance from the Microfinance Revolution

Claudio González-Vega