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Poverty alleviation is one of the most compelling challenges facing Kenya today. It is not only widespread but it is also steadily rising. This highlights the need for sustainable solutions to poverty particularly through microfinance. This research investigated the case of North Eastern Kenya Province. The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique micro-level challenges that are faced by poverty alleviation programs adopted by microfinance institutions operating in this region.

The study used structured questionnaires to collect primary data. The sample covered 600 respondents randomly selected from three counties, namely, Wajir, Mandera and Marsabit. Three focus group discussions comprising 24 participants held to facilitate a deeper understanding of the challenges of poverty among the North Eastern Province’s communities when alleviated through micro-finance.

The results reveal that the illiteracy due to the weakness of education and the unfavorable basic and financial infrastructures such as roads, telecommunications network represents the most important challenges that may affect the success of micro-finance programs.

These results recommend that both conventional and Islamic micro-finance might contribute positively for poverty alleviation for the poorest Kenyan region if the challenges are mitigated.

The study provides policy recommendations for the Kenya Government and the conventional and Islamic banks in Kenya to provide the expected support for the poorest area in the country.

The result of this research might help the government, micro-finance providers and the donors to assist in alleviating the poverty of the Northern Kenyan community.

To overcome the challenges of alleviating poverty in the region of Northern Kenya.

The purpose of this paper is to examine microcredit and renewable energy programs for green development.

This paper envisions a comparison and contrasting of Grameen Bank and credit systems (Bangladesh) with Alterna Savings credit programs (Canada) and its impact on Toronto's local living economics and environmental development.

The findings are positive to environmental sustainable development.

Green micro financing and green micro business development have been underserved, less attention to the subject has been given by various public, private and non‐governmental organizations (financial and non‐financial) agencies through policies, strategies, and programs. This research examines the possibility of introducing market‐based green business development in Canada that would model that of Grameen Bank and its sister organizations.

This paper aims to investigate the role of demographics and sector type in determining consumer preferences of Islamic micro-credit products, namely, Musharka and Murabha, versus conventional micro-credit financing in Egypt.

This research is a quantitative study that uses surveys on 1,125 current micro-credit consumers in Cairo and Upper Egypt using multi-staged cluster sampling technique. Descriptive and inferential analyses were used to explain results.

The study revealed the potential of Musharka mode of financing among micro-credit borrowers in Egypt, specifically in the manufacturing sector, followed by the trade sector. Although previous researches showed correlations between income, age and other demographic factors with consumer financing choices, the current research indicated no significance for consumer demographics in determining preferences of Islamic micro-credit contracts in Egypt. However, the sector type showed high potential in determining consumer choices of Islamic micro-credit contracts.

This paper advances knowledge in the domain of consumer behavior, specifically in bottom of the pyramid and subsistence markets that are under researched.

The results highlighted are important for micro-finance institutions, NGOs and policy makers, as they delve deeper into the consumer preferences for Islamic financial products and attempt to present innovative solutions toward poverty eradication.

This research is one of the few attempts to study and explain consumer preferences toward Islamic micro-credit products in Egypt, and the role of sectors in determining consumer choices for specific Islamic micro-credit contracts.

This paper aims to investigate whether small finance banks (SFBs) in India are working towards financial inclusion through qualitative studies.

This paper uses a phenomenological approach in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with the employees of two SFBs in Mumbai with different specializations. Employee experience was captured to grasp, interpret and code data for the creation of different themes.

This research shows that the current literature on financial inclusion is inadequate to explain the behavior of the needy in India. Study found multiple themes of financial inclusion, namely, financial literacy, self-esteem, use of technology, prompt repayment, credit identity, cross-referencing and financial stability. Although overall results are positive, to generalize the results, SFBs need to spend some more time in business. The findings of this study can be of global benefit to micro-finance organizations of a similar scale to achieve financial inclusion and business improvement.

This qualitative study was performed at a single location and with a limited sample size, which underlines the need for repeated exercises at multiple locations with a larger sample size to establish a broader logical generality. It also points out the need for a study of employee themes to enhance the business processes of SFBs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this qualitative study is first attempt to figure out the extent of work done by SFBs in India in promoting financial inclusion. Themes related to financial inclusion can provide further thought process for policymakers for financial inclusion and business improvement. Findings refer not only to Indian organizations but also to small banks around the world to recognize the underpinnings of financial inclusion and what small banks and micro-finance institutions can do to make it meaningful.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique aspects of Islamic finance and its role in economic development. It also explores the suitability of Islamic finance in China.

The paper explores the potential of Islamic banking and finance for economic sustainability in China. This study adopts the content analysis approach and focuses on various aspects of finance. Moreover, a critical investigation has been done by using various indicators of a new finance system adoption by considering the economic, cultural, religious and political aspects of China.

The study reveals that China already tested Islamic finance on a pilot basis in Ningxia, China. China is suitably positioned to adopt Islamic finance for its economic development. It also reports that Islamic finance will be more helpful to implement One Belt One Road initiative of China, as the Gulf and Arab Islamic finance-based countries are the major partners of China. This study analyzes Islamic micro-finance literature and proposes suitable measures for adoption in China.

Despite some limitations, the findings have a large implication on Islamic financing in general. It will be helpful to researchers and practitioners to understand the Islamic finance model for implementing it in a new environment.

This study analyzes the demand, rules and regulations, related challenges and potential of launching Islamic banking and finance in China.

This study analyzes the demand, rules and regulations, related challenges and potential of launching Islamic banking and finance in China. The paper fills a gap to the existing literature on Islamic finance uniqueness, challenges and opportunities from the perspective of a non-Muslim country.

This paper seeks to show how microfinance has contributed to poverty reduction and strengthening the risk management capacity of the poor.

Considers disaster preparedness of micro finance institutions (MFIs) especially in natural disasters, economic crisis and civil conflicts.

Finds that it is essential for MFIs to prepare a strategy for maintaining liquidity in a disaster situation, especially keeping disaster loan funds (DLFs) in reserve to help affected households.

Sees disaster management as a dynamic process that could ideally be developed during normal times and tested in actual disasters but it requires careful planning and commitment on the part of all stakeholders

The purpose of this study is to focus on women small and medium enterprises (WSMEs) financed by Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) for poverty alleviation in Kakamega District‐Kenya.

The study utilized cross‐sectional data from KWFT and follow‐up field survey data of women beneficiaries of KWFT credit. Multi‐stage stratified sampling technique was adopted to identify 90 women entrepreneurs of the total population of 300. Primary data were gathered using structured and non‐structured questionnaires, interview schedules and focus group discussions. The study adopts both qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

KWFT micro credit has had a positive impact upon women entrepreneurs on income savings, asset creation and their general social welfare. However, the KWFT's fight against poverty is constrained by socio‐culture and other institutional policy issues such as: right to own property, right to education, own land, manage and inherit property, conduct business, among others.

Women have shown that they are strong entrepreneurs, borrowers and change agents through WSMEs. Government of Kenya should urgently adopt a gender policy to address socio‐culture issues constraining WSMEs. Further, KWFT should avoid cumbersome loan procedures but rather provide quick and convenient access to credit for women entrepreneurs, simple product offerings, with some flexibility to boost fight against poverty.

Linking women entrepreneurship in the context of overall fight against poverty in Western Region in Kenya through KWFT; provide opportunity to add knowledge to current literature critical for academia and women entrepreneurship policy in Kenya in particular, as well as Sub‐Saharan African region.

The purpose of this study is to adopt quantile regression to investigate the impact of several factors on per capita income of participants of micro-financing scheme (Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia [AIM]), who are mostly women at different point on the income distributions.

This study uses data collected from a survey on respondents who are the participants of AIM program using convenience sampling in Perak and Kelantan.

The empirical results show that the value of asset, value of loan, household size, ratio of spending to income and dummy state are consistently giving similar impacts on per capita income of participants at different quantiles.

However, age negatively and significantly affects per capita income only at middle and lower quantiles but not at higher quantile of per capita income.

The purpose of this paper is to assess readiness of Iranian micro‐finance institutes (MFIs) to perform micro‐insurance activities.

A five‐variable model was used. Each variable was assessed using a special dimension of readiness. Row data were gathered through a closed interview containing 34 questions using the Likert scale. Interviewees included 30 experts working as top managers in 15 selected Iranian MFIs (consisting of banks, finance and credit institutes and Qarzol‐hasane).

The score for general readiness of MFIs in Iran revealed a remarkable figure. Accordingly, it is suggested that these institutes should enter this business field incrementally and invest in this particular domain.

The sample was not truly random, as the professionals in this field are not easily accessible. The factors that were used for the study were based on a review of past researches and the factors were chosen after deliberation and reliability tests. However, this study may not have chosen all possible factors. The research findings are limited to MFIs of Iran. The findings cannot be generalized to other institutions or industries.

The paper reveals the importance of the readiness assessment in successful microinsurance implementation by Islamic MFIs and introduces a basic model for this type of readiness assessment that can be used in other countries.

To describe the Pragathi Bandhu Groups (PBG) Model and portray the performance of PBG farmers encouraged by their financial and decision-making participation in micro financing and labor sharing, as well as to analyze the factors that influenced participation of small farmers in PBG.

The empirical study is confined to the small farmers and laborers of PBG functioning in the coastal districts of Karnataka State in India. The study is conducted in Belthangady and Bantwal Taluks of Dakshina Kannada (DK) Districts-Udupi taluk of Udupi District in the State of Karnataka. Primary data from 100 farmer members, selected at random in each of the Taluks, is collected through personal interview by administering semi-structured interview schedules and open discussion. In addition, the data on the functions and the performance of PBG in the State of Karnataka in India are also collected from the official records of Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) and their field-level functionaries through informal discussions. Factor analysis is performed with principal component analysis followed by Varimax rotation to analyze the factors that influenced participation of small farmers in PBG.

Results show that the implementation of PBG Model, through the collective participation of small farmers in micro financing, free labor sharing, financial and decision-making activities underlying the functions of PBG Model, has helped them to achieve robust performance in terms of increased savings mobilization, loan utilization, and value of free labor sharing and acres of land brought under cultivation with the help of irrigation facilities created by them. The factor analysis has derived four factors that influenced the participation of farmers in PBG (agriculture development, financial participation, capacity building, and other benefits) which explain 63.701 of total factor variance.

The findings of this paper can benefit the small farmers and laborers in replicating the PBG Model and its initiatives that address shortages of labor and credit, as well as the high cost of labor, particularly in the unorganized sector in the agrarian economy.

The insights offered are likely to be beneficial to the distressed small farmers, development agencies, and agriculture policy makers to solve the agrarian crisis caused due to shortages of labor and farm credit.