In Search of "Sound Practices" for Microfinance

The notion of "best practices" for all microfinance is challenged in favor of "sound practices" that are appropriate for particular organizational strategies and situations. A simple conceptual framework is offered to facilitate understanding of the current diversity of experiments with product-market pairs (e.g., group-based lending to poor women struggling to earn enough for family survival). Since the microfinance movement is still in a mode of intensive learning, we should not presume too soon what will be "best" for all product-market pairs. We can expect to discover a somewhat different set of sound practices for each distinct product-market pair.