Sample cover letter for Full Time position at Dalberg

Microfinancemost definitely falls into this category.

One of the misconceptions about Microfinance is that poor people default on their loans and will not pay back just because they are poor. This is simply not true. Microfinance repayment rates have been very high traditionally. BRAC, for example, has a repayment rate of over 98%.

Another myth is that the best way to support microfinance is to lend your money to specific individuals.

In reality, choosing your own borrowers is not really possible or desirable. Even when your donation is “officially” matched to a borrower, you’re really funding an institution, which is likely a good thing.

Similarly, a high repayment rate does not necessarily mean that things are going well and clients are benefiting from loans. The repayment rate can be both technically and conceptually misleading.

And loans, or microcredit, is actually just one of the suite of financial products needed by low-income households. Microinsurance, for example, has recently been making inroads across the developing world

The success of microfinance has also created big expectations of what it can achieve. Microfinance should not be seen as the silver-bullet solution to defeating poverty. Poverty has complex multi-faceted causes, and therefore one should not expect just one method to root out poverty. It is, however, a transformative tool when coupled with other solutions.