Congrats to the team at Wokai for landing this CNBC spot!

The Mifi Report launched a new forums section on their website earlier this month.  It is a great place to start or read discussions about news articles about microfinance.  It is still early in it’s launch, so let’s hear any feedback you have.

Here is an interesting article by Dr. Bashir Mahmud Ellias that discusses microfinance and its relationship with dowries.

Over the last two to three decades rural Bangladeshi society has experienced a complex range of developments. Among these, NGOs, micro-finance institutions and garment industries have become the major agents of change in the lives of rural Bangladeshi women. Women’s increased access to independent sources of finance, through participation in outside paid employment or through micro-credit, is usually taken as one of the main indicators of the improvement of women’s status and of women’s empowerment.
However, a puzzle remains: if these positive changes have resulted in women’s “empowerment” , why has there not been the kind of improvements in women’s position that might be expected, such as the reduction or abolition of dowry payments, or a reduction in domestic violence? Indeed, if anything these tend to be going in the opposite direction. Dowry amounts continue to rise, as does the associated violence against women.

To read the rest of the article, check out Dr. Bashir Mahmud Ellias’ blog.

I saw this in the SeaMo monthly newsletter (mailing list here), Microfinance for Institutional Investors is having a Microfinance conference in Washington DC that will bring together a panel of 50 experts from leading microfinance and financial organisations. Get more details here.

Via CGAP:

Entries from photographers of all levels and every region of the world over the past three years have been shared and exhibited in different venues around the world. Winning photos from last year’s Contest are currently on display at Citigroup Centre in London. We hope you’ll share your vision of microfinance and help tell the world about microfinance by participating in this year’s Contest.

Visit www.cgap.org/photocontest to enter or to see images from the past Contest.