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Searching for the Middle Path in Microfinance Delivery

Contrary to conventional understanding of microfinance delivery approach as either non-profit or for-profit model of delivery, the paper argues that there exists a middle path. The middle path assembles the scalability of a for-profit approach as well as the client-centredness of a non-profit approach. A community-based microfinance organisation, People’s Rural Education Movement (PREM), operating as a social movement organisation, has been able to successfully combine the pressure of outreach and sustainability without compromising on the focus on poverty. Through a federated structure, a holistic approach to poverty alleviation, and an emphasis on keeping the poor at the centre of decision making, PREM has been able to create an ‘enabling approach’ to microfinance which is demand-driven and maneuvered by people at the receiving end.