Resource guide on microfinance

"Microfinance is the provision of financial services to the poor on a sustainable basis. Financial services that the working poor need and demand include different types of credit, savings, guarantees, insurance, transfer payments, remittances and other transactions. Microfinance is addressed to the poor and those excluded from market transactions. It seeks to broaden and deepen the market by emphasizing that ultimately microfinance institutions have to be sustainable, i.e. self-financing."

ILO policy statement : microfinance for decent work, Governing Body, 294th Session, Geneva, 2005 (pdf 41 KB)

On this page: Find information on microfinance through Labordoc • International Labour Standards • Statistics • In the media • Key ILO documents • ILO links • External links • Photos • Videos

Find information on microfinance through Labordoc

• ILO publications on microfinance
• All publications on microfinance available in Labordoc

International Labour Standards

Conventions

• C29 Forced Labour Convention, 1930
• C97 Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949
• C117 Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) Convention, 1962
• C168 Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment Convention, 1988
• C169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989

Recommendations

• R48 Seamen's Welfare in Ports Recommendation, 1936
• R86 Migration for Employment Recommendation (Revised), 1949
• R99 Vocational Rehabilitation (Disabled) Recommendation, 1955
• R100 Protection of Migrant Workers (Underdeveloped Countries) Recommendation, 1955
• R104 Indigenous and Tribal Populations Recommendation, 1957
• R110 Plantations Recommendation, 1958
• R115 Workers' Housing Recommendation, 1961
• R122 Employment Policy Recommendation, 1964
• R127 Co-operatives (Developing Countries) Recommendation, 1966
• R132 Tenants and Share-croppers Recommendation, 1968
• R136 Special Youth Schemes Recommendation, 1970
• R137 Vocational Training (Seafarers) Recommendation, 1970
• R149 Rural Workers' Organisations Recommendation, 1975
• R150 Human Resources Development Recommendation, 1975
• R168 Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Recommendation, 1983
• R169 Employment Policy (Supplementary Provisions) Recommendation, 1984
• R173 Seafarers' Welfare Recommendation, 1987
• R176 Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment Recommendation, 1988
• R184 Home Work Recommendation, 1996
• R189 Job Creation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Recommendation, 1998
• R193 Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002

International labour standards can be found in the NORMLEX database.

Statistics

• MIX Market: Financial data and social performance indicators for microfinance


• You will find statistics on the topic in the following selection of publications.

In the media

• Knowledge management: how microinsurance can best benefit low-income households, 1 November 2011
• Microinsurance and technology: bringing hi-tech to low-income clients, 18 November 2010
• Microfinance and the real economy: impacts and outcomes of the global economic crisis, 26 February 2009