I just saw an analysis on microfinance by Lee Hudson Teslik, from the Council on Foreign Relations.  The article also links you to an interview that the Council on Foreign relations staff conducted with Matt Flannery, co-founder of the famous, Kiva.org, a major organization in the microcredit sector.  The article also summarizes the ongoing debate about whether microfinance institutions (MFIs) like BRAC, Grameen and ACCION should run their organizations specifically as charities or as businesses. (I still believe that these MFIs can be run with both in mind – but it seems that research is proving me wrong!).

Also, I would draw your attention to an excellent book on this topic titled The Economics of Microfinance by Beatriz Armendáriz and Jonathan Morduch.  I just started this book, and it is an advanced primer dealing with the pros and cons of the microcredit and microfinance model.  If you’re planning to do research or learn more about this popular method of social change, it’s worth reading.  Of course, the other books worth reading on this issue are both by Mohammed Yunus, winner of 2007 Nobel Peace Prize: Banker to the Poor and  Creating a World without Poverty:  Social business and the future of capitalism.