“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt.

“Weathering the Storm” examines seven case studies of MFIs from around the world that have encountered – and in some cases, overcome – extremely challenging situations that resulted from rapid growth and other causes. The paper, published in 2011, aims to understand the root causes, consequences, and context of failures or near failures and to extract common lessons from each institution’s experience.

CFI initiated the Weathering the Storm project because the industry lacked a body of knowledge on the topic of crisis, particularly those accompanying rapid growth. These experiences need to be openly discussed in order to avoid future failures. The project extends the work begun by a team led by Beatriz Marulanda in “Taking the Good from the Bad in Microfinance: Lessons Learned from Failed Experiences in Latin America.” “Weathering the Storm” moves beyond Latin America to examine a global sampling of institutions.

Seven Case Studies

“Weathering the Storm” is based on seven in-depth case studies from Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Europe/Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, South East Europe, and three mini-cases of MFIs from Benin, the United States, and Indonesia, that have at one time been on a path towards crisis. By focusing on the challenges and conditions each institution faced, as well as how they handled the crisis - and in some cases were able to save the institution - the paper provides important survival lessons that apply broadly to MFIs facing crisis.

The paper was generously supported by the Calmeadow Foundation and Deutsche Bank, and the roundtables associated with this initiative were supported by Citi Foundation.