The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Microfinance Distance Learning Program. This online course through the United Nations provides some downloadable resources on their website, the complete course is available for purchase in a combined book/CD-Rom package.

Designed for: Working professionals with an elementary understanding of what microfinance programs are and what they seek to accomplish.

Overview: The UNCDF Microfinance Distance Learning Program is designed as a stand-alone self-study course, or for use in a tutored virtual classroom. The course content is designed for working professionals with an elementary understanding of what microfinance programs are and what they seek to accomplish. The material covers a breadth of topics, from defining what microfinance is and how it formed to reading and understanding financial statements. The course would be of particular interest to individuals in the international development field who wish to gain a deeper understanding of microfinancing, or those new to the field and wanting to expand their knowledge.

Course Components and Content:

• Why and how microfinance operations grow to provide financial services to poor and low-income people on a sustainable basis.
• Advice and best practices from successful practitioners and institutions around the world, from Latin America to Africa to Asia and the Arab States.
• The course curriculum utilizes an interactive approach to engage students in a more experiential learning process.
• Utilizes both a workbook and CD-Rom.
• Poses questions and solutions to each lesson.

Australian Bureau of Statistics: Microcredit Overview. The contents for this course are completely downloadable from their website.

Designed for: Secondary school students and teachers.

Overview: The Australian Bureau of Statistics lesson plans draw together information and key statistics from a wide variety of sources exploring the growth and spread of microcredit throughout the world. These lesson plans will help teachers enhance their students' understanding of microcredit while fulfilling curriculum outcomes in a number of key learning areas, including: Studies of Society and the Environment, Human Society and Its Environment, and Economics.

Course Components and Content:

• The course materials were created to highlight the United Nations International Year of Microcredit, 2005.
• The course is designed for use in a classroom setting, with facilitation by a teacher or professor.
• Activities can be used either together as a series or independently for shorter exercises.
• Case Studies are used as the basis for the course activities.
• Statistics is used as a basis for much of the course exercises to calculate percentages, ratios, create graphs and draw conclusions about the data presented.
• Course activities can be done in groups or individually, based on the professor's preference.

Microfinance: A Teacher's Resource for the International Year of Microcredit 2005. All materials are downloadable from their website.

Designed for: Primary and secondary teachers to introduce students to the concept of microcredit.

Overview: Microfinance: A Teacher's Resource for the International Year of Microcredit has been written for primary and secondary teachers to introduce students to the concept of microcredit. This free resource provides teachers with a range of photographs as a photoliteracy tool for exploring the concepts of credit and debt, small business opportunities and microfinance. The material can be adapted to suit a wide variety of year levels and teaching and learning programs.

Course Components and Content:

• The case studies provide an opportunity for students to better conceptualize what microfinance projects may look like when implemented, and what sort of financial restraints and challenges families participating often face.
• A series of questions are included for use with each lesson plan.
• Math and calculation are a part of many of the questions.

Practical Microfinance: A Training Manual. The Training Manual is available for purchase from various online retail outlets, including the website link provided above.

Designed for: Training staff for banks, MFIs and NGOs who currently work in the field of microfinance or may in the future.

Overview: Practical Microfinance provides detailed step-by-step descriptions for twenty-two sessions which together offer a complete 5 to 10 day course on microfinance. The sessions may also be used individually, selected from to make up tailor-made courses, or integrated with other materials. The sessions cover a wide range of topics including: introduction to financial accounts; undertaking field visits; analysis of MFIs; group and individual lending; micro-insurance and micro-savings; and measuring the impact of microfinance. The sessions have been extensively tested in courses at the Cranfield School of Management in the UK, and in a number of different institutions in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda and elsewhere. An introductory chapter includes advice on how to use the material in the book and a list of recommended resources and full index are provided for ease of reference.

Course Components and Content:

• The course is designed to train staff for banks, MFIs and NGOs who currently work in the field of microfinance or may in the future.
• The session exercise and case study handouts may be photocopied for participants or customized to meet trainees' needs via freely available web files.
• Each session guide contains a brief statement of the session objective, an estimate of the time it should take, detailed notes for the trainer, including questions to be asked, issues to be discussed and points to be emphasized, and a number of simple exercises, case studies and other materials for stimulating participants' learning.

To learn more about how microfinancing programs are meeting the needs of the poor see The Basics on Microfinance.

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