Microfinance and financial inclusion: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract Lifting the poor from poverty through financial and social inclusion is the ultimate target and raison d'etre of microfinance. As the most recent literature has recognized, microfinance institutions have economically worked well in operating microcredit, but the aim of raising the living standard of their indigent clients has not been generally met. The expected encouragement of entrepreneurship from microcredit is still not detected in the empirical data, let alone women's social integration in working activities. The articles collected in this thematic issue bring new empirical elements of discussion pointing to many aspects of the social divides and the inequalities that plague the emerging countries. This overview article recalls the main questions that are still open and the framework of topics discussed in this thematic issue.