This webinar is part of IPA's RECOVR Webinar Series: Bringing Evidence to COVID-19 Policy Responses in the Global South. Together with our partners, we are using this series to rapidly share what we are learning with the policy and research community to support evidence-informed response efforts. More information about other events in the series is available here.

Pakistan’s microfinance sector faces a crisis unlike anything it has experienced before. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens 7.3 million low-income Pakistani households that rely on microfinance institutions for access to capital and other financial services. Economists Muhammad Meki, Farah Said, and coauthors in Pakistan, surveyed 1,000 microfinance clients in Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir regions one week after the country’s lockdown began.

This webinar, co-hosted with FinDev Gateway, presented results from the survey, as well as interviews with the microfinance institutions that serve these clients, for a detailed picture of the impact of Pakistan’s lockdown on households and the industry overall.

As Pakistan now moves to reopen the economy, the following questions arise:

• How will borrowers fare and how will microfinance institutions recover?
• How does the experience of Pakistan’s microfinance sector compare to other countries?
• What lessons can we learn from Pakistan's experience?

IPA's Financial Inclusion Program Director, Rebecca Rouse moderated a panel with Muhammad Meki (University of Oxford), Farah Said (Lahore School of Economics), and Timothy Ogden (Financial Access Initiative).

For more information, see the event page on the FinDev Gateway website.

Watch the webinar recording below:
 

Speakers

• Muhammad Meki, Assistant Professor, University of Oxford
• Farah Said, Assistant Professor, Lahore School of Economics
• Timothy Ogden, Managing Director, Financial Access Initiative
• Rebecca Rouse (Moderator), Financial Inclusion Program Director, IPA