Kiva, a MFI, states that other microfinance institutions, such as AMK, are currently working on many things to improve their service and assistance to their clients. The main three things they are working on are savings, life insurance, and non-financial products.
AMK is doing a lot of work in Cambodia, and is currently in the process of obtaining their savings license from the National Bank of Cambodia. Once they obtain that license, they will be able to further promote savings in every village they work in.
Life insurance may be harder though. Currently, AMK is looking into providing life insurance to their clients, so they can be significantly assisted if a family member dies. Their policy right now is that if a client dies, their existing loan is written off. They are trying to improve that policy.
The next huge factor is non-financial products in developing countries, and our own. Especially in developing countries and third-world countries, we need these products such as clean drinking water, water filters, and more sanitation processes. All these things will greatly improve the lives of the clients and the nation as a whole. AMK is trying to eradicate kerosine lamps and replace them with solar lamps, which will help countries drastically develop environmentally.
If they went even further after establishing all those things, they aspire to use their network to do so much more. They would like to establish and promote better health care, cheaper secondary school education, business development, and providing clients with access to larger markets.
The increasingly large numbers of networks that microfinance institutions have are an extremely valuable asset in ending poverty, or at least decreasing it. As MFI's use their networks sustainably, they are obtaining the tools they need to eradicate poverty completely.
http://pages.kiva.org/fellowsblog/2010/02/09/microfinance-will-not-end-poverty-microfinance-institutions-will
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