The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) is a consortium of 27 multilateral and bilateral development agencies and 2 private development agencies working together to build financial systems for the poor people in developing countries. CGAP’s vision is a world where poor people are considered legitimate clients of their countries’ financial systems. To achieve its vision, CGAP provides public and private development agencies, financial service providers, and governments a range of services that includes advice, standards and good practices, training, and knowledge. Because of its unique structure and focus on building sustainable financial systems for the poor, CGAP has become an important platform for generating global consensus on standards and good practices and serves as a resource center and advisory group for the microfinance community around the world.
CGAP has been working to develop a wide variety of financial institutions with a broad range of demand-driven financial services, to improve financial transparency, to enhance the policy and regulatory framework, and to improve donor effectiveness. The Microfinance Donor Peer Reviews launched in 2002 were a major initiative to improve donor procedures, practices, and systems.
CGAP has a comprehensive website (www.cgap.org) to communicate with the global microfinance community and member agencies. ADB has been a member of CGAP since its inception in 1995. In 2001, ADB provided regional technical assistance to extend CGAP’s poverty outreach initiatives and has played an active role in the peer reviews.