Despite the considerable economic growth of the Asia-Pacific, poverty continues to be a major problem. One key way to create sustainable livelihoods and to provide poor households an escape route from poverty is microfinance. Since the early 1980s, microfinance practitioners have proven that the poor are creditworthy, capable of utilizing scarce capital efficiently in viable incom-generating projects and able to pay back their loans. This book collects the experience of microfinance practitioners in 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region to describe the present state of the art. It is designed to provide an overview of the subject: why it is so essential to poverty reduction; what is the "best practice"; what kind of policy framework and regulatory environment is required. It offers both an extensive survey of the academic literature and a selection of case studies, all from authors who have been active practitioners in microfinance for many years. The case studies cover four key countries in South Asia and three countries in East Asia in which microfinance had become particularly important. There is also a regional chapter covering the Pacific islands.