If you only read one thing this week…

This New York Times article highlights the fact that micro-loans are, maybe not surprisingly, much more likely to be successful if they are paired with training and skills building. The article refers to a paper published by Innovations for Poverty Action which found through randomized control trials that skills and retention rates increased with additional training. It is worth reading the abstract even if you don’t have time for the full article. The NYT article has some nice examples of the power of this approach in it from Bolivia to Afghanistan to India.