quoted Mary Ellen Iskenderian on the risks of mission drift: "Ensuring that women do not lose out in access to microfinance as institutions grow is vital. There are 30 years of data showing that women put more of their loans than men do into education, healthcare and nutrition, that their children stay in school longer and have longer life expectancy." Microfinance’s impact In 2010, as a reaction to the publication of several research studies examining the impact of microfinance based on randomized, controlled trials, a number of questions were raised in prominent media about whether microfinance has made a quantitative improvement in the lives of borrowers or has had any effect on poverty alleviation on a systemic basis. Women's World Banking, along with fellow microfinance organizations ACCION, FINCA, Grameen Foundation, Opportunity International, and Unitus, released a collective statement in response to the studies, evoking the challenges and complexities of assessing microfinance's impact and the limitations of such studies. First, studies were based on short-term data, and signs of impact from borrowing typically do not manifest themselves until several loan cycles have passed, requiring longer research periods to see results. Second, quantitative studies often do not take into account qualitative evidence of financial and social inclusion and empowerment that is not based on specific data points such as consumption patterns. Women's World Banking has observed that indications of impact themselves are often small and very gradual: for example, making the improvement in a home from a mud to a wood floor, or from a cardboard roof to a metal one; or perhaps keeping a girl child in school for another year instead of ending her education so that she can work to help support the family. Many microfinance experts posit that rather than microfinance being a panacea for poverty alleviation, access to financial services brings a measure of stabilization to the otherwise precarious lives of the poor. In a Forbes.com article, Mary Ellen Iskenderian stated that women's empowerment is "infinitely harder to measure but every bit as important as the economic change." References Banking institutes Women's occupational organizations International charities International women's organizations Charities based in New York City Microfinance banks