Informal sector – Consists of numerous microbusinesses, which typically have no legal status and do not pay taxes. The informal sector accounts for more than 50 percent of the economy in many developing countries and is the major source of income of the poor. (A Microenterprise Training Guide for Peace Corps Volunteers)
Life-cycle events – Occurrences that happen in everyday life such as birth, death, illness, and marriage which, in this case, require funds to cover the cost of the event.
Microcredit – The extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. In developing countries especially, microcredit enables very poor people to engage in self-employment projects that generate income. Microcredit is the most important part of the microfinance field, which can comprise all other financial products such as micro-insurance, savings or other. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance)
Microenterprise – Small businesses consisting of one to 10 workers including the owner. (A Microenterprise Training Guide for Peace Corps Volunteers)
Microentrepreneur – Someone with the motivation, ideas, and capacity to combine the factors of production (land, labor, capital, and information) into goods and/or services on a micro level. (A Microenterprise Training Guide for Peace Corps Volunteers)
Microfinance – Small loans that help poor people who wish to start or expand their small businesses but, are not able to get banks to lend to them. (youthink.worldbank.org/glossary.php)
Microfinance institution (MFI) – Organization that provides nonexploitative credit and savings services, generally for the poor. (A Microenterprise Training Guide for Peace Corps Volunteers)
Social capital – The interpersonal trust and reciprocity that facilitate collective action. (A Microenterprise Training Guide for Peace Corps Volunteers)
Village Savings and Loan programs – Community based programs where members of that community form and manage an association much like a bank and use collective savings to operate the association and perform transactions such as small loans.
Productive assets
– Material goods that produce income.