The Asian Development Bank (ADB) released a study detailing the effect ADB’s microfinance project have on reducing poverty of rural poor households and improvement of the socio-economic status of women in developing countries. Focus regions included, Bangladesh, Philippines and Uzbekistan. Three main objectives were outlined in the study included: 

• Determining how effective the microfinance projects were in reducing rural poverty and in improving the status of poor women.
• Determining the extent to which microfinance projects mainstreamed improvement of the status of women in project design and implementation.
• Drawing lessons that can be used to improve the design of future microfinance projects and the future direction of ADB’s microfinance operations.