Abstract

Development institutions have been categorized as faith-based and mainstream based on their background andcharacteristics. This paper reviews the extant literature on Faith-based Organizations (FBOs) and their role invarious areas of development specially poverty alleviation through microfinance. This paper reviews thestudies dealing with faith-based organizations, their characteristics and their role in development. Some papersspecifically deal with the religious principles that shape the value system in these organizations. A number ofempirical studies both qualitative and quantitative provide insights on the working and performance of FBOs.This review paper will be useful for the researchers involved in the areas of social science, anthropology aswell as economics. The findings of the empirical studies will be of interest to policy makers and regulators.

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