About the author 

Johan Bastiaensen is professor and Chair of the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp, Belgium and associate researcher at the Instituto Nitlapan, Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), Managua, Nicaragua. His main research interest lies with the transformative role of microfinance for a more socially inclusive and environmentally less destructive rural-agricultural development. This research is inspired by critical institutional theory. Much of the applied research is related to the policy debates in the context of the Fondo de Desarrollo Local (FDL).

Frédéric Huybrechs is a post-doc researcher at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp, Belgium. He currently studies the role of microfinance in the advancement of the cattle-driven agricultural frontier in Nicaragua. In his PhD thesis, he analysed the topic of Green Microfinance from a political ecology perspective and in the context of rural development. He is also a member of the action group "Green Inclusive and Climate Smart Finance" of the European Microfinance Platform.