Ikhtiar Jahan Kabir, in full Shah Muhammad Ikhtiar Jahan Kabir, author of this book, was born in the village of Selimpur under Batamara union of sub-district of Muladi in Barisal district. (The late) Shah Jahan Kabir is his father and Begum Jahan Ara Kabir his mother. Ikhtiar is the fifth of eight children of his parents. Ikhtiar Jahan achieved distinctions in his academic career. He received his Bachelor of Social Sciences, Master of Social Sciences and Master of Philosophy degrees from the Department of International Relations, the University of Dhaka. Ikhtiar started his career as a journalist and he worked for the United News of Bangladesh (UNB) and the New Age. At present he is an Assistant General Manager at the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), an apex body active for poverty alleviation. Ikhtiar is a researcher by profession. For a considerable duration, he served the Institute of Microfinance (InM), renamed Institute of Inclusive Finance and Development, as a Deputy Director (Research). There he was involved in the publication of Bangladesh Microcredit Statistics, and studies on food security and access to financial services. ‘Crises Afflicting the Ultra Poor: Emergency Finance for Coping’ is a research based work. His other two research-based books are ‘Regionalism in South Asia: A Critique of the Functionalist Approach’ and ‘Financial Services for the Poorest: Towards Comprehensiveness.’ Ikhtiar Jahan also has a few articles to his credit. He chaired a plenary session in the SAARC Cultural Conference in Guale, Sri Lanka in 2012. He also presented a theme paper titled “Circulation of People in South Asia.” This book is based on his study ‘Crises Afflicting the Ultra Poor: Ways to Make Emergency Loan More Effective’ under the PRIME of the PKSF, the first integrated program for monga eradication in the country.