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Microcredit under the Microscope (Reflections around a Conference)

by Alan Fricker, August 2001. Despite the seemingly obvious benefits, at least to Western thinking, microcredit, it seems, only alleviates rather than eliminates poverty, even the much praised Grameen Bank scheme. Furthermore, through an interesting conjunction of conference papers, impoverished peoples appear to have an intrinsic aversion to microcredit, articulated through their actions rather than their words. This aversion would seem to extend to development generally and to Western education.

http://www.dev-zone.org/kcdocs/1664FrickerMicrocredit.html

(Added: Wed Aug 29 2001   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 232)

Microcredit: A Weapon In Fighting Extremism

Microcredit was invented 20 years ago in Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus. Today, Professor Yunus's Grameen Bank and copycat organizations have 3.5 million women borrowers; adding their dependents, that amounts to about 20 percent of Bangladesh's population.

http://www.grameen-info.org/mcredit/weapon.html

(Added: Wed Jul 25 2001   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 228)

Microfinance Centre for Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States

The Microfinance Centre for Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States was launched in Warsaw and began its operations on September 1, 1997. It serves as a network of 63 microfinance institutions. Its mission is to support existing and future microfinance institutions in CEE and the NIS in their efforts to alleviate poverty, create employment, and privatize the economy through the development of microenterprises and self-employment.

http://www.mfc.org.pl/

(Added: Mon Sep 10 2001   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 204)

Microfinance Gateway

Library and Information Hub for the microfinance industry with Documents, Jobs, Events and Contact Information. Searchable archives and latest additions.

http://www.microfinancegateway.org

(Added: Mon Oct 23 2000   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 304)

Microfinance, subsidies and dynamic incentives

This paper studies the interaction between subsidised microfinance lending and private, profit oriented lending. The authors build a two period model of a credit market with a monopolistic moneylender and a subsidized microfinance institution (MFI)(S. Ghosh & E. Van Tassel, 2007)

http://home.fau.edu/sghosh/web/Ghosh-VanTassel(FinalVersion).pdf

(Added: Wed Dec 12 2007   Hits: 61)

Microfinancement

This web site is a tool aimed at micro-finance stakeholders : operators, NGOs , funding organisations, researchers as well as students should find useful information for their activity.

http://microfinancement.cirad.fr/present.html.en

(Added: Fri Aug 13 1999   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 276)

Millions for millions

Frustrated by inefficiencies and limitations in the nonprofit sector, Pierre Omidyar, creator of eBay, in 2004 joined other high-tech leaders at a weekend-long session to learn from Muhammad Yunus, "the godfather of microcredit" and founder of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank. The session convinced Omidyar that small individual loans to the impoverished could give the developing world a chance at sustainability, but he added his own twist to the concept. (Connie Bruck, The New Yorker, 30 October 2006)

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061030fa_fact1

(Added: Thu Oct 26 2006   Hits: 93)

No silver bullets? The online funding revolution and micro-finance sector

Online lending sites such as Kiva and NamasteDirect, give everyone a chance to help fight global poverty and, in the words of one new investor, "teach people how to take a small investment, grow their business and eventually become self-sufficient". (IRIN, December 2007)

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75571

(Added: Mon Dec 10 2007   Hits: 21)

Opportunity International

An umbrella organisation for indigenous partners providing small business loans, training and advice

http://www.opportunity.org/Main.htm

(Added: Wed Jul 25 2001   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 215)

PlaNet Finance

PlaNet Finance is an international non governmental organisation based on the Internet aiming at promoting microfinance development.

http://www.planetfinance.org

(Added: Mon May 10 1999   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 228)

Policies for Small Enterprises. Creating the right environment for good jobs

(For purchase) ILO Publication, Gerhard Reinecke and Simon White, 2004, 220 pp. ISBN 92-2-113724-4. Cost: 35 Sw.frs; US$22.95; £15.95; 25 Euros. The development of micro- and small enterprises (MSEs) can play an essential role in employment creation and poverty reduction. Many governments in developing countries have made efforts to support MSEs for just this reason. At the same time, millions of people work in MSEs where they are paid low incomes, have little or no social protection and are exposed to dangerous working conditions. This paradox stems from a policy and regulatory environment that should help the development of MSEs and improve the quality of jobs provided by them, but in practice often establishes biases and stifles growth. This book looks beyond MSE promotion initiatives to analyse the overall policy and regulatory environment in which MSEs work. Based on studies carried out in Chile, Guinea, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania and Viet Nam, it examines national business laws, taxation, labour regulations, and trade and finance policies, and assesses their direct and indirect effects on the MSE sector. Drawing lessons from this research, the authors outline the major principles for reform, including the importance of communication and transparency, and the designing of laws and regulations that are country specific, fair and take account of existing gender-based inequalities. More than simply helping to create more jobs, this approach aims to help to create more jobs of better quality. The findings presented here have potential for application far beyond the seven countries studied and deserve the attention of policy-makers, development practitioners and researchers everywhere.

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/publ/xtextman.htm#b7244

(Added: Mon Mar 22 2004   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 123)

Poverty-Complex, Strategic Microfinance, and Social Threefolding

Center for Alternative Development Initiatives, Editorial, N. Perlas, 02 April 2005. The Year 2005 is the International Year for Microcredit. From its small beginnings in Bangladesh in the 1970s, microcredit has become a global phenomenon. When Mohammed Yunus facilitated the first microcredit for economically poor women, he did not realize that he would trigger a global movement which, among others, would make microcredit one of the key strategies of the UN Millennium Development Goals. But microcredit is not enough. Microcredit alone would not solve the problem of the poverty-complex. In addition to livelihood problems, persons struggling with poverty also have to face other challenges. Economic livelihood alone will not enable the poor to develop their full human potential and their communities.

http://www.cadi.ph/Editorials/Poverty_Complex.htm

(Added: Tue Apr 05 2005   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 301)

So, what is micocredit?

Microcredit is the extension of small loans to enterpreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. It has proven an effective and popular measure in the ongoing struggle against poverty, enabling those without access to lending institutions to borrow at bank rates, and start small business.

http://www.gdrc.org/icm/what-is-ms.html

(Added: Wed Jul 25 2001   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 226)

The Contribution of Micro-enterprises to Economic Recovery and Poverty Alleviation in East Asia [PDF] 84.46 KB

By Charles Harvie (2003) Published by the University of Wollongong, NSW. The economic and social crisis that afflicted East Asia from mid 1997 produced the biggest setback to poverty reduction in the region for several decades, as well as aggravating social vulnerabilities. There were many dimensions to this, including: falling incomes; rising absolute poverty and malnutrition; declining public services; threats to educational and health status; increased pressure on women and children; and increased crime and violence. The objective of this paper is to analyse the potential contribution of one subset of small and medium sized enterprises, micro-enterprises and the role of micro-finance more generally, to regional economic recovery and poverty alleviation.

http://ideas.repec.org/p/uow/depec1/wp03-07.html

(Added: Mon Jul 25 2005   Hits: 58)

The Microcredit Summit's Challenge

(PDF format) Working Towards Institutional Financial Self-Sufficiency while Maintaining a Commitment to Serving the Poorest Families

http://www.microcreditsummit.org/

(Added: Fri May 28 1999   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 181)

The Vulnerability of 'Self-Help': Women and Microfinance in South India [pdf]

Self-help groups (SHGs) play a major role in providing microfinance in India. But they do not work alone. State institutions are also a big part of the microfinance landscape. How does this kind of 'institutionalised co-production' in service delivery work in practice? This research shows that the relationships are not symmetrical. When they seek access to bank credit, women's groups are in a dependent relationship, and are subject to, and tarnished by, the institutional imperatives, systemic corruption and political compulsions that shape the behaviour of rural development bureaucracies and banks (K. Kalpana, 2008)

http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp303.pdf

(Added: Wed May 07 2008   Hits: 102)

Virtual Library on Microcredit

A repository of information on alternative, non conventional financial systems and the informal credit markets. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

http://www.gdrc.org/icm/

(Added: Tue Mar 30 1999   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 258)

Virtual library on Microcredit: Mailing Lists and Newsgroups

A collection of mailing list links on Microcredits and Credit Unions from around the world.

http://www.gdrc.org/icm/icm-mailinglist.html

(Added: Wed Jul 25 2001   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 147)

What Makes Microcredit Programmes Effective?: Fashionable Fallacies and Workable Realities (PDF)

IDS Working Papwer 177, by Pankaj Jain & Mick Moore, January 2003. It is widely accepted that microcredit is a valid tool to reduce poverty and promote empowerment where there is participation of borrowers in management, definition of market interest rates and use of social collateral. This paper analyses critically this position and draws some relevant conclusions on the basis of field research of five microcredit programmes: Grameen Bank, ASA, Proshika, BRAC and CARD Rural Bank. Empirical evidence suggests that this explanation is used more to attract the support of development aid than to describe the reality faithfully. (Description: Eldis).

http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp177.pdf

(Added: Fri Feb 07 2003   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 218)

Women for Women International

Provide: 1. Direct aid (Sponsorship Program), 2. Skills training, rights awareness and leadership development (Renewing Women's Life Skills "ReneWLS" Program) and 3. microcredit lending. Working in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Kosova (in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), Bangladesh, and Nigeria.

http://www.womenforwomen.org

(Added: Wed Jul 25 2001   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 186)

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