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Why Doesn't Microfinance Work?
Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, movie stars, royalty, high-profile politicians and ‘troubleshooting’ economists. In this provocative and controversial analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn’t actually work. In fact, the case for it has been largely built on hype, on egregious half-truths and – latterly – on the Wall Street-style greed of those promoting and working in microfinance. Using a multitude of case studies, from India to Cambodia, Bolivia to Uganda, Serbia to Mexico, Bateman demonstrates that microfi nance actually constitutes a major barrier to sustainable economic and social development, and thus also to sustainable poverty reduction. As developing and transition countries attempt to repair the devastation wrought by the global financial crisis, Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work? argues forcefully that the role of microfinance in development policy urgently needs to be reconsidered.
The Rise and Fall of Global Microcredit
In the mid-1980s the international development community helped launch what was to quickly become one of the most popular poverty reduction and local economic development policies of all time. Microcredit, the system of disbursing tiny micro-loans to the poor to help them to establish their own income-generating activities, was initially highly praised and some were even led to believe that it would end poverty as we know it. But in recent years the microcredit model has been subject to growing scrutiny and often intense criticism. The Rise and Fall of Global Microcredit shines a light on many of the fundamental problems surrounding microcredit, in particular, the short- and long-term impacts of dramatically rising levels of microdebt. Developed in collaboration with UNCTAD, this book covers the general policy implications of adverse microcredit impacts, as well as gathering together country-specific case studies from around the world to illustrate the real dynamics, incentives and end results. Lively and provocative, The Rise and Fall of Global Microcredit is an accessible guide for students, academics, policymakers and development professionals alike.
Confronting Microfinance
Incorporates global perspective but focuses on southeastern Europe, a key arena for microfinance and microcredit programs --
Why Doesn't Microfinance Work?
Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, movie stars, royalty, high-profile politicians and 'troubleshooting' economists. In this provocative and controversial analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn't actually work. In fact, the case for it has been largely built on hype, on egregious half-truths and – latterly – on the Wall Street-style greed of those promoting and working in microfinance. Using a multitude of case studies, from India to Cambodia, Bolivia to Uganda, Serbia to Mexico, Bateman demonstrates that microfi nance actually constitutes a major barrier to sustainable economic and social development, and thus also to sustainable poverty reduction. As developing and transition countries attempt to repair the devastation wrought by the global financial crisis, Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? argues forcefully that the role of microfinance in development policy urgently needs to be reconsidered.
Seduced and Betrayed
Microfinance began as the disbursement of tiny loans to the poor, which they could use to undertake informal income-generating activities. It went on to become one of the most popular international development policies of all time and a mainstay of local development and antipoverty programs across the Global South. The contributors to this multidisciplinary volume consider the origins, evolution, and outcomes of microfinance from a variety of perspectives and contend that it has been an unsuccessful approach to development. The contributors contend that over the last twenty years, microfinance policies have exacerbated poverty and exclusion, undermined gender empowerment, underpinned a massive growth in inequality, destroyed solidarity and trust in the community, and, overall, manifestly weakened those local economies of the Global South where it reached critical mass. They use qualitative anthropological, economic, and political-economic research to unpack the ideas and values that have allowed microfinance to “seduce” the world and blind so many to its corrosive effects.
Social and Solidarity Economy
As economic crises, growing inequality and climate change prompt a global debate on the meaning and trajectory of development, increasing attention is focusing on 'social and solidarity economy' as a distinctive approach to sustainable and rights-based development. While we are beginning to understand what social and solidarity economy is, what it promises and how it differs from 'business as usual', we know far less about whether it can really move beyond its fringe status in many countries and regions. Under what conditions can social and solidarity economy scale up and scale out - that is, expand in terms of the growth of social and solidarity economy organizations and enterprises, or spread horizontally within given territories? Bringing together leading researchers, blending theoretical and empirical analysis, and drawing on experiences and case studies from multiple countries and regions, this volume addresses these questions. In so doing, it aims to inform a broad constituency of development actors, including scholars, practitioners, activists and policy makers.
Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic
Microfinance insider Hugh Sinclair weaves a shocking tale of an industry focused on maximizing profits and plagued by predatory lending practices, scandals, cover-ups and corruption.
The Essential Guide to Critical Development Studies
The Essential Guide to Critical Development Studies provides an up-to-date and authoritative introduction to the field, challenging mainstream development discourse and the assumptions that underlie it. Critical development studies lays bare the economic, political, social, and environmental crises that characterise the current global capitalist system, proposing instead systemic change and different pathways for moving beyond capitalism into a new world of genuine progress where economic and social justice and ecological integrity prevail. In this book, the authors challenge market-driven, neoliberal development agendas, incorporating analyses of class, gender, race, and the dynamics of une...
What We Are Fighting For
The age of austerity has brought a new generation of protesters on to the streets across the world, leading Time magazine to name "the protester" as its 2011 personality of the year. As the economic crisis meets the environmental crisis, a whole generation fears what the future will bring but also dares to dream of a different society. What Are we Fighting For? answers the question that the mainstream media loves to ask the protesters. The first radical, collective manifesto of the new decade, its brings together some of the key theorists and activists from the new networked, web-savvy and creative social movements. Contributors include David Graeber (who coined the term "the 99%"), John Holloway, Nina Power, the Knowledge Liberation Front, and Owen Jones, author of the best-selling Chavs. Chapters outline the alternative vision which animates the movement – from "new economics" and "new governance" to "new social imagination." The book concludes by exploring new "tactics of struggle."
Restructuring of State-Owned Financial Institutions
Despite the trend toward financial sector liberalization in recent years, state ownership of financial institutions remains widespread in the developing world. However, in general, state-owned financial institutions have under performed their private sector counterparts, and governments have sought to restructure them. This case study reviews the transformation of Bank Rakyat Indonesia from a loss-producing, overstaffed state-owned bank to the most profitable bank with the largest microbanking network in Indonesia. From the bank's experience the study seeks to draw decisive lessons for the successful transformation of other state-owned financial institutions. For Bank Rakyat Indonesia, the key driver of successful reform was the government's commitment to allow it the autonomy to restructure itself-including an emphasis on good corporate governance, supported by appropriate regulations and effective supervision.
