Tag: Microfinance
Skoll 2011 Interview: Susan Davis and Rumee Ali of BRAC
Exciting announcement revealed at the Skoll World Forum: BRAC and MasterCard Foundation announced a $45 million partnership.
Dark Skies After All
Troubling signs on many fronts indeed. I still believe there are sunny days ahead from microfinance, but I’m far more sanguine than I was just a few months ago.
Micro-Savings: Are We There Yet?
Micro-savings have been described as the “Next Big Thing” in the global development agenda. But we are not there yet, particularly with regards to young people living in poverty.
Water, Microfinance and Innovation
Although the market demand exists, there have not been sustainable ways to finance basic water needs. That is, until Water.org introduced WaterCredit in South Asia.
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A Sobering Assessment of Microfinance’s Impact
At a conference last week of leaders in microfinance, attendees focused on the nitty-gritty of the social impact of microlending, and the results of the discussions were both sobering and startling.
Basically, none of the 250-plus academic researchers, practitioners, and investors at the Microfinance Impact & Innovation Conference in New York City seemed to know whether microfinance generally works—whether the 30-year experiment in giving small loans to the poor has a positive impact on their livelihood. In fact, there is increasing evidence that microloans—often given at high interest rates and with strict repayment terms—can further impoverish and indebt poor people. This is frightening, given the growing size of the microfinance sector. MicroBanking Bulletin reported that at the end of 2009 there were 1,084 MFIs serving 74 million borrowers receiving $38 billion in loans... (continue reading this blog post)
Learning, Earning, and Saving
Last week, I spent time talking and listening to more than 100 women and adolescent girls assisted by the MasterCard Foundation’s partnership with BRAC. This program is scaling access to microfinance as well as education, training and support services across Uganda to help two million people improve their livelihoods. More than 95 percent of microfinance members are women, and about 40 percent of them are young, between the ages of 18 to 30 years. I asked them for ideas about what they need to overcome poverty, and what kind of opportunities they seek... (continue reading this blog post)
Unitus, We Stand; Divide Us, We Fall
“He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money”—Benjamin Franklin, 17th-century social entrepreneur and co-founder of the United States.
This, in a nutshell, is the apprehension driving many of the critics and critiques of Seattle-based Unitus, a nonprofit that on July 2, 2010 unexpectedly abandoned its microfinance work in favor of a yet-to-be-named poverty alleviation mission. The almost instant blowback came on July 9, 2010 in the Chronicle of Philanthropy with phrases like... (continue reading this blog post)
New Frontiers of Financial Inclusion in Africa
Will mobile telephones become the new super highway to connect the poor to the financial grid? Africa has the world’s fastest-growing mobile communications market with 350 million mobile phone subscriptions. Yet, only one in five households has access to financial services. New mobile-enabled services could push the frontiers of financial inclusion and be a win for the region’s development agenda... (continue reading this blog post)
Deception in Microfinance: Is Talk of Mission Just Window Dressing?
I was very excited to see the article in The New York Times questioning the business practices and transparency of some of the organizations making loans to very poor people around the world. There are clearly abuses going on, and much greater scrutiny needs to be applied to everyone who is applying the increasingly popular “microfinance” label to their activities.
To my mind, only organizations that place the mission of helping borrowers improve their economic circumstances... (continue reading this blog post)
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