Why Doesn't Microfinance Work?

Author: Milford Bateman
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848138954
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Book Description
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.

Making Microfinance Work

Author: Craig Farren Churchill
Publisher: International Labour Organization
ISBN: 9221186571
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 452

Book Description
This training manual provides an overview of the key management principles necessary to optimize the services of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and brings together useful lessons from numerous MFIs worldwide to help managers strengthen the performance of their unit, branch or institution.Either used alone, or as part of a management training course, Making Microfinance Work offers various tools and advice. The markets and marketing of MFIs are examined and looks at the different ways in which managers can communicate the value of their products and services. It introduces effective methods for enhancing efficiency and productivity which minimize the trade-offs MFIs invariably face as they try to provide services over the long term.The topic of managing risks is also covered. This manual offers strategies to prevent risk from occurring and, if it does occur, explains how to rectify the situation. Practical techniques for allocating costs and determining prices are also highlighted, as well as the importance of plans, budgets and reports. Illustrations and case studies are used to assist managers in applying the concepts outlined in the text. An extensive list of additional reading and useful Internet resources is also provided

Can Microfinance Work?

Author: Lesley Sherratt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199383197
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Book Description
Can Microfinance Work? presents a thorough-going and nuanced ethical assessment of the microfinance industry, drawing on the author's expertise in the fields of finance and applied ethics. That comprehensive analysis is then used to ground concrete policy proposals, some quite radical, to improve both microfinance's ethical balance and its overall effectiveness.

Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic

Author: Hugh Sinclair
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1609945182
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
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.

Due Diligence

Author: David Roodman
Publisher: CGD Books
ISBN: 1933286539
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Book Description
The idea that small loans can help poor families build businesses and exit poverty has blossomed into a global movement. The concept has captured the public imagination, drawn in billions of dollars, reached millions of customers, and garnered a Nobel Prize. Radical in its suggestion that the poor are creditworthy and conservative in its insistence on individual accountability, the idea has expanded beyond credit into savings, insurance, and money transfers, earning the name microfinance. But is it the boon so many think it is? Readers of David Roodman's openbook blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis. Due Diligence, written entirely in public with input from readers, probes the truth about microfinance to guide governments, foundations, investors, and private citizens who support financial services for poor people. In particular, it explains the need to deemphasize microcredit in favor of other financial services for the poor.

Making Microfinance Work

Author: Cheryl Frankiewicz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789221247852
Category : BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Languages : en
Pages : 612

Book Description
This textbook, designed for middle and senior managers in microfinance institutions, is relevant for institutions that have already diversified and are looking for ways to manage their diversification more effectively as well as those that have not yet done so and are looking for guidance on where and how to begin. As the second volume of a training programme, it builds on the highly acclaimed Making Microfinance Work: Managing for Improved Performance. It includes chapters on various product options and how to combine different product menus to serve specific market segments, and concludes with discussions about managing partnerships and devising strategies to achieve a diverse product portfolio.

Microfinance and Its Discontents

Author: Lamia Karim
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0816670943
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
The first feminist critique of the much-lauded microcredit process in Bangladesh.

The Future of Microfinance

Author: Ira W. Lieberman
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815737645
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 493

Book Description
A major source of financing for the poor and no longer a niche industry Over the past four decades, microfinance—the provision of loans, savings, and insurance to small businesses and entrepreneurs shut out of traditional capital markets—has grown from a niche service in Bangladesh and a few other countries to a significant global source of financing. Some 200 million people globally now receive support from microfinance institutions, with most of the recipients in the developing world. In the beginning, much of the microfinance industry was managed by non-governmental organizations, but today the majority of these institutions are commercial and regulated by governments, and they provide safe places for the poor to save, as well as offering much-needed capital and other financial services. Now out of infancy, the microfinance industry faces major challenges, including its ability to deal with mobile banking and other technology and concerns that some markets are now over-saturated with microfinance. How the industry deals with these and other challenges will determine whether it will continue to grow or will be subsumed within the larger global financial sector. This book is based on the results of a workshop at Lehigh University among thirty-four leaders in the industry. The editors, working with contributions from more than a dozen leading authorities in the field, tell the important story of how microfinance developed, how it has met the needs of hundreds of millions of people, and they address key questions about how it can continue to meet those needs in the future.

Microfinance Handbook

Author: Joanna Ledgerwood
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821384317
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
The purpose of the 'Microfinance Handbook' is to bring together in a single source guiding principles and tools that will promote sustainable microfinance and create viable institutions.

The Crises of Microcredit

Author: Isabelle Guérin
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1783603771
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 145

Book Description
Microcredit programmes, long considered efficient development tools, now face unprecedented crises in a number of countries. Is this the end of microcredit or rather an essential step in its expansion? Should we stop microcredit altogether or rethink the way it is implemented? Drawing on extensive empirical research conducted in various parts of the world - from Morocco to Senegal to India - this important volume examines the whole chain of microcredit to provide the answers to these questions. In doing so, the authors highlight the diversity of crises, both in intensity and in nature, while also shedding light on a diversity of causes, be it microcredit organizations unprepared for massive growth, saturated local economies or greedy investors and shareholders attracted by profits. Crucially, the authors demonstrate that microcredit is not a monolithic project, and the crises should also be analysed in the light of national histories and policies. An original and necessary intervention in what has become one of the most contentious topics within the development world.