[E-rundbrief] Info 799 - Limits of Microcredit

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 799 - Jason Cons and Kasia Paprocki: The Limits of 
Microcredit - A Bangladesh Case (Abstract).

Bad Ischl, 18.2.2009

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

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The Limits of Microcredit--- A Bangladesh Case

Posted January 29th, 2009

By Jason Cons and Kasia Paprocki of the Goldin Institute

Winter 2008 -- Volume 14 -- Number 4

Since its emergence in the 1970s, microcredit has grown in popularity as 
a tool for development. Today, microcredit organizations have assets 
well in excess of $22 billion USD and serve more than 113 million 
clients.1 Microcredit has enormous potential as a tool for poverty 
alleviation. Yet as this strategy moves into the development mainstream 
there is an urgent need to reflect on its role in market-led development 
initiatives and its limitations, as well as its historic successes. 
There is significant risk in microcredit's often uncritical adoption. 
This risk is compounded by the systematic failure of many microfinance 
institutions (MFIs) to engage the communities where they work in the 
process of designing and evaluating microcredit programs. As with many 
development programs, the voices of communities and individuals who are 
the supposed beneficiaries of microlending are conspicuously absent from 
the projects that seek to determine their futures. As debates over the 
pros and cons of microcredit rage and donor support encourages rapid 
adoption, it is crucial to evaluate the impact of microcredit from the 
perspective of those who have the most to gain and lose --- the recipients.

This Backgrounder outlines the results of a study on the impact of 
microcredit on recipient livelihoods in rural Bangladesh.

Link zum vollständigen Hintergrundpapier:

http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2351

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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