Beyond Micro-Credit

Micro-finance is fast growing as a major development strategy and international industry. It seems to provide a practical and workable tool to address the deep-seated challenges of poverty. But can it really fulfil this promise? All too often the development goals of micro-finance are lost, either behind technical and managerial solutions in pursuit of financial sustainability, or behind a narrow focus on the poorest. This book analyses Indian micro-finance in depth to explore how development can be put back into micro-finance. It sets out how micro-finance can be designed, in practice, to contribute to a wide range of developmental objectives, including providing social and economic security, promoting livelihoods, building democratic people's organisations, empowering women, and changing wider systems within society. The analysis covers the great diversity of micro-finance practice in India, and its many innovative products and organisational features. It looks in detail at the fast expanding movement of savings and credit or 'self-help' groups in India, and compares and contrasts these with groups promoted by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The book challenges much conventional wisdom in micro-finance, especially the dominant framework of financial sustainability and outreach to the poor. It demonstrates how current analysis of efficiency in micro-finance is simplistic, ignoring a range of real economic costs. It breaks new ground by drawing on the disciplines of organisational development and entrepreneurship to focus on the many organisational challenges and dilemmas that confront micro-finance practitioners and how these can be managed in practice. This important book, therefore, puts development back at the heart of micro-finance and provides the most comprehensive analysis available of micro-finance practice in India. It will attract a wide readership among micro-finance practitioners, NGOs and funding agencies, and be of significant interest to those engaged in development studies, economics and sociology. It will serve as a valuable supplementary text for courses in development, poverty studies and development economics. Book jacket.