Beyond micro-credit : putting development back into micro-finance / Thomas Fisher and M.S. Sriram ; with contributions from Malcolm Harper ... [et al.]

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Fisher, Thomas.

Contributor:

• Sriram, M. S.
• Harper, Malcolm, 1935-
• Oxfam.
• New Economics Foundation.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Microfinance--India.
• Microfinance.
• Economic development projects.
• India.
• Economic development projects--India.
• Economic development.

Physical Description:

390 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New Delhi : Vistaar Publications ; Oxford : Oxfam ; London : New Economics Foundation ; Herdon, Va. : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Stylus, 2002.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

• 2. Introduction to the financial sector in India 33
• Part 1 Micro-finance and development
• 3. Micro-finance and social and economic security 49
• 4. Micro-finance and livelihoods: The challenge of BASIX 73
• 5. Micro-finance and people's organisations 104
• 6. Micro-finance and system-wide change 137
• Part 2 Micro-finance: Organisations and institutions
• 7. Self-help groups and Grameen Bank groups: What are the differences? / Malcolm Harper 169
• 8. Costs in micro-finance: What do urban self-help groups tell us? / Mathew Titus 199
• 9. Exploring empowerment and leadership at the grassroots: Social entrepreneurship in the SHG movement in India / Ajit Kanitkar 234
• 10. Sustainability and development: Evaluating the performance of Indian micro-finance / Sanjay Sinha, Frances Sinha 263
• 11. Rising to the challenge of scale in India: Growing the micro-finance sector / Mathew Titus 300
• 12. Emerging lessons and challenges / Thomas Fisher 325
• Appendix Capacity-building and organisational learning project for development finance in India 361.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0855984880

OCLC:

51270435