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Articles on Microfinance

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Bangladeshi garment workers protest to demand payment of wages, April 2020. Monirul Alam/EPA-EFE

Microfinance loans could spell disaster in the time of coronavirus

When the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus in 2006 for his concept of microfinance, it brought what began as a local policy experiment in the 1970s to global attention…
Give a man the means to borrow, so the argument goes, and he can work himself out of poverty. But do microfinances’ claims stand up? wk1003mike/Shutterstock

Does microfinance really alleviate poverty? The 34-billion-dollar question

Small loans from governments and philanthropists are often held up as a route out of poverty. But proper research into whether they work is thin on the ground.
The first microloans were made to women in rural Bangladesh in the 1970s. Banesa Khatun (far left) here in 2006, was still using Grameen Bank 30 years later. Rafiquar Rahman/Reuters

Yes, microlending reduces extreme poverty

A new study finds that giving small loans to very poor people reduces both the incidence and depth of poverty in the developing world.
No need for a bank: Just a smartphone and a blockchain. Houman Haddad/UN World Food Program

Can blockchain technology help poor people around the world?

Already becoming a darling of Wall Street, blockchain technology’s biggest real benefits could come to the world’s poorest people. Here’s how.
Informal traders at Cape Town ‘s Grand Parade. Survival businesses that are here today and gone tomorrow cannot further long term devemlopment. Reuters/Mike Hutchings

How microcredit has hurt the poor and destroyed informal business

After 1994 the microcredit movement helped plunge large numbers of black South Africans into heavy debt and poverty while enriching a few white elites who provided the loans.
Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank. The micro credit revolution he started has not been a panacea for poverty. EPA/Ulrich Perrey

From Zorro to Zombie: the rise and fall of the microcredit movement

Microcredit, which was viewed as a perfect market-affirming solution to poverty in developing countries, has collapsed. In 30 years it’s gone from Zorro to Zombie.
Squaring the circle. A microfinance self help group meet in a village near Pune, Maharashtra. Oxfam Australia

How do we save the soul of microfinance?

The introduction of hard-nosed private sector investment and the age-old pressures of social norms mean microfinance institutions are at risk of losing their social conscience – and both clients and staff…
Microfinance can buy you a bucket, but it won’t feed you forever. DFAT

How microfinance disappointed the developing world

In 1976, a small experiment was conducted in the poverty-stricken and flood ravaged Bangladeshi village of Jobra. Professor Muhammad Yunus, a lecturer of Economics at Chittagong University visited the…

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