Beyond Micro-Credit

by Fisher, Thomas; Sriram, M. S.; Harper, Malcolm

• ISBN13: 9780855984885
• ISBN10: 0855984880
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-12-01
• Publisher: Oxfam Pubns

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. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

List of tables	9	(1)
List of figures	10	(1)
List of boxes	11	(1)
List of abbreviations	12	(4)
Acknowledgements	16	(3)
Introduction	19	(14)
Introduction to the financial sector in India	33	(16)
Part One: Micro-finance and development
Micro-finance and social and economic security	49	(24)
Micro-finance and livelihoods: The challenge of BASIX	73	(31)
Micro-finance and people's organisations	104	(33)
Micro-finance and system-wide change	137	(32)
Part Two: Micro-finance: Organisations and institutions
Self-help groups and Grameen Bank groups: What are the differences?	169	(30)
Malcolm Harper
Costs in micro-finance: What do urban self-help groups tell us?	199	(35)
Mathew Titus
Exploring empowerment and leadership at the grassroots: Social entrepreneurship in the SHG movement in India	234	(29)
Ajit Kanitkar
Sustainability and development: Evaluating the performance of Indian micro-finance	263	(37)
Sanjay Sinha
Frances Sinha
Rising to the challenge of scale in India: Growing the micro-finance sector	300	(25)
Mathew Titus
Emerging lessons and challenges	325	(36)
Thomas Fisher
Appendix: Capacity-building and organisational learning project for development finance in India	361	(9)
Glossary	370	(2)
Bibliography	372	(8)
Index	380	(9)
About the authors and contributors	389