Microcredit is no panacea for lifting millions of people
from poverty, leading economists said on Friday in releasing research from
seven countries that challenges a key development tool.
For over 15 years, extending microloans to very poor people
has been hailed as a path out of poverty, especially for women. Microcredit,
pioneered by Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and winner
of the 2006 Nobel peace prize, has been promoted by development agencies as a
route to self-improvement for very poor families considered too risky by
traditional banks. Microfinanciers make tiny loans to small-scale
entrepreneurs, who usually belong to a borrowers' club that guarantees
repayment. The idea is a family will invest in its business, generate more
income and break out of aid dependency. The industry, which has expanded
dramatically since 1997, had reached 137.5 million families by 2010, according
to Microcredit Summit Campaign, a non-profit which brings together microfinance
practitioners.
But economic studies spanning four continents and seven
countries conducted between 2003 and 2012 found that microcredit fell well
short of its promise, and there was no clear evidence it reduces poverty. Business
profits, household living standards, women's empowerment and poverty levels
were little changed for entrepreneurs who took out loans. Demand for loans was
weaker than bankers expected and there was no sign of more money spent on child
welfare, economists Abhijit Banerjee from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Dean Karlan of Yale University and Jonathan Zinman of Dartmouth
College, said. The findings should
prompt a rethink by donors on how they tackle poverty, they added.
http://bdnews24.com/economy/2015/02/28/microcredit-oversold-as-anti-poverty-tool-economists-say
No comments:
Post a Comment