If you have enjoyed the discussions on this blog about loan usage, you should definitely check out
this article in the latest Microfinance Insights written by CMF's knowledge guru, Alex Kobishyn. The thought provoking article uses survey data from a number of CMF studies to look at how the poor use credit and whether microcredit and microentrepreneurship should truly be synonymous.
1 comments:
I'm glad to see the discussion of such an important topic gathering steam. In a way, microfinance has become boxed in by its own success, and by the original vision of Yunus, where "everyone can be an entrepreneur". Research like that of the CMF studies shows that many poor households have no interest in starting a business, and that they need loans for general purposes.
CMF's research is supported by the findings from a new book, "Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day", by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven. Entrepreneurship is not a panacea. It describes financial diaries research from Bangladesh, India and South Africa that shows that households need to borrow for a range of non-business purposes, from paying for school fees, medical treatments, weddings, funerals and home improvements, to putting food on the table.
Caitlin Weaver
Financial Access Initiative
www.financialaccess.org
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