To put it simply, what do savings groups offer that micro finance doesn’t?
All in Theory
Saving Money and Developing Enterprise Activities: A Virtuous Circle.
Recent research has decisively challenged the perception that poor people do not save
Is 2012 the New 1810?
The quote caught my attention. It was from a 1925 article in the Delmarva Star,
Savings on a Tightrope: Three Balancing Acts
The selection of specific saving vehicles is driven by three high-level choices.
Proof the 'Add-Ons' Work
Am I just blinded by my own enthusiasm? Or are savings groups, around for millennium in so many cultures including my own, really a globally good idea?
The (Savings Group) Gift Must Always Move
I propose that we should take a deep breath and think this through. Here’s why…
A Universal Savings Goal
Yes, a goal we set in the same way that nutritionists suggest daily doses of vitamin A
Give Them a Break
Microcredit is now under challenge from many quarters.
Decision Fatigue
There is something to this, even though the experiment that Kim describes is WEIRD.
In Defense of Payments
...savings are transactions-in-waiting. People's aim is not to save or get into debt, what they want is to buy a bicycle, pay school fees, repair their home, or build up a reserve for medical emergencies.
Saving and Thriving - I think
Does adding a diet and cooking piece making savings groups more expensive? Yes! But, does it make groups more relevant, entertaining and powerful for women? Yes as well.
Two cows... or three?
One of the good things about provocative writers like Milford Bateman is that... they provoke. Here's a cool head (Greg Pirie) writing about a hot head - a good short read.
Connected Savings, Would That It Were True...
What blocks the effortless transitioning from cash-based opportunities to secure, long-term investments? Cash. Cash must go.
Buddhist Financial Services »
Finally, Buddhist financial services would be inextricably linked to and supportive of all parts of a good life, including protection of the physical environment...
What's Good for Them is Good for Me and Vice Versa
You do not have to be poor to be in need of good financial services.
The Judo of Change
...the multiplication of so many little neighborhood clubs, whether or not their groupiness holds over time, does bring about the transformational change originally sought by the community. People are less isolated, happier, whole...
Don’t you tell me how to spend my money: Why simple savings trumps collective investment »
The attraction of using savings groups as the foundation for a cooperative business is no mystery. Unfortunate, that.
The savings group sector has the opportunity to avoid the growing pains of microcredit - the hype, the promulgation of unrepresentative and unattributable results, the focus on financial performance to the detriment of social performance, the upmarket drift. Will we seize that opportunity?
The Microcredit Meme
Are we carrying the microcredit meme, or is it carrying us? What keeps it going?
Who keeps the money safe? You decide.
How do we keep records? You decide. How does a new person join? You decide. What if somebody leaves? You decide. What do we do with the money? You decide,