A big problem with Savings Groups is how successful they are.
What If My Bank Made Me Join a Group?
“How would you like it if your bank made you sit with a group of neighbors in order to carry out your banking business?” The question is asked rhetorically, and the questioner never waits for an answer…
Please Shut Your Marketing Mouth
This is a plea for us all to shut our marketing mouth for a while when we are talking about Savings Groups.
Getting In Front of the Beautiful Forevers
From time to time along comes a book like Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Clients at the center? Yeah, right...
Global Microcredit Summit 2011: At the centre of microfinance is the Client
Volunteerism or Fee-for-Service - Part two
I am perplexed by an attitude I keep running into that volunteerism isn’t sustainable.
Volunteerism or Fee-for-Service?
What's the best way to keep trainers training? (Hint: they don't work for money, but they need money to work).
Who Will Get the Job Done
If I neglected to mention any model or type of organization, take that as a sign of how bearish I am about it.
Inside a Banker's Mind
The other day I had lunch with an old acquaintance, an African banker.
When Money Flows into Informal Groups
I had the pleasure of being at the end of a distinguished chain passing along a new study.
The Physics of Money
IMFTI conducts research around the world, emphasizing the value of local researchers and local research partners.
No longer feeling poor
Can insanely small amounts of savings really make a difference? I think the answer is Yes.
Less is More
Do promoters of groups had a responsibility to layer on other activities that might ultimately benefit group members? Lively discussion among Kim, Hugh and Paul.
In Defense of Microcredit
I'm guilty of having dissed microcredit. A lot. Here's a bit of a mea culpa, and an acknowledgement of all the good things the microcredit boom accomplished.
Debt Limit Video
(It’s actually a political movie for Americans by some balance-the-budget group, but it’s still a good well produced video!)
Savings Groups or MFI groups: Which give a better deal?
He explores one of the most fundamental assumptions of microfinance—that it reduces the costs of borrowing and saving for the poor.
Enoughness & Experimentation: Blended Learning Opportunity
We know that we work in situations of complexity, unpredictability. So why do we keep approaching problems and analysis in the same way?
Moira's Network
I was recently in the CARE office in Niamey Niger and saw this poster
Time for a deep breath
Weren’t we saying the same things about microcredit in the 1980’s and ’90’s? And then… didn’t things turn a little, uh, sour?
A Really Neat Idea!
My grandmother too would be smiling happily, wherever she now is, to see the fundamental principle of her system being applied to the most recently pervasive technology