Malcolm Harper

• From the Editor

  01.03.1990
  

• World Development Report 1990: Focus on Poverty

  01.09.1990
  

• From the Editor

  01.12.1990
  

• From the Editor

  01.03.1991
  

• Aga Khan Foundation (United Kingdom) – seminar on small enterprise

  01.03.1991
  The United Kingdom office of the Aga Khan Foundation organized a one-day seminar in London in June 1990 entitled 'Small enterprise promotion – making it work'. The thirty-seven invited participants included representatives from the Overseas Development Administration and the EEC, and from universities and research institutions, but the majority were from non-government organizations such as the Aga Khan Foundation itself, Oxfam, Christian Aid and several others.

• From the Editor

  01.06.1991
  

• From the Editor

  01.09.1991
  

• Biogas – second thoughts

  01.09.1991
  

• From the Editor

  01.12.1991
  

• World Development Report 1991

  01.12.1991
  

• From the Editor

  01.03.1992
  

• The critical factors for the success of co-operatives and other group enterprises

  01.03.1992
  Co-operatives have been promoted vigorously in many countries, but more often than not these efforts have resulted in failure. The existence of successful co-operatives suggests, however, that given the right circumstances this form of enterprise can succeed.This article describes a survey designed to find out what are the critical factors associated with the successful running of co-operatives. No universal prescriptions can be derived from the results since the success of each institution depends to some extent on individual circumstances, but some issues are identified that may be relevant to those starting or managing co-operatives.

• The Marama Co-operative Society, Fiji

  01.03.1992
  Members of the YWCA in Suva, Fiji, first invested their money in the Marama Co-operative in the hope of demonstrating that indigenous Fijians could run a successful garment-making business. The society has now been operating for eight years and has a mixture of non-working members who have made an investment, paid working members, and paid workers who are not members. Although it has not been the beneficiary of any concessions the society has expanded economically and fulfilled a business training role as well as providing employment for skilled tailors.

• From the Editor

  01.06.1992
  

• From the Editor

  01.09.1992
  

• From the Editor

  01.12.1992
  

• Evaluating entrepreneurship development programmes in India

  01.12.1992
  Funding agencies for entrepreneurship development programmes (EDPs) in India are currently re-appraising their support for such programmes, and questions on the cost-effectives of EDPs are being raised. The need for more exacting evaluations is apparent given that most EDPs go no further than discovering whether or not trainees have started businesses after the programme.This article describes some past and present evaluations of Indian EDPs which were presented at a one-day 'National Consultation on the Evaluation of EDPs' at Bhubaneswar, Orissa, in March 1992. The consultation ended with some recommendations on how EDPs could collect data to make evaluations easier in future, and for EDPs to be prepared for funding institutions to expect trainees to pay part of their fees in future.

• From the Editor

  01.03.1993
  

• From the Editor

  01.06.1993
  

• From the Editor

  01.09.1993
  

• From the Editor

  01.12.1993
  

• From the Editor

  01.06.1994
  

• From the Editors

  01.09.1994
  

• From the Editor

  01.12.1994
  

• Musharaka partnership financing – an approach to venture capital for microenterprise

  01.12.1994
  The charging of interest on loans to small businesses is condemned under Islam, but in many Muslim countries alternative financing schemes have arisen. Musharaka is a form of partnership financing not very far in principle from venture capital, and it has been used in the Sudan to finance small businesses and even microenterprises. In situations where there is trust and understanding between bank staff and the local business community musharaka often provides reasonable returns for the investment of both parties, and an option that can lead to self-sustainable banking.

• From the Editor

  01.03.1995
  

• From the Editor

  01.06.1995
  

• From the Editor

  01.12.1995
  

• From the Editor

  01.03.1996
  

• From the Editor

  01.06.1996
  

• Self-help groups – some issues from India

  01.06.1996
  In India, as in other parts of the world, the banking community is discovering that it can extend its services to the rural poor by lending to self-help groups (SHGs). By providing single, larger loans, and relying on the group, or NGOs, to monitor the on-lending of micro-loans, the bank's transaction charges are reduced, making the whole operation potentially profitable. This article comments on this new phenomenon, pointing to the advantages of these methods as well as the pitfalls that may be encountered.

• From the Editors

  01.09.1996
  

• From the Editors

  01.12.1996
  

• From the Editor

  01.06.1997
  

• From the Editor

  01.09.1997
  

• From the Editor

  01.12.1997
  

• From the Editor

  01.03.1998
  

• From the Editor

  01.06.1998
  

• From the Editor

  01.09.1998
  

• The prevention of child labour – ASSEFA in southern India

  01.09.1998
  In an area of India where there are few other opportunities for employment, huge numbers of children have over the years been employed in the match and firework industries. This article describes one project that provided schooling to 'rehabilitate' working children in one part of this region, together with a small stipend to compensate for lost income, and other project benefits. The opinions of the factory owners and the children are given, together with a discussion of the project's replicability.

• From the Editor

  01.12.1998
  

• From the Editor

  01.03.1999
  

• From the Editor

  01.06.1999
  

• From the Editor

  01.09.1999
  

• From the Editor

  01.12.1999
  

• Micro-Privatization - public service delivery through private microenterprise

  01.06.2001
  

• Micro-privatization in India – success and failure

  01.03.2003
  This paper describes attempts to develop community enterprises and thereby to revive public service delivery systems in India. One case involves two defunct lift irrigation schemes in Andhra Pradesh, which were each designed to serve several hundred farmers. The other concerns rural electricity in Orissa, where much of the power was being stolen and most of what was billed was not paid for. In both cases, village committees were promoted to improve the management of the facilities. The paper describes how this promotion task was undertaken, over a two-year period, and summarizes the results. The similarities and differences between the two services, the background to the respective situations, and the enterprise promotion processes, are identified. Conclusions are drawn as to the circumstances, and promotion processes, which are more likely to be conducive to a successful outcome.

• Problems, problems

  01.12.2003
  

• School-owned businesses – some insights from China

  01.06.2004
  Since the 1980s the Government of China has encouraged schools to run their own businesses to provide an opportunity for pupils to learn practical skills and to boost school funds. Since that date much of the funding of schools' budgets has been transferred to local government, and the contribution from school businesses to school running costs has been substantial. Rural schools receive less government funding per pupil on average, and the impact of successful school businesses is even more important.This article describes the evolution of China's school businesses and gives some examples of school businesses, including some rural schools that have received some assistance from Save the Children UK. Some guidelines are suggested for the successful introduction of such programmes in other countries.

• Farm credit and microfinance – is there a critical mismatch?

  01.09.2005
  Old-style, subsidized, farming finance has largely disappeared and has been replaced by 'new paradigm' microfinance. This article examines the characteristics of a standard microfinance loan and compares them with the frequency, seasonality and loan size requirements of typical microfinance borrowers, including farmers and petty traders. It also examines data on the rate of return from investments for a number of micro-enterprises and compares them with the rate of return from a number of farming investments to discover whether these businesses make sufficient profit to cover the interest payments on the loan. It concludes that microfinance institutions will have to bring their interest charges down and introduce new loan products to meet the needs of farmers.

• Is small still relevant?

  01.12.2005
  

• Obituary

  01.12.2005
  

• ICICI bank and microfinance linkages in India

  01.03.2006
  Linking the formal financial sector with poor microfinance clients seemed impossible even a decade ago. Increasingly such linkages are emerging, either spontaneously or enforced, and it is crucial that we share the knowledge gained from these efforts. One of India's most innovative linkage models is ICICI Bank's recent 'facilitation linkage' with several NGO/MFIs. This approach is based on a partnership between ICICI Bank and selected NGOs/MFIs, according to which the latter takes the responsibility of monitoring and recovering loans from individuals and self-help groups, but the credit (and most of the risk) is directly between ICICI Bank and the SHG or individual clients. This article explains the model and provides two case study examples, PSS and BISWA, to illustrate this linkage methodology.

• Problems problems

  01.12.2006
  

• Value Chains

  01.06.2007
  

• Crossfire: Microfinance has upstaged enterprise development, and finance is now in danger of doing the same to value chain interventions

  01.10.2008
  

• Microfinance - a tentative neo-Marxist diagnosis, and what next?

  01.12.2009
  Karl Marx postulated that the owners of capital could use it to exploit those who only have their labour to sell; this article demonstrates private capital can use microfinance lending to extract the surplus from poor people in developing countries by charging high interest rates on loans that they use for running microbusinesses. The author makes recommendations that may help to make microfinance less exploitative.

• ‘Producer collectives, cooperatives and other types of group are not usually sustainable and do not deliver long-term benefits to smallholders’

  01.06.2010
  In our regular debate between experts, Crossfire invites David Grace and Malcolm Harper to argue the case surrounding: ‘Producer collectives, cooperatives and other types of group are not usually sustainable and do not deliver long-term benefits to smallholders’.

• Taking Stock: Agrarian distress in India - poor Indian farmers, suicides and government

  01.03.2011
  

• Crossfire: Islamic banking avoids interest payments and thus prevents rich investors profiting from the poor

  01.12.2011
  

• Akhuwat of Lahore: Breaking the rules

  01.03.2012
  This paper describes the operations of Akhuwat, a microfinance institution which offers shariah-compliant micro-financial services to clients in Lahore and elsewhere in Pakistan. The institution has been in business for ten years. It charges no interest or any other fees for its loans, and has reached about one hundred thousand borrowers. It relies heavily on volunteer staff, and all its funding is from local and mainly unofficial voluntary donations, including substantial amounts from its clients, which cover over half its operating costs. Akhuwat generally lends to households, rather than to individual women, or men, and without any form of group intermediation. It is an important example of an efficient but non-commercial approach to microfinance, from which many other microfinance institutions may be able to learn.

• Guest editorial: Reaching the poorest with finance and enterprise support

  01.03.2018
  This special issue focuses on the ways in which microfinance and enterprise development initiatives do and do not help very poor people – that is, their capacity to ‘reach the poorest’.

• Guest Editorial

  01.09.2018
  My name remains on the inside front cover of this Journal, in the list of the Editorial Committee, along with Biff Steel and Dietmar Stoian. It is very properly placed well below the name of the Editor Jason Donovan, who does most of the work, but I rather feel it’s presence is more because of courtesy, or perhaps in memory like an inscription on a stone, than in recognition of anything I actually do. But nevertheless Jason has asked me to draft an editorial for this issue, I hope not in desperation, or in error, so I shall do my best to oblige.

• Guest Editorial

  01.03.2019
  I have been known to mock some ’academic’ research about microfinance by suggesting that one might as well study the correlation between the size of loan officers’ shoes and the veracity of their expense claims. This nonsense arises from my scepticism about much of the research on microfinance and indeed any topic which emerges from universities around the world, and on which the professional advancement of their faculty appears to depend. Hence I was very pleased when Jason Donovan and his colleagues asked me to write an editorial for this issue. Three of the four papers which have been chosen for the issue are about correlations between two or more measurable features of a sample of microfinance institutions; I shall have to abandon my thoughtless mockery and examine whether such papers really do make a useful contribution to the improvement of microfinance.

• Guest editorial

  01.06.2020
  An editorial, particularly one written by a guest editor whose only qualification is that he was some 30 years ago the first editor of the journal in which it is to appear, should never begin with an apology. But apologize I must, because I am sure that many if not most readers will be expecting the editorial to be about the Covid pandemic, and I have to disappoint them.