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‘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’. -
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. -
Value Chains
01.06.2007
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Problems problems
01.12.2006
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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. -
Obituary
01.12.2005
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Is small still relevant?
01.12.2005
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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Old-style, subsidized, farming finance has largely disappeared and has been replaced by 'new paradigm' microfinance.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. -
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.