Posted on Tuesday, 10th November 2009 by chris wignall
Microcredit loans such as those offered by Kiva are not the ultimate solution to all the world’s poverty issues.
As a new industry, microfinance has had some struggles and even when working well it really suits just a portion of the needy populations around the world. Some recent research has even suggested that the entire model is failing to achieve the often repeated social developments that motivate many donors. IDE’s Stuart Taylor (writing as the aptly named Fillmore Buckets) provides a well reasoned response to the criticisms and analysis of where microfinace fits into lasting development planning.
(You can see more of my take in the comments on the fillmore buckets blog).
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November 10th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Kiva is an innovative model for connecting would-be lenders to small entrepreneurs but facing controversy in the past few days for a perceived lack of transparency on the actual level of connection to those entrepreneurs on the other end… the tightrope of effective and truthful marketing. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/global/09kiva.html
The guy who broke this story – David Roodman – is one of the sources I cited in my post on microcredit. Very thorough and thoughtful.