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.
All in Theory
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.
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
Unable But Willing to Pay
Recently while visiting Naomi, a home brewer in Western Kenya, a customer came by to ask for Ksh 20 worth of liquor. He quickly ...
The Conclusion of Hundreds of Experts: Savings Is Not Relevant
The Gateway requests that you “stay tuned if you want to learn more on the topic and where to find practical tips and resources from the experts.”
The Savings Group Tiger and the Banking Shark
Tiger and Shark are both convinced they are the Most Strongest of All Animals.
Crab tells Tiger...
Trim Tabs and Savings Groups
Good development work is about putting in small inputs which help existing systems work better.
ROSCAs Revisited!
Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) are groups in which every member contributes the same amount every meeting
Which 'Savings' - Spend Later or Don't Spend at all?
Like so many English words, “Save” has multiple senses
Who's Gonna Save your e-Soul?
When we do things digitally, we leave behind us a sparkling trail of data.
Buzzwords Then and Now
Just when we thought we had cycled through all possible catchphrases, 2013 ushered in some new ones.
Five Best Savings Group Ideas of 2013
Unlike the bad ideas that have been recycled year after year, the good ideas of 2013 are all new this year, which is quite exciting!
Collective Intelligence, Going Viral and Savings Groups
I proposed that there were three things that were keeping the Savings Group idea from spreading faster:
Okay, you’ve seen savings groups in five minutes, savings groups in three minutes - now, here’s savings groups in TWO minutes.
Dependency and its Virtues
In the field, I have heard promoters called lazy if they ...
How Ideas Spread
During the whole meeting, a series of people came and looked in the window and door,
ASCA vs ROSCA: What happens when experts try to form their own savings group?
The email string below was initiated by field researcher, Perez Otonde,
Animal Capital - Why MFI's Matter
MFIs are getting trounced these days.