Comments on: Does Microcredit Hurt the Poor More Than it Helps? http://earthfirst.com/does-microcredit-hurt-the-poor-more-than-it-helps/ A Sharp Eye -- With a Green Edge Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:33:14 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Jessica Massie http://earthfirst.com/does-microcredit-hurt-the-poor-more-than-it-helps/comment-page-1/#comment-2478 Jessica Massie Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:33:43 +0000 http://earthfirst.com/?p=1970#comment-2478 Hi there ~ I think you may be confusing (or France 24 may have been confusing) Grameen Bank with the Microcredit Summit Campaign when you stated that Grameen Bank has over 100 million clients in the world's poorest countries. Actually, Grameen Bank operates only in Bangladesh - with 6.9 million clients at the end of 2006. (More this year, but you have to look for that yourself :) .) The Grameen model operates in many countries, though, which causes confusion sometimes. I think your 100 million comes from the numbers published each year by the Microcredit Summit Campaign - www.microcreditsummit.org - a network that counts the number of clients its members report. (It's a bit more complicated than that, but I won't get in to it!) Now, whether the credit part of microfinance hurts or helps, that's another story open to debate - but I wanted to make sure to point out that the numbers reported here might not be entirely correct. Hi there ~ I think you may be confusing (or France 24 may have been confusing) Grameen Bank with the Microcredit Summit Campaign when you stated that Grameen Bank has over 100 million clients in the world’s poorest countries. Actually, Grameen Bank operates only in Bangladesh – with 6.9 million clients at the end of 2006. (More this year, but you have to look for that yourself :) .) The Grameen model operates in many countries, though, which causes confusion sometimes. I think your 100 million comes from the numbers published each year by the Microcredit Summit Campaign – http://www.microcreditsummit.org – a network that counts the number of clients its members report. (It’s a bit more complicated than that, but I won’t get in to it!) Now, whether the credit part of microfinance hurts or helps, that’s another story open to debate – but I wanted to make sure to point out that the numbers reported here might not be entirely correct.

]]> By: Alice http://earthfirst.com/does-microcredit-hurt-the-poor-more-than-it-helps/comment-page-1/#comment-2435 Alice Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:06:32 +0000 http://earthfirst.com/?p=1970#comment-2435 Stephanie, I think you need to be careful here in saying that this is all bad. I am sure it is not. There is a lot of microcredit that has been very successful at lifting people out of poverty, especially women. Also, most of it is given to groups of women, who are responsible for the total of the loans given the group -- so if one person isn't able to pay then the group covers it. This way, they also keep the deadbeats out of the group in the first place. I am sure there are bad stories, but how many among billions of dollars of loans? Here's a 2-minute video that shows a microcredit success story about one woman in Bolvia: http://globaldevelopmentmatters.org/why-care-right-thing.asp You can also see more about microcredit at kiva.org Stephanie, I think you need to be careful here in saying that this is all bad. I am sure it is not.

There is a lot of microcredit that has been very successful at lifting people out of poverty, especially women. Also, most of it is given to groups of women, who are responsible for the total of the loans given the group — so if one person isn’t able to pay then the group covers it. This way, they also keep the deadbeats out of the group in the first place. I am sure there are bad stories, but how many among billions of dollars of loans?

Here’s a 2-minute video that shows a microcredit success story about one woman in Bolvia:
http://globaldevelopmentmatters.org/why-care-right-thing.asp

You can also see more about microcredit at kiva.org

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