Defying the Odds: Banking for the Poor
Eugene Versluysen | | ISBN: 978-1-56549-094-9 $72.00 |
| ISBN: 978-1-56549-093-2 $27.50 |
| 1999/256 pages A Kumarian Press Book |
DESCRIPTION
This outstanding study focuses on the growth of microfinance in the context of social and economic change—and upheavals—in developing countries. Rather than relying on one-dimensional technical analyses, Eugene Versluysen presents the experiences and achievements of microfinance institutions and their clients in the form of country-based case studies. He emphasizes how important it is for people, who have never had access to credit, to be given the opportunity to use credit to become self-sufficient and support themselves and their families.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eugene Versluysen, now retired, was an economist at the World Bank.
CONTENTS
- Introduction.
- THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF MICROFINANCE.
- Poverty Is Not Created by the Poor.
- Self-Employment: A Cure for Poverty?
- Banking for the Unbankable.
- THE ASIAN PIONEERS OF MICROFINANCE.
- Challenging Social Norms to Empower the Landless Poor in Bangladesh.
- Bold Experiments with Unit Banking in Indonesia.
- INFORMALITY AND MICROFINANCE IN LATIN AMERICA.
- Coping with the Lost Decade.
- Financing Bolivia's Urban Informal Sector.
- Rising Informality and Microfinance in Peru.
- EXPERIMENTING WITH MICROFINANCE IN WEST AFRICA.
- West Africa: A Region Mired in Poverty.
- Blending Microfinance with Training: Lessons from Guinea.
- MICROFINANCE IN PERSPECTIVE.
- Learning from Microfinance.
"Microfinance is a topic about which an extraordinary amount of nonsense is written. Anyone interested in a serious treatment of the topic should read Eugene Versluysen's book, which sorts sense from nonsense, does not romanticize, and offers operational insights based on a strong analytical framework. One can only hope that other work on the subject will rise to this standard."—John Weeks, Director, Centre for Development Policy and Research, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London