Showing papers on "Microfinance published in 1969"

Possibilities and limits of microfinance as a development stragegy: An evolving conversation.

Abstract: This conversation began as a meeting of "opposites" in the summer of 2002 when Veena Sampathkumar an incoming graduate student of international development met with Kiran Asher a new faculty member at Clark University. Veena was interested in improving the reach and impact of microfinance programs among womens groups in southern India and was hoping that Kirans experience with womens cooperatives in Colombia would aid her in her work. Kiran who had previously trained in biology and environmental studies had turned to grassroots solution-oriented social studies in 1991. But after more than a decade of fieldwork in India and various parts of Latin America she was skeptical of the development enterprises ability to conceptualize and address the concerns of third world citizens especially women. Based on her research on ethnic and gender struggles in Colombia Kiran could not share Veenas enthusiasm for microfinance believing that like earlier development initiatives microfinance schemes focused too heavily on economic and financial goals and could not address womens vital cultural and political concerns. But over the course of the 2002-2003 academic year these two strong-willed third world women kept returning to their conversation. They argued about the complexities and contradictions of the development enterprise and reflected on the rhetoric and hype of microfinance schemes. Gradually they gained a more nuanced understanding of each others positions especially of microfinance as a development strategy. They found that they disagreed less than they had initially thought and that their social and political concerns especially regarding third world women were more in concert. They modeled this article on their conversations about the possibilities and limits of microfinance schemes. (excerpt)