Sunday, October 9, 2011, 01:37 PM - The Solidarity Economy & Microfinance
Some graphic facilitation at the plenary.
Sunday, August 14, 2011, 01:13 AM - The Solidarity Economy & Microfinance
Microfinance has come into the news lately, in part because of this new book and in part, because there are issues with some microfinance programs. Microfinance is often part of the financial sectors that have gotten themselves in a mess. Like them, there is over lending, over leveraging and just plain bad management. I've seen some of these. But I've also seen some powerful examples of what microfinance can do. Check out SEWA Bank on my links, for example. 800,000 women in a trade union with a cooperative, small scale pharmacies, literacy, marketing, producer and service cooperatives. They even offer pension schemes and daily savings collection. Most of these incredibly savvy and resourceful women are illiterate. Much of my work has been with savings groups and cooperatives but I've also seen some very effective microfinance programs. KixiCredito, Angola, also on my links is one of these examples. Polarizations are provocative but in the real world, it's messier and more complex. There is always good, bad and ugly. But don't take my word for it. Ask the women themselves.
Click on the Related Link below for an interview that I did with the Halifax Media Coop on these issues.
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Thursday, August 19, 2010, 04:31 PM - The Solidarity Economy & Microfinance
I work with informal unregistered savings groups. They use their own money (no loans or donations from outside), pool it, put aside some for an emergency fund, lend out to each other or invest. Each group makes its own constitution and policies for membership, attendance, fines, interest rates. I have seen fines for: gossiping, your cell phone going off during a meeting, being late, not knowing the groups' balances, coming to a meeting drunk. Each meeting begins with each member reciting one policy as they get their passbooks. As you can see here, passbooks use stamps so those with limited literacy can understand how much savings they have. If it is all their money and their rules, what do they need others for then? Support in weighing their options, governance issues, financial management, linking to other forms of support. Even then, the support is only for a time. In India, over 3 million groups are linked to financial institutions including banks, coops and rural banks.
Friday, January 1, 2010, 03:31 PM - The Solidarity Economy & Microfinance
Sparking a Savings Revolution
This is the title and gist of a New York Times article at the related link below. It is a tad promotional but outlines well what many have been trying to explain for years. That is, savings is as, if not more important, than loans for supporting women and families in economic security. Loans might give a small business a leg up. Savings give the family a leg up. Savings can help send children to school, buy medicine in an emergency, buy an asset, pay for a sudden burial in a rural area without creating that vicious cycle of debt that we all know too well. Think of your own situation.
I am working with Village Savings and Loans Associates and a team from Oxfam, CRS, CARE and Plan to support these small savings groups to better understand the quality and endurability of these groups. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding. There are tens of thousands of them in existence mainly but not exclusively in Africa. They stem from local rotating schemes run by people themselves. Tiny credit unions. In some areas, they use oral forms of bookkeeping. For families in rural areas it is often the only trusted place to save.
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Thursday, July 16, 2009, 05:20 PM - The Solidarity Economy & Microfinance
In May, I worked with FARM Africa, Ethiopia to develop a base-line for their Rural Women's Empowerment Project. The project uses savings and loan associations, livestock groups and women's rights awareness including community-based legal trainers. In past work, they have found a link between women's own income and assets and her ability to have voice in the household and in the community. We did base-line analysis combining quantitative indicators (eg. # cases brought to social court, women's land title, poverty score of household) with qualitative indicators (focus groups, life-stories, most significant change reported by women themselves). Men in the community were also interviewed. FARM will revisit these indicators in two years and four years to see what changes have occurred and if, indeed, there is a link between women's assets and her ability to contribute and assert her rights.
A draft report is available. Contact me for an electronic copy.
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