Why Doesn't Microfinance Work?

The indisensable work on microfinance, revealing how the practice actually undermines the institutional foundations required for sustainable development and poverty reduction.

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Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty in developing and transition countries. Beloved of celebrities, royalty, politicians and ‘troubleshooting’ economists.



In this deeply provocative analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn’t actually work. In fact, the case for it has been largely built on hype, on egregious half-truths and – latterly – on the greed of those promoting and working in microfinance. Using a multitude of case studies, from India to Cambodia, Bolivia to Uganda, Serbia to Mexico, Bateman demonstrates that microfinance actually constitutes a major barrier to sustainable economic and social development, and thus also to sustainable poverty reduction. Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work? remains the definitive study of what is still one of the key shibboleths of contemporary development thinking.