- Title
- Microfinance programs in developed countries: An appraisal of the Australian, Canadian and US experience
- Creator
- Hettihewa, Samanthala; Wright, Christopher
- Date
- 2011
- Type
- Text; Conference paper
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/61186
- Identifier
- vital:5286
- Abstract
- Micro-Finance (MF) is popular as a cost-effective means to reduce poverty by enhancing the access to financial services of fmancially-disadvantaged individuals and families. While its roots extend back to (at least) 136ICE, MF's common popularity occurred after the Grameen Bank introduced programs to Bangladesh, in the mid-1970s. The popularity and much-acclaimed successes of MF in less developed countries (LDCs) encouraged the implementation of MF programs in developed countries (DCs). However, after some initial success, DC MF programs tend to founder in a morass of financial and operating issues that centre on those programs having to provide much larger loans and far more entrepreneurial support than what is normally required in LDCs. An exploratory descriptive-analysis methodology is used in this study to review and assess the history and dynamics of MF programs in DCs with the intent of identifying patterns and trends in those programs. It appears that in responding to sustainability (a widely identified key issue), many DC MF institutions are shifting from the MF core ideal (of assisting society's most financial vulnerable) and are refocusing on facilitating the entrepreneurial aspirations of the working poor. The study suggests that this refocus may achieve sustainability, but at the cost of further disadvantaging the original intended-DC-MF beneficiaries. Recommendations in this study include: the use of macro-economic axioms to study MF programs and their constituent communities and that (to ensure that their programs add value) MF programs should measure their outcomes and impacts in terms of communities, rather than by individuals.; E1
- Publisher
- Muscat, Oman College of commence and economics, Sultan Qaboos University
- Relation
- Oman 2011 international business conference
- Rights
- Unknown copyright
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
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