Microcredit as a Grass-Roots Policy for International Development |
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| Authors: | Gary M Waller Warner Woodworth |
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| Institution: | associate professor of Public Management in the Romney Institute of Public Management, part of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, where he teaches classes in international management and NGO management. He has published articles in Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, American Political Science Review, Public Administration Review;, and Journal of Development Studies. He consults with several NGOs working in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. professor of Organizational Behavior in the Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University, where he teaches courses in Third World development, consulting, and change to MBA students. He has been a visiting scholar at the International Labor Office in Geneva Switzerland, the University of Rio de Janeiro, and the University of Michigan. He consults with numerous NGOs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. His two most recent books are Creating Labor-Management Partnerships;(Addison-Wesley, 1995) and Small Is Really Beautiful: Micro-Entrepreneurship, Microenterprise and Microfinance (Third World Think Tank, 1997). |
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| Abstract: | The failure of top-down development policies in the Third World has given rise to a variety of grass-roots, or bottom-up, development strategies to combat the severe poverty that continues to plague developing countries. Among these grass-roots approaches, microcredit has grown rapidly in popularity, scope, and impact over the last two decades. Microcredit provides financial capital for poor entrepreneurs who toil in the informal, poverty sectors in developing country economies. In addition to the thousands of predominantly nongovernmental organizations that offer microcredit programs, many national governments in the Third World are now seeking to integrate microcredit strategies into their development policy and planning. Accordingly, this article examines the microcredit movement, including its rationale and underlying premises, its impact on the poor, and its role in development policy. |
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