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Posts Tagged ‘accountability’

Combating Elite Capture: F.W. Raiffeisen

Posted in Financial cooperatives, History, Microfinance, The village, tagged , , , , on March 25, 2012| 2 Comments »

If elite capture is such a serious threat, how was it dealt with during the microfinance revolution in Europe? F.W. Raiffeisen addressed this risk directly: he asked village elites to play leadership roles in the cooperatives – but to derive no material benefit from them.

In speeches he emphasized religious duties of charity and responsibility to community, and encouraged the villagers to elect leading individuals to the board, conditional on their character. Board positions received no compensation. Raiffeisen (more…)

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Elite Capture (2)

Posted in Financial cooperatives, History, Microfinance, tagged , , , , , on March 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

By 1979 only 61 of the 400 Comilla cooperatives were still functioning.  One observer attributes this result to four factors:  fraud/lack of internal controls, stagnation, diversion of funds, and ineffective external supervision. The central problem of fraud and weak controls “was possible not only because of individual dishonesty, but because the people were not made aware of their rights, and were not in a position to voice their rights (Aditee Nag Chowdhury, Let Grassroots Speak, p. 54).

Partly as a result of Dr. Khan’s experience, later Bangladeshi practitioners in microfinance, such as Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Fazle Hasan Abed, (more…)

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Elite Capture: Comilla

Posted in Financial cooperatives, History, Microfinance, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The ‘cooperative wave’ of microfinance gave way to the ‘microcredit’ wave in the 1970s. ‘Elite capture’ severely damaged the cooperative wave in the South. The story of the transition from the Comilla model to Grameen Bank, at the inflection point between the movements, is exemplary.

The ‘Comilla Model’ was initiated in East Pakistan by Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan in 1959. Khan drew inspiration from the Raiffeisen credit unions of rural Germany. He envisioned ‘vigorous local institutions’ that could provide credit and access to markets for the farmers of Comilla district. The cooperatives (more…)

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Rural Market Failure — Shareholder Rights

Posted in The village, Village institutions, tagged , , , , , on February 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Saving at home is convenient, private and predator-free.

In a study of 301 households that belonged to village financial institutions (VFIs) in 37 villages in Cambodia, my team from the Canadian Co-operative Association asked what would cause them to deposit more savings? By far the strongest response was: “the managers must show more respect for the rules.” (Towards Safety & Self-Reliance, p. 51.)

The rules to which they referred were not complex: they expected the managers to refrain from (more…)

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Why Not?

Posted in Microfinance, Orality, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2010| 4 Comments »

Loan Contract Chambak Village Cambodia

Why are there not finger-counting icons and/or tallies (see right) on every passbook owned by every illiterate client in microfinance?

This small change could make microfinance more comfortable for poor borrowers and poor savers, and contribute in a small way towards our shared goal of ‘access for all’. (more…)

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