The Rise and Fall of Global Microcredit: Development, Debt and Disillusion (Routledge Critical Development Studies)

In the mid-1980s the international development community helped launch in Bangladesh what was to quickly become one of the most popular poverty reduction policies of all time. Microcredit, the system of disbursing tiny micro-loans to the poor to help them to establish their own income-generating activities, was initially highly praised, but in recent years it has been subject to rising scrutiny and criticism. Microcredit, Development and Over-indebtedness shines a light on many of the problems surrounding microcredit and microfinance, in particular the short and long-term impacts of dramatically rising levels of microdebt. Developed in collabortion with UNCTAD, this book covers the general policy implications of adverse microfinance impacts, as well as gathering together country-specific case studies from around the world to demonstrate the real dynamics, incentives and end results of the microfinance/financial inclusion movements. Lively and provocative, Microcredit, Development and Over-indebtedness is an accessible guide for students, academics, policy-makers and development professionals alike.