Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2009, 55(10):467-474 | DOI: 10.17221/45/2009-AGRICECON

Microfinance in less developed countries: history, progress, present - charity or business?

K. Srnec, E. Svobodová
Institute of Tropics and Subtropics, Czech University of Life Science, Prague, Czech Republic

This paper describes the development of micro-financial activities in less developed countries in the world. The history of this development is divided into four periods with their short characteristics. Currently, the main questions in each period are highlighted and discussed by experts in microfinance. In the past, these problems were published in many scientific periodicals. It concerns mainly opinions, as for example, if the influence of microfinance on poverty reduction is overestimated, or on the other hand, the analysis related to the position of informal and formal micro-financial institutions, their development and acceleration of transformation, the influence of non-governmental organizations etc. At present, there is discussed the question of the preference - the model of 'charity' or 'business', which is mainly related to the fourth, current development period. For these reasons, this question is intensively focused and analysed. The conclusion of this paper concerns just this area which is fundamentally related to the future development of microfinance as a factor of poverty reduction in the less economically developed regions in the world.

Keywords: microfinance, financial dualism, transformation, business or charity

Published: October 31, 2009  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Srnec K, Svobodová E. Microfinance in less developed countries: history, progress, present - charity or business? Agric. Econ. - Czech. 2009;55(10):467-474. doi: 10.17221/45/2009-AGRICECON.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Acción (2007): The Banco Compartamos Initial Public Offering. Insight 23, Acción, Boston MA, USA [online]. Available at http://www.microcreditsummit.org/enews/2007-07_Accion%20Compartamos%20Article.pdf
    2. Book Review (2008): Creating a World without Poverty by Muhammad Yunus [on-line]. Available at http://www.microfinanceblog.org/?cat=5
    3. Crespo L. (2008): Effects of micro finance on the target population. [Habilitation Thesis.] Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague.
    4. Havrland B. (2006): The strengthening agricultural research for development: Situation and strategy research and technology. Agricultura Tropica and Subtropica, 39 (1): 44-51.
    5. Jeníček V. (2008): All human social, humanitarian, cultural and security problems of the world. Agricultural Economics - Czech, 54 (6): 263-268. Go to original source...
    6. The Microfinance Gateway (2006): Helping to Improve Donor Effectiveness in Microfinance. Available at www.cgap.org
    7. Morris G., Barnes C. (2002): An assessment of the impact of microfinance: A case study from Uganda. Journal of Microfinance, 7 (1): 1-14.
    8. MyElen (2008): Small Amounts, Big Difference [online]. Available at https://www.myelen.com/myelen/Pages/Static/Microfinance/Microfinance.jsf
    9. Ramos M. (2006): Desaf íos de género dacia la inclusión financiera. Studio del ompacto de los bancos Comunales en Puno y San Martin, pp. 1887-2003, CreditMucher, Peru, Lima.
    10. Romani Ch.G.A.(2002): Impacto del microcrédito en los microempresarios chilenos: un studio de caso en la II Región de Chile. In: Book of Abstracts. 7th International CLAD Conference, October 8-11. Lisboa, Portugal.
    11. Sherr S.J. (2002): Poverty-Environment Interactions in Agriculture: Key Factors and Policy Implications [on-line]. UNDP. Available at http://www.undp.org/seed/pei/publication/ggriculture.htm
    12. Srnec K. (2007): Microfinance - tool for poverty alleviation in the less developed countries. [Habilitation Thesis.] Institute of Tropics and Subtropics, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague.
    13. Srnec K., Gebrianová E. (2005): HIPC - initiative challenges of maintaining long-term debt sustainability. Agricultura Tropica et Subtropica, 38 (1): 79-86.
    14. Tichá I. (2009): Viable strategies in volatile time. Agricultural Economics - Czech, 55 (5): 229-232. Go to original source...
    15. UNITUS (2005): [on-line]. Available at http://www.unitus.com./wwd_accelmodel.asp ID 870621367
    16. Zeller M., Meyer R. (2002): The Triangle of Microfinance: Financial Sustainability, Outreach, and Impact. John Hopkins University Press in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Baltimore and London.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content