Archive for the ‘development’ tag
Rural Microfinance
What is Microfinance?
Microfinance is basically when money is lent on a smaller scale to people by organisations called microfinance institutions. If a budding entrepreneur in Africa contacted the local bank for a loan of $100 then this loan is likely not be given as the loan amount is too small and there is no profit in this for the bank. There is also no lending history if it is a first time loan.
The result is that millions of potential business people around the world cannot gain access to the funds that they need to build or develop an existing business. Sometimes all it takes is $100 to buy more stock at a discounted price and this profit can then be used to build the business in the future.
A pioneer was needed and Mohammed Yunus from Bangladesh stepped forward as he thought about giving small loans sometimes as small as $50 to help people to help themselves. $50 can buy phone cards for re-sale in Rural Africa, chickens for breeding and re-sale, open a small retail outlet or even a bicycle taxi. The options are endless and it helps people to reduce costs and make a profit. Traditionally these people have contacted local money lenders that charge extortionate interest rates and can threaten you and take possessions if the money is not repaid.
Microfinance often involves self help groups and peer pressure to ensure that loans are repaid. It works like this, a loan officer from a microfinance charity or bank will contact a village to explain what microfinance is and how it works. They are then encouraged to form groups of say 7 people and they all have the understanding that of one person fails to make a repayment of the loan then the others in the group need to contribute towards this amount. Loans are then requested and disbursed and repaid over a period of no more than about 18 months. Once the loan is repaid then members can often take out a bigger loan to fund more purchases. The repayment rate worldwide is around 98 percent which beats the banks hands down and has provided profitable businesses for those responsible for administrating the loans. These companies are called microfinance institutions and the biggest Indian institutions now loan millions of dollars per month to hundreds of thousands of borrowers.
A few years ago two genius people thought of KIVA which means that anyone in the world can make a loan of $25 dollars to a budding entrepreneur via the site and when and if the money is repaid they can then use this money to relend to another needy person or withdraw it and keep it for themselves.
Our website guidemegreen has started a lending group on KIVA and made $2000 of loans around the world and all of this has been repaid. May the good luck continue and none of the businesses I invest in fail as I will lose money. KIVA is hoping to lend 1 billion dollars via the internet site in the next 10 years. An enormous transfer of wealth from developed to developing countries.
Many countries including China and India are heavily promoting microfinance as one of the many tools to help alleviate poverty in villagers and urban areas around the world. KIVA has started to allow you to make loans to USA business people who need credit themselves as poverty exists everywhere not just in the third world.
About the Author
Davinos Greeno works for the green companies and fairtrade shopping directory that lists 100s of Organic and Ethical Companies and we also have green articles for you to read or publish.
Rural Microfinance
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Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty $3.97 Like new… |
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The Microfinance Revolution: Sustainable Finance for the Poor $16.00 Around the world, a revolution is occurring in finance for low-income people. The microfinance revolution is delivering financial services to the economically active poor on a large scale through competing, financially self-sufficient institutions. In a few countries this has already happened; in others it is under way. The emerging microfinance industry has profound implications for social and ec… |
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Freedom From Want: The Remarkable Success Story of BRAC, the Global Grassroots Organization That’s Winning the Fight Against Poverty $15.99 BRAC, arguably the world’s largest, most diverse and most successful NGO, is little known outside Bangladesh, where it formed in 1972. Author Ian Smillie predicts, however, that this is bound to change. BRAC’s success and the spread of its work in health, education, social enterprise development and microfinance dwarfs any other private, government or non-profit enterprise in its impact on ten… |
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Lepto Vax 4 (25 doses) $179.99 The number of canine leptospirosis cases has risen dramatically in recent years, impacting urban and rural dogs. Leptospirosis is a potentially life-threatening disease, and is now the number one infectious cause of acute renal failure in dogs. Leptospirosis may pose a zoonotic (transmissible) risk to owners. All vaccines are shipped overnight. A $29.95 flat rate fee is charged for all orders containing vaccines. Someone should be present to sign for and receive the vaccine order when it ships to you. For more shipping info click here. |
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Garmin Topo Australia Dvd $214.99 Garmin Topo Australia Dvd . Get enhanced detail on your GPS, whether you re on a 4WD track in the outback or a main boulevard in the city. TOPO Australia provides a wide array of topographic information from terrain contours, elevations and summits to coverage of perennial and intermittent lakes, rivers and streams. It features a searchable database that includes urban, rural and outback points of interest and also has routable road content to give you turn-by-turn directions to your destination.Includes topographic and street maps for AustraliaTerrain contours at 20 meter intervals approximating 1:100K mapsContains tracks, outback trails, 4WD destinations, perennial and seasonal lakes, rivers and streamsTerrain contours, summit points and topographic elevations give a detailed lay of the landSearchable points of interest in urban, rural and outback areas; including lodging, restaurants, camping locations, caravan parks, shopping and moreRoutable road content and POIs provided by HEMA |
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Garmin Topo, Australia, 24k, Microsd/sd $209.99 Garmin Topo, Australia, 24k, Microsd/sd . Get enhanced detail on your GPS, whether you re on a 4WD track in the outback or a main boulevard in the city. TOPO Australia provides a wide array of topographic information from terrain contours, elevations and summits to coverage of perennial and intermittent lakes, rivers and streams. It features a searchable database that includes urban, rural and outback points of interest and also has routable road content to give you turn-by-turn directions to your destination. Includes topographic and street maps for Australia. Terrain contours at 20 meter intervals approximating 1:100K maps. Contains tracks, outback trails, 4WD destinations, perennial and seasonal lakes, rivers and streams. Terrain contours, summit points and topographic elevations give a detailed lay of the land. Searchable points of interest in urban, rural and outback areas; including lodging, restaurants, camping locations, caravan parks, shopping and more. Routable road content a |
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Garmin Topo U.s. 24k North Central Dvd $129.99 Garmin Topo U.s. 24k North Central Dvd . Get More Detail Outdoor enthusiasts: your adventure is waiting – in vivid detail. TOPO U.S. 24K North Central DVD brings you the highest level of topographic detail available, with maps comparable to 1:24,000 scale USGS maps. These highly detailed maps on DVD include terrain contours, topo elevations, summits, routable roads and trails, parks, coastlines, rivers, lakes and geographical points – and they also display 3-D terrain shading on compatible devices. With routable roads and trails in metropolitan and rural areas, getting to your destination is easy by creating point-to-point routes on compatible units.Get More Coverage This DVD includes an even larger coverage area than our preprogrammed microSD/SD cards. With this purchase, you’ll receive topographic detail for Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa. You’ll also receive BaseCamp software for managing data on your GPS and computer, playing back |
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Garmin Topo U.s. 24k Southwest Dvd $129.99 Garmin Topo U.s. 24k Southwest Dvd . Get More Detail Outdoor enthusiasts: your adventure is waiting in vivid detail. TOPO U.S. 24K Southwest DVD brings you the highest level of topographic detail available, with maps comparable to 1:24,000 scale USGS maps. These highly detailed maps on DVD include terrain contours, topo elevations, summits, routable roads and trails, parks, coastlines, rivers, lakes and geographical points and they also display 3-D terrain shading on compatible devices. With routable roads and trails in metropolitan and rural areas, getting to your destination is easy by creating point-to-point routes on compatible units. Get More Coverage This DVD includes an even larger coverage area than our preprogrammed microSD/SD cards. With this purchase, you’ll receive topographic detail for Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. You’ll also receive BaseCamp software for managing data on your GPS and computer, playing back routes and tracks, geotagging photos and more. Include |
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Garmin Topo U.s. 24k West Central Dvd $129.99 Garmin Topo U.s. 24k West Central Dvd . Get More Detail Outdoor enthusiasts: your adventure is waiting in vivid detail. TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD brings you the highest level of topographic detail available, with maps comparable to 1:24,000 scale USGS maps. These highly detailed maps on DVD include terrain contours, topo elevations, summits, routable roads and trails, parks, coastlines, rivers, lakes and geographical points and they also display 3-D terrain shading on compatible devices. With routable roads and trails in metropolitan and rural areas, getting to your destination is easy by creating point-to-point routes on compatible units. Get More Coverage This DVD includes an even larger coverage area than TOPO U.S. 24K – West on microSD/SD card. With this purchase, you’ll receive topographic detail for Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada. You’ll also receive BaseCamp software for managing data on your GPS and computer, playing back routes and tracks, geotagging photos and more. I |
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Impact Of Microfinance On The Livelihoods Of Rural Households $99 Teferi Garedew, Zaid Negash,Paperback, English-language edition,Pub by VDM Verlag |
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Savings Services for the Poor $29.95 In Savings Services for the Poor, Madeline Hirschland provides practical guidance for managing sounds savings operations for small and rural depositors. Drawing on the experience of leaders in the field from across the globe, this book addresses two types of institutions: Microfinance institutions that want to develop savings operations and mainstream banks that seek to go “down market.”Forty case studies illustrate the key technical and management issues faced by banks, cooperatives, Mic |
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The New World of Microenterprise Finance: Building Healthy Financial Institutions for the Poor $29.95 * Deals with microfinance in Asia, Africa, and Latin America* Outlines successful programs such as: the Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI); BancoSol in Bolivia; the Association of Solidarity Groups in Colombia; and the Kenya Rural Enterprise ProgramOtero and Rhyne introduce an innovative direction for microenterprise finance arguing that one can create viable and self-sustaining financial intermediaries that will give the poor greater access to financial services. |
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Value Chain Finance: Beyond Microfinance for Rural Entrepreneurs $39.95 Royal Tropical Institute, International Institute of Rural Reconstruction,Paperback, English-language edition,Pub by KIT Publishers |
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What Works For The Poorest?: Knowledge, Targeting, Policies and Practices $39.95 Poverty reduction has become the central goal of development policies over the last decade but there is a growing realization that the poorest people rarely benefit from poverty reduction programs. Microfinance programs can help poor people improve their lives but generally do not reach the extremely poor and the chronic poor: casual laborers in remote rural areas, ethnic and indigenous minorities, older people, widows, migrants, bonded laborers and others.To counter this, governments, |