Very good conversation on micro-finance (i.e. Grameen and its ilk).
Yunus makes a wonderful point in his reference to Grameen not being affected by the international economic crisis. They’re not tied into the world economy and the money (over $1 billion lent per year) comes from the locality. It’s a wonderful real world example of how developing countries suffer from the economic actions of the rest of the world when a culture of government to government aid dependency is nurtured. Conversely, micro-financing institutions, like Grameen, aren’t affected because they get the money to lend from the local communities to which they lend.
I really like the point made by Yunus concerning how everyone is currently worried about getting back to a financial system like we had before the meltdown. Why not take this situation as a chance to grow? As Yunus says, why go back to a system that ignores two-thirds of the world.
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BBC Newsnight - Dambisa Moyo discusses microcredit with Muhammad Yunus (viadambisamoyo)
