Microcredit took the development world by storm as a tool for poverty alleviation in the 1980s. After being hailed as a panacea, a few decades on it started being forcefully criticised based on its practice.
This book explores Akhuwat (literally brotherhood), a rapidly growing Pakistani NGO formed in 2001, which addresses the shortcomings of conventional microfinance. Its vision is of a society built on empathy and social solidarity and its mission is that of creating self-sufficiency among the entrepreneurial poor. This book examines whether Akhuwat fulfils its promises of not pushing loans or encouraging clients to get on a debt treadmill and helping them to avoid high debt burdens by charging no interest and easing repayment terms. Conventional microcredit organizations are criticised for losing sight of the original mission of poverty alleviation by engaging in empire building and Akhuwat’s goal is to avoid this by embracing an alternative strategy of scaling up. Finally, this book also analyses Akhuwat’s approach as being gender sensitive and embracing all religions, castes and ethnicities.
Based on fieldwork designed to assess if Akhuwat is the microcredit alternative it claims to be, this book will be of interest to scholars of poverty and development studies in general and microcredit in particular.
- ISBN10 0815386850
- ISBN13 9780815386858
- Publish Date 9 April 2018
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Imprint Routledge
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 182
- Language English