“The internet is revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries,be they a farmer in Kenya who wants to invest in new cows or a seamstress in India who wants to open her own shop”,this BBC article says.The two sites which are the focus of the article are Global Giving,and Kiva which is “a Swahili word for unity or agreement”.
P2P microfinance
- March 1st, 2006
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by Jim_Downing
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Comments
@ 20:47
I also heard the story on NPR. Very interesting. Here is the audio link — NPR Audio Show.
@ 19:56
Kiva is so important because everyday people can now support microfinance WITHOUT making a donation. Donations do damage in microfinance. But, before Kiva, there was no other option for the individual wanting to do the right thing with $500, so he would give it away, unaware of the contradiction. We at MicroCapital.org report daily on microfinance investment, and year after year we are asked by individuals how to participate without undercutting the fundamental principle of microcredit: teach a woman to fish. Before Kiva, there was no answer. The great irony of microcredit funding to date is that good people with surplus wealth are attracted to it because it promotes self-reliance, but then those same good people donate to organizations that make microloans. Why not hold the microcredit organization to the same principle of self-reliance as the microborrower, the fisherman in Africa? Kiva does just so, providing us all the opportunity to participate with ACCOUNTABILITY. Well done, and thank you, David Satterthwaite.