Poverty is sometimes seen as intractable. Poor families need capital to start their lives. However, banks are not willing to trust the poor who have no history of being able to repay loans. As a means to solve this issue, the Human Security and Development cluster workshop starts with a speech by Vayesh Ranjan on social mobilization in India.
Basically, you send a youth into a poor community to live there suffering the same challenges as the poor. When a relationship is built, the youth identifies and develops fellow social actors within the community. Self-help groups are formed and they then form savings groups. These savings groups help bankers have more trust in the poor and offer small starting loans as capital. So, microfinance through bigger institutions.
I asked whether there exists that foreign donor subjugation culture that exists in places like Uganda. Ranjan says that they are neutral to all loans. They take those that do not set conditionalities. The most important part is ensuring that the receiving end is working. Communities can handle and process the grants.
For more information, contact Vayesh at jayesh_ranjan@hotmail.com. Hope that contact works.
