Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance, Financial inclusion

Gender Issues in Financial Inclusion Series 2: Drivers of the Gender Gap in Financial Services, Part 1: Gender Norms

In financial systems, as elsewhere, gender norms are pervasive and influence the behavior of all participants it, including consumers, financial service providers (FSPs), policymakers, and providers of supporting functions such as agent networks and credit registries. Deeply embedded behaviors and beliefs driven by gender norms shape the incentives and capacities of financial system actors that…

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Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance, Financial inclusion

Privatizing Poverty Part 11: Climate Change Gives the Lie to Market-Based Development

The tenth post in this blog series singled out microfinance, and financial inclusion in general, as the “money pump” that powers market-based poverty reduction programs. Whether the specifics of the program involves generating additional income, improving skills, adopting new technologies for mitigating and adapting to climate change, strengthening homes against natural disasters, or building resilience,…

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Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance, Enterprise Development, Financial inclusion

Privatizing Poverty Series Part 9: The cult of the entrepreneur

The prioritization of innovation, productivity, and growth over income and wealth distribution; technology as savior; government as a partner rather than a regulator of the private sector; market-based solutions to social and economic problems; and the overall emphasis on the individual initiative over collective action––this economic vision did not come from the political right as…

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Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance, Enterprise Development, Financial inclusion

Privatizing Poverty Series Part 8: New Democrats

Left-leaning neo-liberals rose to power just as new ideas about economic development and poverty reduction emerged. Old-style New Deal democrats lost to Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972. New-left politicians were first elected in the 1974 Democratic wave after the Watergate scandal. Their main base was the white suburban middle class, and they won with…

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Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance, Financial inclusion

Privatizing Poverty Series Part 7: The rise of left-leaning neo-liberalism

This blog began last year by marking the 50th anniversary of a new approach to economic development and poverty reduction. The previous model had sought to copy the pathways of advanced economies, placing emphasis on infrastructure and industrial development. However, this approach failed to kick-start self-generating economic growth. Most people remained outside the formal sector,…

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Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance, Financial inclusion

Privatizing Poverty Series Part 6: Meet TINA (again)

As discussed in the fifth post in this series, right-leaning neo-liberalism is a political project dressed up as economic policy. Free market fundamentalism is not the raison d’etre of right-leaning neo-liberalism but a means to the further end of protecting the owners of property and extending their influence. The ultimate goal, as Ludwig von Mises’s…

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Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance, Financial inclusion

Privatizing Poverty Series Part 5: A uniquely appropriate caricature

As discussed in the fourth post in this series, right-leaning neo-liberalism’s focus on protecting property rights is an exercise in raw power. Its underlying logic is the other Golden Rule: he who has the gold rules. Seen in this light, free market fundamentalism is not the raison d’etre of right-leaning neo-liberalism. It is simply a…

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Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance, Enterprise Development, Financial inclusion

Privatizing Poverty Part 4: Right-leaning neo-liberalism’s obsession with property rights runs through slavery

The third post in this blog series discussed how right-leaning neo-liberalism, as opposed to classical liberalism, places property rights above all other rights. This means that property holders are a protected class, overriding the political and civil rights of everyone else. It is highly anti-democratic. Right-leaning neo-liberalism’s obsession with property rights over all others appears…

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Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance

Privatizing Poverty Part 3: The anti-democratic aims of right-leaning neo-liberalism

The first post in this blog series noted that the ILO, USAID, and Word Bank began implementing programs that targeted the poor directly a half-century ago as part of a broader effort to redistribute wealth downward in order to overcome the monopoly on economic gains from market transactions by the politically powerful. The second blog…

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Date:Posted By:Category:Blog, Development Finance, Enterprise Development, Financial inclusion

Privatizing Poverty Part 2: Market-based development vs structural adjustment―same same, but different

Some comments on the first post in this blog series linked market-based development to the structural adjustment programs (SAPs) pursued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. It’s a tempting analogy, especially since both economic approaches have been labeled “neo-liberal”. In fact, these two concepts have very different intellectual histories as well as…

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