Microfinance and MicroFranchises: A Solution to Poverty

Many individuals all over the world are affected by poverty. In order to completely understand the cause, the effect, and the solution to ending poverty, we must first understand the meaning of poverty. Poverty is the condition where an individual’s basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met (business dictionary). According to the World Bank Organization, poverty is also the lack of healthcare, education, information, and jobs. There are two general types of poverty: Absolute and Relative. Absolute poverty occurs when individuals cannot obtain adequate resources to support a minimum level of physical health. Relative poverty occurs when individuals do not

We live in a world where technology is advanced and it has solved many of our problems in the past, but an issue that has not been solved is poverty. Poverty is being extremely poor to the point where one cannot afford the daily necessities to survive, like food and shelter. Amongst the many problems we face today such as, war and climate change, poverty is a significant problem we have yet to solve. Poverty cannot be solved in a day nor in a year, in fact it might never be completely solved. Taking the right steps to significantly reduce poverty such as, becoming strict on those who apply for government assistance, donating leftover food for those in need and funding more resources into programs for rehabilitation may help decrease poverty.

Over three billion people live on less than two dollars and fifty cents a day. That's almost half the population of mankind. But poverty is not just about not having enough money, it's about not being able to obtain, basic human needs. Around the world people lack such necessities, like clean water, food, suitable clothing, etc. It’s because a person is not well suited to today’s society, it creates a large gap between the fortunate and those who struggle to survive.

seconds, a child dies from poverty-related reasons. Not only that, but, about a billion people are unable to read a book. Poverty is a monumental problem across the world that needs to be solved. It

Poverty is a serious phenomenon that has been widespread all over the world. Although, many charitable organizations like CARE, Action Against Hunger (AAH) or Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) have operated with a highest enthusiasm to help the indigent, the amount of those have still been increasing significantly in recent years. According to the survey of the United States Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans in poverty rose from 12.2 to 15.9 percent and the proportion skyrocketed from 33.3 million to 48.8 million between 2000 and 2012 (Bishaw, 2013). The indigent are very poor people, including the disabled, beggars, homeless people who live in slums with lacking of insurance, being unemployed and earning underpaid salaries, about

The book, Microfinance and its Discontent: Women in Debt in Bangladesh written by Lamia Karim, gives us account on what causes a culture to be known as “economy of shame” status, such as in the case of Bangladesh. She writes on a subject that is a top list priority in the economical world these days, the corrupt ways NGO’s lenders do business not only in Bangladesh but across the world, however, she centralizes her views on Bangladesh and only a handful of NGO’s. Even though this was primarily a look at Bangladesh, it has resulted in capturing the attention of people across the globe not only with the NGO’s mention in the book but resulting in a closer look at all NGO’s and how they serve the people. Karim shares with the readers how the 1980’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) led in the way of microfinance institutions and claimed that they were providing women with an empowerment tool by issuing them loans. We find that over 80% of borrows are women and most are economically challenged already. With that being stated Karim also takes a look at how and why that is, she discusses the long term effects it is having on women and how it is furthering the exploitation of women in Bangladesh. She looked at how this type of exploitation has not only weakened further women’s economy in Bangladesh but has also strengthen the power NGO’s have over the people (mainly women) at the same time. It takes a look at this type of expansion and brands NGO’s use as a “shadow state

In the same way Khandker state that, microfinance reduces poverty by increasing consumption among participants and their families. Degree of poverty reduction evaluate on the based on consumption impacts of credit show that about 5% of program participants can improved their families out of poverty each year by participating and borrowing from microfinance programs. (Khandker S. R., 1998, p.

As our world settles for more poverty more and more complications are created, starting with the increasing death rate. As families get poor, it is difficult to sustain a livable life while taking care of others. They begin to die without adequate water and food, while bringing

Today we’re facing a big problem, it’s not a new one but an on-going one and it has been going on for decades. What is poverty? Poverty is the state of not being able to afford basic needs, in other words, it is the condition of being tremendously poor. It is a matter which has troubled the nation for thousands of years. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Around 21,000 people die every day because of extreme hunger. If they don’t have money, they won’t be able to afford food, water and shelter. Therefore, they’re constantly malnourished, and get sick easily. This causes them to have less energy to work which causes them to become even poorer and hungrier. Usually, the first thing

Poverty is a massive issue today, it surrounds all of life’s experiences, and it impacts on the future for people everywhere, and on health everywhere in society. Poverty is not just related to unemployment or

Nelson Mandela posited that “overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity; it is an act of justice.” Take a moment to imagine what it would be like to live on less than $2 per day. What would change? What would you lose? Almost a third of humanity’s 7 billion people face this reality daily. With so few resources, much of the world is forced to do without what we consider as basic human rights: health, sanitation, education and employment. Let us come closer to home, if you take a stroll down any main street in Toronto, you will see the evidence of poverty lingering by the number of homeless people on the streets.

Microfinance is grown to one of the biggest areas in fighting again poverty, it can be discussed, if microcredits are the best option to help people out of poverty. In the past it was almost impossible for the poor population of the world to get a loan with acceptable conditions. Banks would not lend to the poor, because the risk of losing the money was too high for them, which meant poor people in Africa had no chance of getting a loan from big banks. The so called “money lenders” would take advantage of this situation, and give the poor an opportunity to receive a loan. The “money lenders” were not trying to help the poor, they just wanted to earn money, thinking on their own personal benefit. That’s why their loans have insane conditions with interest payments of a couple hundred percent. If someone could not pay back the loan in time, they would take everything from the customers, and maybe even kill them. This was the only opportunity for poor people to get a loan until microfinance was born. Another problem is, that women have been excluded from the banking system in general in some regions of the world, because that was nothing women would do in their culture. In most cultures it was implemented, that women are staying at home, taking care of the house, children, and food. Men would go to work and earn the money for the family needed for the cost of living. It would also be more complicated for women to get a loan, because they traditionally work less than men, and

Unfortunately, it was estimated that roughly 1.2 billion people in 1993 lived in extreme or absolute poverty, that which Robert McNamara regards “‘a condition of life so characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable standard of human dignity’” (Singer 219, 220). These estimates can be projected at nearly 2 billion today. A large majority of the people living in absolute poverty resides in underdeveloped countries. Among the nearly 4.4 billion people in these countries, “3/5 lives in societies lacking basic sanitation; 1/3 go without safe drinking water; 1/4 lack adequate housing; 1/5 are undernourished, and 1.3 billion live on less than $1 a day” (Speth 1).

Poverty is a social problem that affects everyone on an economic, political and social level. The problem of human suffering is one that we must combat strategically on many levels. According to the United Nations, “in 2015 more than one billion people around the world live in a state of poverty, lacking the basic goods food, clothing, and shelter that humans need to survive” (“Poverty”). There are a great number of areas that keep individuals poor, such as lack of resources, inadequate income, lack of education, language barriers and the high cost of child care. Being able to work and provide basic necessities is our basic human right and we should not be deprived of these basic human rights that individuals need in order to live satisfying lives. The government has the responsibility of helping individuals in need with the economic assistance to feed, clothe, house, educate, provide health care and decent wages for every individual. They should ensure that individuals have access to resources that will help them build a better future. There are several ways that we can work together to strategically find solutions to end inequality among the poor individuals in our society.

This critical analysis is done on the journal study titled "Microcredit in Rural Bangladesh: Is It Reaching the Poorest?" which was published by the Journal of ESR. The analysis based on the aim of understanding the why the microcredit programs reached rarely to the poor in rural Bangladesh. They found five reasons behind this: supply, demand, NGDO 's norms and social issues, sustainable financial services and voluntary and non-voluntary dropouts. This paper also argues that microcredit is the not best way to help the poor. This paper used two kinds of primary data of source, firstly they conducted the study in 1999 by World Bank as a part of the study titled "Voices of the Poor". It was organized in 8 rural and 2 urban cities of Bangladesh. (Nabi et. al., 1999) and the second study done in 2 rural and 5 urban cities of Bangladesh from 1999 to 2000 and the title was "Listening to the Poor". They utilized a different method for finding a result of not reaching microcredit facilities to poorest of the poor. This