Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

by Muhammad Yunus

In other words, after nearly five years of specialists reviewing the problem and wasting precious resources, the poor islanders were unable to receive a single micro-credit loan with support from this agency. I cannot help but remark that had the Negros project received an amount equal to the cost of a single UN mission, it could have assisted several hundred poor families. The growth of the consultancy business has seriously misled international donor agencies. The assumption is that the recipient countries need to be guided at every stage of the process—during identification, preparation, and implementation of projects. Donors and consultants tend to become overbearing in their attitude toward the countries they help. Furthermore, these consultants often have a paralyzing effect on the initiatives of the recipient countries. Officials and academics in these countries quickly adopt the figures mentioned in the donors’ documents even if they personally know that those figures are incorrect.