Is Micro-Finance reaching the Poor? An Overview of Poverty Targeting Methods

Introduction
Many questions have been raised about micro-finance and its importance as a means for poverty alleviation. As donors and practitioners become increasingly concerned about the quality of their interventions, interest has grown in developing clear and precise measurement methods. Who should be considered as a poor client? Why is it necessary to target poverty? How can a micro-finance institution (MFI) target the poor? What should be the best approach for targeting the poor? How can a MFI simultaneous focus on the very poor and face the challenge of sustainability and outreach? To what extent can financial and non-financial services help improve the living conditions of the poor?

Practitioners and donors have been developing impact measurement tools and promoting discussion groups to tackle this matter and come up with clear answers. Many Organisations and the Micro-Credit Summit have a particular interest in this issue.

Why do we have to measure poverty targeting?
Micro-finance, by providing small loans and savings facilities to those who are excluded from commercial financial services has been developed as a key strategy for reducing poverty. Access to these facilities is seen as a way of providing the poor with opportunities to take an active role in their economy through entrepreneurship, providing them with income and bargaining power and building up social empowerment for poor women and men in their communities.

Over the years we have gained a better understanding of micro-finance. We are more aware of its limitations, its positive and negative effects on poverty. Therefore more attention is focussed on questions such as: "Under what conditions and with what mechanism can micro-finance programmes have a maximum effect on poverty "?

We now understand that micro-finance is not a magic potion leading automatically to better living conditions for poor people. As a matter of fact, in some cases micro finance has led to deteriorated situations and debt equity ratio of the very poor.

The extent to which micro-finance programmes are able to reach the poorest of the poor with their services is still an open debate .
Therefore careful targeting measurements are necessary.
Difficulties: constraints of targeting poverty
Due to the difficulties in defining poverty, different methods of poverty measurement have been used. The most common approach is based on income or consumption levels. A person is considered poor if his or her income or consumption is below a certain minimum level. This level is usually called: the poverty line, which can vary in time, according to the geographical context, social norms and values.

There is currently a world-wide debate on poverty yardsticks to identify the poor. A committee of CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest) consultants has been studying the issue for two years without producing any concrete result. Some have argued that it is impossible to design any reliable indicators to identify in a tangible way who are the really poor .

According to the Micro Credit Summit, the poorest are those people belonging to the bottom fifty per cent of the group of people living below a country's nationally defined poverty-line. According to the World Bank, the poor are those who have a level of consumption of at least $2 per day and, the poorest are those who have a level of consumption of at least $1.
Nevertheless, poverty has other dimensions besides income or consumption. It is necessary to include non-income poverty dimensions like education, health, and access to infrastructure, vulnerability, social exclusion, and access to social capital.

Measuring poverty is not easy. Aspects such as quality of life, health, leadership, women's roles, empowerment, etc., are elements difficult to quantify. Besides, arriving at precise poverty measurement methods is expensive and rather disappointing in terms of tangible results. In some cases precise and comprehensive identification tools have been replaced by tools that are less costly and less demanding on staff time and qualifications.

There is no general agreement on the fact that, in order to have a real impact on poverty, micro-finance should expressly target the poor.
Some argue that it is more important to have a wider geographical impact on a permanent basis through quality financial products delivered by competitive, effective micro-finance institutions (outreach approach).
This approach is based on a long term view and the belief that in many cases there is a limit to the "in depth targeting" of the poorest : the credit-worthiness of the client. According to this approach most MFIs do not reach the very poor and there is a trade-off between sustainability and reaching the poorest of the poor .

Some micro-credit advocates argue that micro-finance services should reach the poorest of the poor as access to credit is a human right in the fight against economic exclusion. Narrow targeting of the poorest is necessary (in depth targeting).

In a study of eleven MFIs world-wide, it was found that financially sustainable institutions can reach the poor and that there is no trade-off between reaching the poor with credit and financial sustainability
However, one should note that no matter which approach is adopted, quality and permanent services to the poor can only be delivered through competitive and sustainable financial systems.

Approaches for targeting the poor

MFIs have developed a range of strategies to identify the poor. These poverty targeting strategies include several complementary components:
• ways of identifying the poor;
• ways of attracting the poor;
• ways of excluding the non poor;
• ways of discouraging the non poor.

For effective targeting all these components have to be included in a complementary way.

To accomplish this one needs:
• Agent-related factors (Type of MFIs, client needs, constraints)
• Contextual factors (regulatory framework, infrastructure, etc.)
• Outreach of micro-finance, (how many people are reached, how poor are the clients, in which sectors are they engaged, where do they live, quality of services offered)
• Impact (measuring methods for impact will be discussed in the following article)

Some experiences on targeting measurement

Extensive research has been conducted by numerous organisations to establish reliable efficient cost-conscious methods to measure to what extent micro-finance programmes are reaching the poor. The results are rather disappointing compared to the high cost involved, as no tangible precise conclusions can be drawn from those measurements.

CASHPOR Housing Index
Used by Grameen Bank replication networks in the Asia - Pacific region. It is an observational methodology that produces an indicator, which is highly related to the quality and the status of the house.
Three dimensions of the house are considered:
1. size of the house,
2. physical condition or building materials,
3. material of the roof.
The ranking of the poor and less poor is done within the geographical and social context. People living in houses constructed from mud bricks, with poor quality thatch roofing, small windows and in a general state of disrepair tend to be selected as the poorest. In order to improve this method members of the community participate in ranking themselves according to their own perception of poverty.

Participatory Rural Assessment (PRA) and Participatory Wealth Ranking (PWR)
PRA/PWR allows communities to rank themselves according to their own perceptions of poverty. Detailed discussions are held with a large number of people in each community to define poverty, and to rank the community according to their criteria. These methods have been based on participatory rural mapping and wealth ranking. One of the most attractive aspects of this approach is the opportunity that it gives for the people themselves to define their own concepts of poverty and wealth.
PWR/ PRA does generates information which can be used to relate the results to these standard measures. The main problem is where local definitions of poverty include non-economic variables.

Geographical Distribution of Poverty
A list of the geographical concentration of poor households can help micro-finance practitioners to target the poor. Using locations as a proxy for poverty-level criteria mean taking into account variables such as levels of marginality, quality of public services, geographic dispersion, rates of illiteracy, infant mortality, life expectancies. The main limitation of this method is that it may include non-poor households.

Vocation
The nature of activity serves as a proxy for the income levels. In the same way, levels of poverty can be determined by identifying the location of the enterprise. The Institute of Rural Management, SEWA in India, tries to target its members by working with women who are engaged in activities which are pursued mostly by low-income category households such as street vendors, house-based workers, rag pickers, etc.

Small Size Loans
Some programmes have selected as a targeting method the selection of the poorest area in a region as the operational area; this methodology was designed to offer small loans through group-based lending. Following the theory that small loans and high transaction cost in terms of time spent to enter the programme and participation in lengthy meetings would deter all but the very poorest from joining.

House-to-House Interviews to Potential Clients
This method uses a client or household interviews and surveys to determine the poverty of the family. Evaluators meet the people at their homes, observe the household conditions and ask related questions about family members, sources of income, expenses, food consumption, etc. The limit of this method is the inaccuracy of the income and expenditure surveys.

Other Methods
At Ruhunu UNESCO in Sri Lanka, a card is completed for each beneficiary family with information gathered from a survey of the family's circumstances and their level of poverty. The survey includes aspects as monthly income, quality of housing, health, number of school-going children availability of electricity, among others aspects.

Findings from the different approaches
On Poverty Reduction
Studies have shown that most poor people have benefited from micro-finance programmes but that narrow targeting is not necessarily a condition for reaching the poorest. Some large-scale non-targeted schemes have proven to reach the poorest.
• More poor people can be reached through building competitive, sustainable financial systems which provide a wide range of small-scale financial transactions than through narrow targeted programmes.
• Increasing numbers of practitioners are stressing the importance of offering a range of quality and flexible financial services in response to the wide variety of the needs of the poor.
• Micro-finance has its limitations. It should not be seen as the only solution to poverty alleviation. In certain circumstances other inter-ventions sometimes could be more effective than micro-finance. For example, in the case of natural disaster situations, micro-finance needs other complementary interventions, like subsidies for responding to the needs of those clients who have lost their capital and personal belongings and do not have any liquidity to pay their current debts.
• Micro-finance is not appropriate for all the poor people. In some cases micro-enterprises owned by the poor are not ready for or do not need financial products. In other cases, micro-entrepreneurs are not creditworthy.
References
• Toward Guidelines for Lower-Cost Impact Assessment Methodologies for Microenterprise Programs, Jennefer Sebstad, AIMS, June 1998
• The World Bank Group, Understanding and Responding to Poverty, Poverty Newsletter #3, March 1999
• Microfinance and Poverty Reduction, Johnson S. and Rogaly B. Development Guidelines, Oxfam Publications, 1997
• Micro-finance and Poverty: , Questioning the Conventional Wisdom, Gulli Hege, IADB, 1998
• Discussion Forum, Microcredit Summit, Poverty Measurement, discussion group, paper #2.
• Talking Points for "Participatory Methods of Poverty Measurement, Anne Case, Center for International Studies, Princeton University, 1999
• Ruralance and Poverty Alleviation, Manfred Zeller and Manohar Sharma, IFPRI, 1998
• Impact monitoring and learning for poverty-alleviation, The Small Enterprise Foundation, Development Department, Simanowitz Anton
• Supporting poverty alleviation through micro-finance, The Small Enterprise Foundation, Development Department, Simanowitz Anton
• Effective strategies for reaching the poor, The Small Enterprise Foundation, Development Department, Simanowitz Anton
• Examining the impact of micro-finance services, increasing income or reducing poverty?, Graham A. N. Wright, 1999
• Micro-finance and Anti-poverty Strategies, A donor perspective UNCDF Policy Series, José Garson, 1997
• Finance against Poverty, David Hulme and Paul Mosley, Volume 1 and 2, Routledge, London, 1996
• Overview of studies on the Impact of Microenterprise credit, Monique Cohen, Jennefer Sebstad and Gregory Chen, June 1996


Par Verónica González Aguilar

Source:- http://www.globenet.org/archives/web/2006/www.globenet.org/horizon-local/ada/c18.html

Strategies and programs undertaken for the purpose of rural development in India

The article sheds light on various strategies and programs undertaken for the purpose of rural development in India. These strategies and programs constitute the “five year plan”, for the purpose of simplicity the measures undertaken have been categorized in broad groups and then elaborated upon. In the end, an ideal model of rural development, which is in contrast to the current model, is proposed.

The rural economy, as much as urban economy, is an integrated part of the overall Indian economy. Any talk of overall development without rural development, particularly in a country where three-quarters of people below the poverty line reside in rural areas, is flawed. Poverty is indeed a global issue. Its eradication is considered integral to humanity’s quest for sustainable development. Reduction of poverty in India, is, therefore, vital for the attainment of international goals.

Poverty alleviation has been one of the guiding principles of the planning process in India. This can be substantiated by the fact that anti-poverty programs have been internalized in the (particularly the ninth) five-year plan. This article sheds light on the various “strategies and programs” that form the instruments of the plan.

Integrated Rural Development Program (IRBD)

First introduced in 1978-79, IRBD has provided assistance to rural poor in the form of subsidy and bank credit for productive employment opportunities through successive plan periods. Subsequently, Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Supply of Improved Tool Kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA) and Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) were introduced as sub-programs of IRDP to take care of the specific needs of the rural population.

Wage Employment Programs

Important components of the anti-poverty strategy, Wage Employment Programs have sought to achieve multiple objectives. They not only provide employment opportunities during lean agricultural seasons but also in times of floods, droughts and other natural calamities. They create rural infrastructure which supports further economic activity. These programs also put an upward pressure on market wage rates by attracting people to public works programs, thereby reducing labour supply and pushing up demand for labour. It encompasses National Rural Employment Program (NREP) and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP) which were initially part of the Sixth and Seventh five year Plans.


Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS)

EAS was launched in October 1993 covering 1,778 drought-prone, desert, tribal and hill area blocks. It was later extended to all the blocks in 1997-98. The EAS was designed to provide employment in the form of manual work in the lean agricultural season. The works taken up under the program were expected to lead to the creation of durable economic and social infrastructure and address the felt-needs of the people.

Food for Work Program

The Food for Work program was started in 2000-01 as a component of the EAS in eight notified drought-affected states of Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Maharastra and Uttaranchal. The program aims at food provision through wage employment. Food grains are supplied to states free of cost. However, lifting of food grains for the scheme from Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns has been slow.

Rural Housing

Initiated in 1985-86, the IAY is the core program for providing free housing to families in rural areas, targets scheduled castes (SCs)/scheduled tribes (STs), households and freed bonded laborers. The rural housing program has certainly enabled many BPL families to acquire pucca houses, the coverage of the beneficiaries is limited given the resource constraints. The Samagra Awas Yojana (SAY) was taken up in 25 blocks to ensure convergence of housing, provision of safe drinking water, sanitation and common drainage facilities. The Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) has extended its activities to the rural areas, providing loans at a concessional rate of interest to economically weaker sections and low-income group households for construction of houses.

Social Security Programs

Democratic decentralization and centrally supported Social Assistance Programs were two major initiatives of the government in the 1990s. The National Social Assistance Program (NSAP), launched in August 1995 marks a significant step towards fulfillment of the Directive Principles of State Policy. The NSAP has three components: a) National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS); b) National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS); c) National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS). The NSAP is a centrally-sponsored program that aims at ensuring a minimum national standard of social assistance over and above the assistance that states provide from their own resources. The NOAPS provides a monthly pension of Rs. 75 to destitute BPL persons above the age of 65. The NFBS is a scheme for BPL families who are given Rs. 10,000 in the event of the death of the breadwinner. The NMBS provides Rs. 500 to support nutritional intake for pregnant women. In addition to NSAP, the Annapurna scheme was launched from I April 2000 to provide food security to senior citizens who were eligible for pension under NOAPS but could not receive it due to budget constraints.

Land Reforms

In an agro-based economy of, the structure of land ownership is central to the wellbeing of the people. The government has strived to change the ownership pattern of cultivable land, the abolition of intermediaries, the abolition of zamindari, ceiling laws, security of tenure to tenants, consolidation of land holdings and banning of tenancy are a few measures undertaken. Furthermore, a land record management system is a pre-condition for an effective land reform program. In 1987-88, a centrally-sponsored scheme for Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA & ULR) was introduced in Orissa and Bihar.

Conclusion

Although these measures have been successful (to some extent) in curbing poverty , this model has a very basic flaw. Under this model resources are transferred from urban economy to rural economy just for short term political motives. This is affecting both areas, not letting rural economy develop on its own and hampering growth and investments in urban economy. An ideal approach should include the government, panchayats and key village personals, NGOs and private companies. This will not only help reduce this imbalance but will have a multiplier effect on the overall economy. By aligning the goals of the two parts we can convert this seemingly zero sum game into a win-win situation. It would be a very long drawn and difficult battle with conventions but the reward is worth the effort.




Source:- Karmyog articles
http://www.karmayog.org

Euthanasia – be Permitted or not ??

Euthanasia – be Permitted or not…

Euthanasia is defined as an intentional killing by an act/omission of person whose life is felt is not to be worth living(Volunty)

In India there is no specific law concerning euthanasia, though it is much desirable. The need of the same arises when a person is terminally ill and not capable of cure. The sufferings of an ill person need not be prolonged by forcefully keeping him alive with all the pains and sufferings. That is definitely a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India which provides a right to dignified life

Arguments in favor of legalization of euthanasia are typically premised on the assumption that requests for euthanasia are a "rational" decision, given the circumstances of terminal illness, pain, increased disability, and fears of becoming (or continuing to be) a burden to family and friends. Given the possibility that these symptoms and circumstances may not be relieved, even with aggressive palliative care and social services, the decision to hasten one's death may seem rational.

According to the Chief Executive of Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), Alok Mukhopadhaya, euthanasia should be legalized but with strict parameters to avoid its misuse which is very likely in a country with a large number of illiterate populace and rampant unethical medical practice. Henk Jochemsen says, Acceptance of euthanasia for people who are tired of life will further social pressure, to those who feel themselves to be a burden to others, to ask for euthanasia."Banning intentional killing protects each of us impartially, embodying the belief that all are equal, whether they are young of old, fit or sick, able or disabled," said Prof. Peter Millard of the British organization, ALERT (Against Legalized Euthanasia - Research and Teaching).The precious words of Thomas Jefferson strike a chord: The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good governance.

The demise of the 25 year old Andhra youth, K. Venkatesh, who wanted to be given euthanasia so that he could donate his organs, has once again sparked the debate on the legalization of euthanasia. Venkatesh sought the right to die not to escape suffering from the degenerative muscular dystrophy, but to be able to donate his vital organs as doctors had warned that these could not be used once they become infected. But the Andhra Pradesh High Court rejected his mother's plea.
Euthanasia and suicide are different. Distinguishing euthanasia from suicide, Lodha J. in Naresh Marotrao Sakhre v. Union of India , observed:
Suicide by its very nature is an act of self-killing or self-destruction, an act of terminating one's own act and without the aid or assistance of any other human agency. Euthanasia or mercy killing, on the other hand, means and implies the intervention of other human agency to end the life. Mercy killing thus is not suicide and an attempt at mercy killing is not covered by the provisions of Section 309. The two concepts are both factually and legally distinct. Euthanasia or mercy killing is nothing but homicide whatever the circumstances in which it is effected.
Euthanasia- according to the religions:-
1.Hindu ideology is against euthanasia
2.Muslims too are against it. They believe that
a) Life is sacred
b) Allah decides how long each of us will live
c) c) Suicide and euthanasia are explicitly forbidden
#"Destroy not yourselves. Surely Allah is ever merciful to you." (Qur'an 4.29)
3. The Christian View
Christians are mostly against euthanasia. The arguments are usually based on the argument that life is a gift from God and that human beings are made in God's image. Birth and death are part of the life processes which God has created, so we should respect them. Therefore no human being has the authority to take the life of any innocent person, even if that person wants to die.
4. The Sikh View
Sikhs derive their ethics largely from the teachings of their scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, and the Sikh Code of Conduct (the Rehat Maryada). The Sikh Gurus rejected suicide (and by extension, euthanasia) as an interference in God's plan. Suffering, they said, was part of the operation of karma, and human beings should not only accept it without complaint but act so as to make the best of the situation that karma has given them. This suggests that the Sikh reaction to situations where people think about euthanasia would be to provide such good care that euthanasia became an unattractive option.
The religion are against euthonosia… The law does not allow it........still there is a space to think that whether a person is legally entitled to live a dignified life as guaranteed under A-21 of the Indian Constitution…. a life free from every form of illness and problems….and In absence of such dignified life…whether he is entitled to end his life voluntarily????

Whether Euthanasia – be Permitted or not ??

Micro Finance Institutions

While functioning for the growth and development of the nation and while thinking about the empowerment of the people, First we had to think about the growth and development of the people of rural areas, because 60 % population resides in rural India. Now the other major challenge is to sort out the best suitable methods for the development of the people of rural areas.

No doubt, Govt. had initiated many provisions in the form of welfare and development Schemes, and Projects. In addition, Govt. provides subsidized loans for the same. NGOs are working with the same objective of social development, Parallely, the microfinance Institutions are serving as a medium in the growth and development of the people.

I think Micro finance is a better option, which, if implemented in the appropriate manner, can contribute alotz in the growth and development of the people.

In the present days many MFI companies are formed which provide loans on various conditions and criteria, Their work objectives are different from one another, for example, some MFI work for ecology and emphasize on plantation and provide free loans for conservation of trees, some provide loans for education of children, while the rest of the MFIs provides loans directly for establishing some sort of Income Generating activities of the clients.

The major concept in which maximum MFIs work is, to establish some sort of Income Generating activities for the client, So that the client can repay the loans with the help of such IG activity and in parallel the IG activities will help the client in the survival of the client and his/her family. Actually it is a concept, on which most of the MFIs are incorporated.

Though the trend of MFI is not very old, but still the MFIs had covered almost every blocks or even village, the reason being that the MFIs are not social development’s organization,( i.e. non profit making), but they are profit making Institutions and most of them are registered as corporation. So to earn profit, they insure their existence in each and every underdeveloped village/ block or district.

No doubt MFIs are growing at a very fast speed.Parallely with the increase in their profit, but the thing they still lack is the implementation of the objectives of the MFIs.

Actually the objectives, i.e. to establish IG activities of the client from the loan amount, is hardly being implemented. The reason being the client those who take loans from the MFIs being illiterate or are not in a condition to approach the appropriate authority. So it becomes very difficult for them to think in the direction of establishing IG activities.

On the other side, the MFIs also hardly pays attention towards such establishment because for them, IG activities of the client is not very important in comparison to the interest over such loans. So In the whole process of (training of clients) CGT GRT, distribution of loans and recoveries, the issue of livelihood promotion or Income generation of the client disappears somewhere.

In other words the growth and development of the people is sacrificed on the name of growth of the Micro Finance Institutions. I did not criticize or I am not against the work of MFI, but I think if the MFI work with an objective of social development and more importantly if the implement it in their working, then the MFIs can better serve for the development of the nation.

Egalitarianism - a trend of mind which favors Equality in every sort

If every one is born equal…. then why there’s discrimination between- rich and poor, rural and urban, man and women etc…Why the rights are made unapproachable for the poor and discriminated people…The law guarantees rights for all…despite of any discrimination ….but still there is inequality….discrimination…The discriminated class people are subjected to cruelty by the dominating class of people…The discriminated class of people hardly get any chance to enjoy their rights, dignified and free life….
The human made division of people in class is just a method opted by the Politicians for getting votes and nothing else….
Equality always results in the development….The nation cannot be developed unless the opportunities of development are made approachable for the poor and needy people….The nation can only be developed when the poor or the needy people get benefited ……Lets work for upliftment and empowerment of the needy people…...
Lets work for bringing Equality in the Society…

Decentralization

The 73rd Constitution (Amendment) Act 1993 of India has facilitated a ground breaking process of deepening democratization in the country. The Amendment envisions a larger, and vibrant role for Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) as institutions of local governance to promote economic development and social justice. Subsequently, both the Central government and state governments have taken measures in varying degree to enable PRIs to discharge their constitutional mandate. The Planning Commission of India in the Eleventh Five Year Plan has also highlighted that empowering PRIs, and involving them as the primary means of delivery of essential services are critical to ensure inclusive growth.

PRIs need adequate capacity building support to effectively discharge their assigned roles and responsibilities as institutions of local self governance. Appropriate training of PRI representatives given in time is one of the crucial components of capacity building process. The issue of training has been discussed and debated intensively on various forums. The Seventh Round Table of State Ministers of Panchayati Raj held at Jaipur in December 2004 adopted several action points on training of PRI representatives. Similarly, the Fifteenth Anniversary Charter on Panchayati Raj adopted in April 2008 by PRI representatives from all over the country demanded that panchayat representatives and officials should be provided sustained and high quality training through a system that fulfils their own training needs.
Acknowledging the importance of drafting state specific training and capacity building framework, the National Capability Building Framework (NCBF) designed by MoPR, has also suggested state governments to undertake state-wide training needs assessment of PRI representatives.