Faith-based Microfinance. An Alternative Tool of Poverty Alleviation

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2013 in the subject Sociology - Work, Profession, Education, Organisation, grade: A, course: PhD, language: English, abstract: The poor, like others, too need financial products and services in order to build assets, manage consumption and mitigate risks. Microfinance, in recent times, has emerged as a powerful tool to provide access to some financial services to the poor. For decades, poverty alleviation has topped the International development agenda. United Nations Millennium Goals state that by 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty should be half of what it was in 2000. Microfinance addresses the twin goals of financial inclusion and poverty alleviation in a way that builds self-esteem in the individual and self-sufficiency in the institution providing the financial services. Different models have emerged in microfinance delivery based on their clientele, focus area, interest rate, savings linkages, collateral, coverage and organizational/legal structure. With all the successes of the existing microfinance models, the herculean task of poverty alleviation still leaves enough space for innovative models. This study explores the potential of faith-based microfinance in complimenting the efforts of poverty alleviation and also overcoming the weaknesses in the existing models. Faith-based microfinance operate on distinct principles. The purpose of this study is to focus on the functioning of the faith based microfinance and to explore its role as an alternative tool of poverty alleviation. In order to get a meaningful insight regarding the impact of faith based microfinance on the lives of the beneficiaries, it is necessary that a comparison is made to the mainstream microfinance on commonly accepted parameters of poverty alleviation.