Reviews

Microfinance started with a common vision to improve economic opportunity for the poor, but that vision has become blurred in recent years, with some now seeing microfinance as just another business market. This book takes a refreshing look at how local systems of savings and lending, though extremely simple, bring the industry back on track.

Provides a useful overview of the current state of practice in an expanding field of approaches that is promoting the savings-led model. It usefully highlight the key questions and issues that this field is currently discussing.

Rich in interesting examples of both traditional and NGO facilitated savings groups. I would particularly highlight the thought provoking and important questions raised in the last chapters. The editors remind us that there is no magic bullet to resolving poverty, and that we as practitioners must remain sober about our role and the effects of our interventions. A most welcome contribution to the field!

Savings groups are the core engine of financial assets for the poor and this book gives us a rare view of them that cuts across geography, structures and degrees of institutionalization. This collection provides an honest view of savings groups what they are and what they are not and as such offers readers a perspective of how these important mechanisms fit within the financial lives of the poor.