Africa/Global: Finance schemes fail to address wider inequalities

Credit and savings schemes are hailed as blueprints for tackling poverty but their benefits are exaggerated. They fail to address the way gender effects relations of power and inequality within families. Frequently unsustainable, they seldom manage to cover their running costs. If future credit and savings schemes are to be effective in poverty alleviation they need to make stronger links between local economies and global economic trends and be linked to wider programmes of women's empowerment.