Africa: The worrisome state of the microcredit movement

The South African Institute Of International Affairs, in the latest edition of their publication e-africa, profiles the state of microcredit. "2005 has been declared the 'Year of Microcredit' by the UN, thus acknowledging the journey of microcredit from an obscure experiment in the mid-1970s to the status of a worldwide movement. The movement has captivated not just the entire development aid industry, but journalists, editorial writers, policy makers and much of the general public in both the North and the South. Microcredit is what you might guess - credit in tiny amounts. The term, and the practice, came into being when a few aid agencies began offering loans of as little as $10 or $20 to poor people with no collateral in the developing countries."