Posts written by Eugene Ellmen

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1. Microfinance: Ensuring an ethical basis for Canada’s international development agenda

   August 2, 2013 - by Eugene Ellmen - 0 comments

   

   With its focus on small, often tiny enterprises, microfinance operates outside the realm of multinational corporations and globalized markets. So one of the big questions in Ottawa’s recent decision to merge the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade surrounds the future of CIDA’s microfinance programs. Will the mandate of Canadian commercial interests spell the end of Canada’s publicly-funded microfinance initiatives?

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2. Making microfinance work for the client

   August 1, 2013 - by Eugene Ellmen - 0 comments

   One of the lessons that we learned from the global financial crisis is that when you expose vulnerable borrowers to unprincipled lenders, the results can be disastrous. That was true of sub-prime borrowers in the US and Europe, and we are now finding it true of the large numbers of vulnerable microfinance borrowers exposed to unscrupulous lenders in the developing world.

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