April 29, 2004

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Sometimes, You’re Just Not Poor Enough

From the front page of today’s New York Times: Debate Stirs Over Tiny Loans for World’s Poorest, by the very sharp Celia Dugger.

Bangladesh is the home of the micro-credit movement, which in the last decade or so has provided billions of dollars of loans (mostly in the tens or hundreds of dollars each) to poor people (mostly women) who haven’t had access to fair credit before.

Dugger reports that 50 million people around the world have taken part in these programs. They’re pretty successful, overall, and there’s a certain do-it-yourself elegance to them.

But it’s been known for some time that they serve primarily the poor, not the super-poor — the less-than-a-dollar-a-day crowd. It’s those folks — all one billion of them — that have it worst, and those folks that the Millennium Development Goals pledge to help.

So, this is interesting: Do you say, hey, come on, these programs are helping some poor people, at least, so let’s stick with ‘em? Or do you say, no, we need those resources to help the very poorest of the world?

If you’re lucky, the answer is that you continue with micro-credit and extend more resources to the poorest. Dugger reports that BRAC, the largest micro-lender in Bangladesh (and perhaps the only NGO that I have a crush on), has started some programs sans loans for the poorest of the poor.

At some point, though, do you have to make the harder choice?

Hey, while we’re on the topic of wealth and poverty, have you seen this yet? Yeah, man. Keep those billion at the bottom in mind.

The beautiful photo up top is by Amit Bhargava of Corbis.

(Thanks to Laura for the tip!)