Recently I presented at the Chicago Microfinance Summit (see LiveBlog: Chicago Microfinance Conference). In all sessions I attended, the topics centered on investors and profitability. Strikingly absent were the clients.
It was at that moment that I decided, “If this is microfinance, I want out.”
When Muhammad Yunus began his pioneering work in microfinance with the Grameen Bank over 30 years ago, the central message was the dignity of the client, the driving motivation to enable the poor to lift themselves out of poverty.
In the original model, clients took the front seat of the car. But during the growth of the industry over the last several decades, things began to change. In the 80s clients were relegated to the back seat. By the late 90s their concerns were being tossed into the trunk. And in the new millennium, clients were being dragged behind the car as collections and profits became the primary focus.
But if microfinance can be client-centric and Christ-centered, with an emphasis on the dignity of the client, offering savings, mentoring, and business training to bring about spiritual and economic transformation—if this is microfinance, then I want in.
And I want in now more than ever. If microfinance is done right, where the hope of Christ is shared and the client is central, it is one of the most powerful tools to bring hope and dignity to places of poverty.
