1 The word “microcredit” refers specifically to the giving of small (micro) loans (credit) to clients while the term “microfinance” is broader and encompasses loans, savings, insurance, leasing and other financial services. Since most microcredit programs have grown in scope and most providers of microcredit also offer their clients access to other financial services, this paper will generally use the term “MFI” to describe initiatives that involve microcredit and microfinance, except when commentary is specific to “microcredit” programs only, or where “microcredit” has a meaning separate from “microfinance”.Google Scholar

2 Muhammad Yunus, Creating a World Without Poverty (2007), p. 237–248 (speech delivered in Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2006 after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize).Google Scholar

3 There are currently microfinance initiatives on every continent. For more info by continent, visit CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) at their website at http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/ or the Microcredit Summit Campaign at http://www.microcreditsummit.org/ (Both groups track and report on microfinance initiatives internationally and provide other resources and information in microfinance). CGAP self-describes as a leading independent source for information on the microfinance industry. It is housed at the World Bank but is an independent entity, with a mission to encourage commercial investments in microcredit, and to be a source for information on microcredit. The Microcredit Summit Campaign is a project of the RESULTS Educational Fund, a U.S.-based grassroots advocacy organization committed to ending hunger and poverty. The first Microcredit Summit was held in February 2–4, 1997, attended by more than 2,900 people from 137 countries in Washington, DC. A nine-year campaign was launched to reach 100 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the year 2005. In November 2006, the Campaign was re-launched to 2015 with two new goals – (1) to ensure 175 million of the world's poorest families receive credit by end of 2015 (2) ensure that 100 million families rise above the US $1 a day threshold.Google Scholar

4 The number of NGOs involved in microfinance has expanded rapidly from the 1990's to the present day. See Catherine A. Madsen, Note & Comment: Feminizing Waste: Waste-Picking as an Empowerment Opportunity for Women and Children in Impoverished Communities, 17 Colo. J. Int'l Envtl. L. & Pol'y 165 (Winter, 2006) at 192 (citing to Yujiro Hayami et al., Found. For Advanced Studies on Int'l Dev., Waste Pickers and Collectors in New Delhi: Poverty and Environment in an Urban Informal Sector 3–4 (2003) at 22). See CGAP website, supra note 3 (Ownership structures: MFIs can be government-owned, like the rural credit cooperatives in China; member-owned, like the credit unions in West Africa; socially minded shareholders, like many transformed NGOs in Latin America; and profit-maximizing shareholders, like the microfinance banks in Eastern Europe. The types of services offered are limited by what is allowed by the legal structure of the provider: non-regulated institutions are not generally allowed to provide savings or insurance).Google Scholar

5 See Banking the Underserved: New Opportunities for Commercial Banks, Financial Sector Team, Policy Division of CGAP for detailed analysis of bank MFI programs in Haiti, Peru, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Mongolia and South Africa, CGAP website, supra note 3. See also Mayada M. Baydas, Douglas H. Graham and Lisa Valenzuela, Commercial Banks in Microfinance: New Actors in the Microfinance World, available at http://www.uncdf.org/mfdl/readings/CommBanks.pdf (chart on p. 8 lists banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America involved in Microfinance, and report analyzes success of each institution and contributing factors). See generally European Investment Bank website at http://www.eib.org/ for information on microfinance in Europe (European Investment Bank is the lending bank of the European Union. The EIB was founded in 1958 in the Treaty of Rome and undertakes microfinance initiatives in Europe).Google Scholar

6 Stetson University (Deland, Florida) created a Center for Holistic Microcredit Initiatives (CHOMI) and granted a small amount of money ($2500) to villagers in Manio Village in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. These funds were used to underwrite a credit association and loans given to villagers, who invested in farming of local crops. For more information, visit Stetson University website at https://www.stetson.edu/secure/programs/articles/view.php?type=oldstories&id=208.Google Scholar

7 The United States government has invested in microfinance through USAID. See http://thehague.usembassy.gov/mrs._arnall_microfinance/ for speech delivered by Dawn Arnell, wife of US Ambassador to the Netherlands in 2006 (noting that USAID is the leading donor for microfinance and that USAID initiatives reach 3.85 million entrepreneurs.) See also USAID website at http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2007/si/microfinance.html for details on USAID programs as of 2007 (noting that USAID takes a bilateral approach to lending and estimating that over 6 million low-income people throughout the developing world have access to microfinance as a result of USAID programs). Queen Noor of Jordan has been a very active advocate for microfinance. She chairs the Noor Al-Hussein Foundation, which funds microfinance initiatives in Jordan through the Jordan Micro Credit Company http://www.nooralhusseinfoundation.org/index.php?pager=end&task=view&type=content&pageid=80.Google Scholar

8 Madsen, supra note 4, footnote 221 citing to Yoko Myashita, Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation: Lessons from Indonesia's Village Banking System, 10 Pac. Rim L. & Pol'y J. 147, 162–163 (2000)) on U.N. involvement; and at footnote 222, citing to Mayra Buvinic et al., Overseas Development Counsel, Investing in Women: Progress and Prospects for the World Bank 51 (1996) on involvement of international development agencies and the Asian Development Bank. See also Grameen Bank website at http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=92&limit=1&limitstart=7 (stating that “since its creation in 1966, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCP) has been the channel for UNDP to fund microfinance interventions. It has so far approved more than US$ 100 million of investment credit activities, the majority being microfinance related…At the present time, UNCDF has an active microfinance portfolio of about $40 million, of which 70 percent is in Africa, 20 percent in Asia and 10 percent in Latin America.”).Google Scholar

9 Different groups have attempted to quantify how many MFI borrowers there are. See CGAP website, supra note 3, Global Estimates, for statistics comparing CGAP (estimating 152 million borrowers in 2004), World Savings Bank Institute (estimating 190 million in 2005), and The Microcredit Summit (estimating 133 million in 2007). Differences in estimates may be the result of differences in methodology (if a group is borrowing, is every member of the group counted or just those who sign the paperwork on behalf of the group), the types of institutions being included, and may also reflect the difficulty in tracking these numbers given the immense number of MFI borrowers. There are examples of MFI initiatives on every continent.Google Scholar

10 See Susy Cheston & Lisa Kuhn, Empowering Women Through Microfinance (Draft) stating that “According to the State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign 2001 Report, 14.2 million of the world's poorest women now have access to financial services through specialized microfinance institutions (MFIs), banks, NGOs, and other nonbank financial institutions. These women account for nearly 74 percent of the 19.3 million of the world's poorest people now being served by microfinance institutions.” Publication sponsored by UNIFEM and available at http://www.microcreditsummit.org/papers/empowering_final.doc Google Scholar

11 See Yunus, supra note 2, at p. 19 (noting that “there are almost as many definitions of poverty as there are individuals and groups studying the problem. A recent World Bank study mentions thirty-three different poverty lines developed and used by particular countries in addressing the needs of their own poor people” and noting the “widely used poverty benchmark of an income equivalent to one dollar a day or less”).Google Scholar

12 Source: Fact Sheet: End Poverty by 2015, UN Millennium Goals, UN Headquarters, September 25, 2008, available at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/newsroom.shtml. This World Bank Fact Sheet Report also notes that the recent increases in the price of food is expected to affect another 100 million people, pushing them also into poverty, and identifies microfinance as first one its list of “things that have worked” to address poverty. The report states “microfinance has helped many of the world's poor to increase their incomes through self-employment and empowerment.”Google Scholar

13 Id.Google Scholar

14 Id. Also noting that in 2006, microfinance institutions provided loans to 113 million clients worldwide and highlighting the work of three groups in particular: (1) Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, which started with 10 members in 1976 and now has 7.5 million borrowers, with over 65% having lifted themselves out of extreme poverty; (2) ACCION International in Latin America, and (3) Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) Bank in India.Google Scholar

15 Lisa Avery, Microcredit Extension in the Wake of Conflict: Rebuilding the Lives and Livelihoods of Women and Children Affected by War, 12 Geo. J. Poverty Law & Pol'y 205, 224 (Summer, 2005).Google Scholar

16 Jay Lee, Note: Equity and Innovation: Using Traditional Islamic Banking Models to Reinvigorate Microlending in Urban America, 16 Ind. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 523 (2006) (discussion of equity lending under traditional Islamic banking practices and how such lending might be applied in an urban context in the United States, and at footnote 6 referencing the General Assembly Greenlights Programme for International Year of Microcredit 2005: Observance will Promote Access to Financial Services and Empowerment of Poor, Especially Women, M2 Presswire, Dec. 31, 2003).Google Scholar

17 Rachel Errett Figura, An End to Poverty through Microlending: An Examination of the Need for Credit by Poor, Rural Women and the Success of Microlending Programs, 8 New Eng. Int'l & Comp. L. Ann. 157 (2002) at p. 159, and footnote 26, citing Yoko Miyashita, Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation: Lessons from Indonesia's Village Banking System, 10 Pac.Rim L. & Pol'y 147, 157 (2000) – who in turn is citing Microcredit Summit Report, The Microcredit Summit, Declaration and Plan of Action, Feb. 2–4, 1997 at http://www.microcreditsummit.org/declaration.htm.Google Scholar

18 Microfinance agencies have provided access to credit and savings options to more than 3 million women small borrowers in developing countries. See Madsen, supra note 4, citing to Buvinic.Google Scholar

19 Figura, supra note 17, at 168 (“on average, sixty-four percent of MFI clients are women”) citing Jaffer at 186.Google Scholar

20 As noted, supra note 9, there are very pragmatic difficulties in giving definitive numbers. First, there are several different programs with different terms (microcredit vs. microfinance). Second, there are difficulties in getting reports on specific numbers of recipients from all the programs. Third, there are very few groups with the resources to devote to tracking down reports from recipients and donors.Google Scholar

21 CGAP website, supra note 3.Google Scholar

22 Id.Google Scholar

23 Id.Google Scholar

24 Muhammad Yunus, How Legal Steps can Help to Pave the Way to Ending Poverty, ABA Human Rights Magazine (Winter 2008, Vol. 35 No. 1).Google Scholar

25 The best comparison for loan repayment on microfinance loans is the loan repayment for small business loans. For statistics on U.S. small business loan repayment, See Robert De Young, Dennis Glennon & Peter Nigro, Borrower-Lender Distance, Credit Scoring, and the Performance of Small Business Loans, FDIC Center for Financial Research (Working Paper No. 2006-04) (March 2006) (this paper reports on a study by the FDIC involving 29,577 loans made by US commercial banks between 1984 and 2001. Table 1 includes the default rate on loans, with default rate on small business loans ranging from 4.85% to 26.59%, with a mean average default rate of 15.22%). Available at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/cfr/2006/wp2006/CFRWP_2006_04_DeYoungGlennonNigro.pdf Google Scholar

26 For a fuller discussion of possible conflicts between financial and social development goals, see Todd Arena, Social Corporate Governance and the Problem of Mission Drift in Socially-Oriented Microfinance Institutions, 41 Colum. J.L. & Soc. Probs. 269 (Spring, 2008).Google Scholar

27 Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor: Microlending and the Battle Against World Poverty (1999); Yunus, supra note 2. See also Grameen Bank website at http://www.grameen-info.org/ Google Scholar

28 While Muhammad Yunus is often credited as having created microfinance (see Figura article, supra note 17 at 166, stating microcredit was “created in 1976 by Muhammad Yunus”) and the story of his first loan to a Bangladeshi woman working on a stool is frequently told, the Self Employed Women's Association (“SEWA”) predated Yunus's first loan and Grameen Bank. SEWA was started in 1971 in India and is acknowledged as a continuing major force in MFI. See Avery article, supra note 15, particularly p. 219–220; See also Rekha Mehra, The Role of NGO's: Charity and Empowerment: Women, Empowerment, and Economic Development, 554 Annals 136 (November, 1997) for a general discussion of SEWA in India.Google Scholar

29 Supra note 26.Google Scholar

30 In August 2006, the Gates Foundation gave a $1.5 million grant to Grameen. This loan is a 3 year, unrestricted grant to support Grameen Foundation's strategic mission to reach five million additional new families. Press release available at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/grameen-microfinancing-five-year-plan-060829.aspx Google Scholar

31 Id. at footnote 131, citing David Bornstein, The Price of a Dream 43 (1996 Bornstein at 20.Google Scholar

32 Id. citing Bornstein, at p. 140.Google Scholar

33 Jameel Jaffer, Microfinance and the Mechanics of Solidarity Lending: Improving Access to Credit Through Innovations in Contract Structure, 9 J. Transnat'l L. & Pol'y 183–184.Google Scholar

34 Figura, supra note 17, at 164, citing Jaffer.Google Scholar

35 Id. citing Yoko Miyashita, Lessons from Indonesia's Village Banking System, 10 Pac. Rim L. & Pol'y 147 (Dec. 2000).Google Scholar

36 Id.Google Scholar

37 Id. citing Jaffer at 198.Google Scholar

38 See generally Rashmi Dyal-Chanda, Article: Reflection in a Distant Mirror: Why the West has Misperceived the Grameen Bank's Vision of Microcredit, 41 Stan. J. Int'l L. 217 (Summer, 2005) for a critical analysis of Grameen Bank, particularly referencing early studies of Grameen Bank by Aminur Rahman and David Bornstein. See also infra, note 40, on Bank's new “revamped” system (Grameen II).Google Scholar

39 Id. at 263 referencing several studies that report that women are easier to control than male borrowers, and quoting bank workers as saying that women are “shy”, “submissive” and “immobile”, and at 297.Google Scholar

40 Id., referencing Rahman's article reporting on the Grameen Bank (“Rahman tells of a defaulting female borrower who was looked by bank workers inside a bank building as punishment…because the woman faced shame, social ostracism, and violence, she hanged herself inside the bank building”).Google Scholar

41 Yunus, supra note 2, p.60–66.Google Scholar

42 Id.Google Scholar

43 See generally Dyal-Chanda, supra note 38.Google Scholar

44 Id. at p. 286.Google Scholar

45 Figura, supra note 17, footnote 149, citing Shelley Feldman, The Role of NGO's: Charity and Empowerment: NGOS and Civil Society: (Un)stated Contradictions, 554 ANNALS 46, 57 (1997).Google Scholar

46 For a complete list of the Sixteen Decisions, see Part II, infra.Google Scholar

47 Dyal-Chanda, supra note 38.Google Scholar

48 Available at Grameen Bank website at http://www.grameen-info.org/-index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=453&Itemid=527 (last visited on November 19, 2008).Google Scholar

49 Id.Google Scholar

50 Figura, supra note 17 (stating that the Bank had to be strict in order to ensure repayment and points out that people agreed to this going in.) But note also, that Grameen Bank has modified this with Grameen II.Google Scholar

51 Grameen website, supra note 26. See article entitled Lessons Learned Over a Quarter of a Century by Muhammad Yunus.Google Scholar

52 Lee, supra note 16 at 529.Google Scholar

53 Yunus, supra note 50.Google Scholar

54 YUNUS, supra note 2, p.p. 103–109 detailing improved social conditions in Bangladesh.Google Scholar

55 Figura, supra note 17 at p. 175 and footnote 177.Google Scholar

56 Dyal-Chanda, supra note 38 at 258, and footnotes 192, 193 and 194.Google Scholar

57 For further discussion of the conceptual relationship between market principles and poverty alleviation, see Kenneth Anderson, Microcredit: Fulfilling or Belying the Universalist Morality of Globalizing Markets? 5 Yale H.R. & Dev. L.J. 85, 86–87 (2002) (Positing that there is a fundamental ambivalence about globalizing markets which is reflected in attitudes towards microcredit as well., particularly visible in microcredit's own highly ambivalent application of markets and market principles in international development work with the world's poor).Google Scholar

58 Dyal-Chanda, supra note 38, at 254 and footnote 171, Bornstein citing Helen Todd's report, Women at the Center, Grameen Bank Borrowers After One Decade 23 (1996).Google Scholar

59 See generally Chi Mgbako, Jeanmarie Feinrich and Tracy E. Higgins, Women, Children, and Victims of Massive Crimes: Legal Developments in Africa: Special Report: We Will Still Live: Confronting Stigma and Discrimination Against Women Living With HIV/AIDS in Malawi, 31 Fordham Int'l L.J. 528 (January, 2008).Google Scholar

60 Id.Google Scholar

61 See Figura, supra note 17, at 175 and footnote 180 citing White at 332. The criticism that MFI programs do not always reached the poorest people is also made about other programs designed to help the poor. See also Kristen David Adams, Do We Need A Right to Housing? (forthcoming 2009) (on file with author) for a discussion of federal housing programs in the United States, noting Rachel G. Bratt's observation that “the primary purposes of federal housing programs have been to create jobs and respond to the needs of what Bratt calls the “submerged middle class.””, citing to Rachel G. Bratt's A Right to Housing Redux, J. Housing & Community Dev., Nov./Dec. 2004, at 6, 8.Google Scholar

62 Id.Google Scholar

63 Id. at 176 and footnote 187, citing White at 332–333.Google Scholar

64 Id.Google Scholar

65 Dyal-Chanda, supra note 38.Google Scholar

66 Figura, supra note 17, at 178 and footnote 199 (Report to Secretary General of the United Nations).Google Scholar

67 Id.Google Scholar

68 Id. at 179 and footnote 210 citing Craig Turner, “UN Report Slams Loan Plans for Poor; Finance: ‘Microcredit’ Programs to Encourage Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries are Overrates, Study Says “, L.A. Times, Sept. 2, 1998 at A4.Google Scholar

69 Figura, supra note 17.Google Scholar

70 Id. at footnote 214, citing Borstein at p.22.Google Scholar

71 Figura supra note 17 at 180 and footnote 220, quoting Bornstein at 19–20.Google Scholar

72 Id., at footnote 224.Google Scholar

73 Id. at 180.Google Scholar

74 FINCA (Foundation for International Community Assistance) is the microenterprise peer-lending group funded by USAID. See Avery, supra note 15 at 222 (noting that FINCA opened its first program in Costa Rica in 1985 and delivered services to 200 borrowers within one year; and in 2002, FINCA disbursed $136 million to 227, 388 clients in 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and North and South America).Google Scholar

75 See Lee, supra note 16 at 524 and footnote 13, describing Women's World Bank as a non-profit lending association that has expanded into fifty nations in Africa, Asia, Latin and North America since its founding in 1979. See also WWB website at http://www.swwb.org/ Google Scholar

76 In Part III, other approaches are explored including ROSCAS (Rotating Self Credit Associations), women's cooperatives, and social enterprise approaches.Google Scholar

77 Henry Steiner, Philip Aston & Ryan Goodman, International Human Rights in Context (Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 263.Google Scholar

78 ICCPR, entered into force March 23, 1976, available at http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_ccpr.htm Google Scholar

79 ICESCR, New York 16 December 1966, available at http://www.ohchr.org/english/countries/ratification/3.htm Google Scholar

80 Id. Article 6, p. 1.Google Scholar

81 Steiner, Aston & Goodman, supra note 77 at p. 317, excerpt by Cass R. Sunstein, Against Positive Rights, 2/1 East Eur. Constit'al Rev. 35 (1993) (arguing that positive rights should not be included in constitutions because they are non-justiciable).Google Scholar

82 See Adams, supra note 62, for a comprehensive discussion of “positive” and “negative” rights, also characterized in legal jurisprudence as “rights” and “liberties”, noting that “One way of framing the argument regarding the appropriateness of redistributive rights is as a conflict between “rights” on the one hand and “liberties” on the other. In this conception, as recognized by H.L.A. Hart and others, “rights” are positive entitlements to something, while “liberties” are freedom from something, including the freedom from having some of one's money taken to support another person's entitlements. An alternative way of describing “rights” and liberties” is as “positive rights” and “negative rights,” respectively.” Adams also notes Dworkin's analysis which states the perceived tension between rights and liberties is a false conflict, and that society perceives liberty for advantaged groups and equality for disadvantaged groups.Google Scholar

83 Id. for comprehensive discussion on rights related to housing.Google Scholar

84 Id. Sunstein at p. 283 and article by Aryeh Neier, Social and Economic Rights: A Critique, 13/2 Hum. Rts. Brief (2006) (arguing that economic and social rights should only be legislated where the right can be measured (i.e. each child's right to a free primary school education vs. broader claims for shelter, housing or other economic resources)).Google Scholar

85 See Albie Sachs, Social and Economic Rights: Can They Be Made Justicable? 53 SMU L. Rev. 1381 (2000); See also Katherine Young, Article: The Minimum Core of Economic and Social Rights: A Concept in Search of Content, 33 Yale J. Int'l L. 113 (Winter, 2008); see also Ubong E. Effeh, Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study on How Not to Realize Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and a Proposal for Change, 3 NW. U. J. Int'l Hum. Rts 2, 79 (2005) (suggesting a mechanism designed to address violations of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Africa); see also Mark. S. Kende, The South African Constitutional Court's Embrace of Socio-Economic Rights: A Comparative Perspective, 6 Chap. L. Rev. 137 (2003); Danwood Mzikenge Chirwa, Toward Revitalizing Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in Africa: Social and Economic Rights Action Center and the Center for Economic and Social Rights v. Nigeria, 10 Hum.Rts. Br. 14 (2002).Google Scholar

86 See Deborah K. Dunn and Gary Chartier, Recent Development: Pursuing the Millennium Goals at the Grassroots: Selecting Development Projects Serving Rural Women in Sub-Saharan Africa, 15 UCLA Women's L.J. 71, 74 (Fall, 2006). See also Amnesty International USA website for information on AI's seven year global campaign beginning in 2008 to highlight economic, social and cultural rights (quoting AI's Secretary General Irene Khan, “I wouldn't like to think that we used to work on civil and political rights, we're going to stop working on them now, and we're going to shift to working on economic, social and cultural rights. That's not the idea at all… We will try to bring those rights together by looking at how people suffer human rights abuses, and show that human rights are actually inivisible whole…I hope that Amnesty International will in the future stand not only for prisoners of conscience, but also for prisoners of violence, for prisoners of illiteracy, for prisoners of poverty”. Available at http://www.amnestyusa.org/get-activist-toolkit/about-amnesty/economic-social-and-cultural-rights/page.do?id=1101300.Google Scholar

87 Steiner, Aston and Goodman, supra note 77 at 308.Google Scholar

88 Lee, supra note 16, footnote 14.Google Scholar

89 Amnesty International Website, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/good-news/un-adopts-key-economic-social-and-cultural-rights-instrument-20081119 Google Scholar

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91 See supra note 65 (noting study presented to UN questioning effectiveness of microfinance initiatives).Google Scholar

92 ICESCR, Article 6, p.1.Google Scholar

93 See Hunger and Homelessness Increase in American Cities: A Report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors 2008 (December 14, 2008) available at http://www.citymayors.com/features/uscity_poverty.html (This report reveals that on average, cities reported a 12 percent increase in homelessness from 2007 to 2008, with 12 cities (63%) reporting an increase in homelessness because of the foreclosure crisis).Google Scholar

94 Dyal-Chanda, supra note 38.Google Scholar

95 Id. at 221.Google Scholar

96 Id.Google Scholar

97 Id. at 222, footnote 25 commenting that she is downplaying other aspects that have led to the Bank's overall success and focuses exclusively on these three aspects.Google Scholar

98 Id at 225 and in footnote 39, citing Mohammad A. Auwal & Arvind Singhal, The Diffusion of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh: Lessons Learned About Alleviating Rural Poverty, 14 Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization 7, 16 (1992).Google Scholar

99 Id. at 226 and footnote 43, citing Cao, supra note 5; Thierry van Bastelaer, Imperfect Information, Social Capital and the Poor's Access to Credit 6–8 (Center for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector Working Paper 234, 2000) (commenting that these indigenous lending approaches distribute funds either randomly, by auction, or by collective decision).Google Scholar

100 RCAs and ROSCAS are indigenous. For a more in-depth discussion of these approaches, see Shirley Ardener & Sandra Burman, Money-Go-Rounds: The Importance of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations for Women (1995); see also Rosemary Coombe, The Cultural Life of Things: Anthropological Approaches to Law and Society in Conditions of Globalization, 10 Am. U.J. Int'l L & Pol'y 791 (1995).Google Scholar

101 Id. at 231–232 and note 66, citing a number of quotes from prominent Americans linking business ownership with the “American dream”.Google Scholar

102 Id.Google Scholar

103 Id. at 296 and footnotes 381 and 382. But see Lee, supra note 16 (for a discussion of the possibility of having microlenders assume part of the loan risk through trustee financing).Google Scholar

104 Id. at 233.Google Scholar

105 Id at 292–293 and footnote 370.Google Scholar

106 Id. at 291.Google Scholar

107 Id.Google Scholar

108 Id. at 298.Google Scholar

109 Id. at 295.Google Scholar

110 Id. at 281–286.Google Scholar

111 Organization behavior theory involves applying psychology and sociology principles to behavior in organizations. See generally, John Miner, Organization Behavior Foundations Theories and Analyses (Oxford University Press, 2002).Google Scholar

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115 Yunus, supra note 26, at p. 135–137.Google Scholar

116 http://www.grameeninfo.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&-id=22&Itemid=109 (Last visited May 21, 2009).Google Scholar

117 “Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon first identified by Leon Festinger. It occurs when there is a discrepancy between what a person believes, knows and values, and persuasive information that calls these into question. The discrepancy causes psychological discomfort, and the mind adjusts to reduce the discrepancy. In ethics, cognitive dissonance is important in its ability to alter values, such as when an admired celebrity embraces behavior that his or her admirers deplore. Their dissonance will often result in changing their attitudes toward the behavior.” Source for definition: http://www.ethicsscoreboard.com/rb_definitions.html Google Scholar

118 Dyal-Chanda, supra note 38 at 259 and footnote 197.Google Scholar

119 For full discussion of tensions of customary tribal law and women's human rights, see author's paper,Google Scholar

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122 Shana Hofstetter, Note: The Interaction of Customary Law and Microfinance: Women's Entry into the World Economy, 14 Wm. & Mary J. of Women & L. 337 (Winter, 2008).Google Scholar

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124 Id. at 341 (referencing Black's Law Dictionary 413 (8th ed. 2004).Google Scholar

125 Id. at 342–345 (for a full discussion of the impact Islamic Shariah law has on Moroccan women borrowers).Google Scholar

126 Id. at 346–348 (for the impact the cultural norm of ‘machismo’ has on women borrowers in the Dominican Republic).Google Scholar

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135 Id. at 351.Google Scholar

136 Id. at 351.Google Scholar

137 Grameen Bank estimates that 97% of their borrowers are female but the same difficulties in calculating the number of microfinance loans present in ascertaining specific numbers. See at http://www.grameen-info.org Google Scholar

138 See Katherine Spengler, Note & Comment: Expansion of Third World Women's Empowerment: The Emergence of Sustainable Development and the Evolution of International Economic Strategy, 12 Colo. J. Int'l Envtl. L. & Pol'y 303 (Summer 2001) (historical perspective on economic development strategy).Google Scholar

139 Id. and referencing The World Resources Institute, World Resources: A Guide to the Global Environment 1994–95, 44 (1994)Google Scholar

140 Spengler, supra note 137, and in footnote 25, referencing Barbara Rogers, The Domestication of Women: Discrimination in Developing Societies 9–10 (St. Martin's Press 1980); at 306–307 and footnote 27, referencing Ester Boserup, whose book (Women's Role in Economic Development (St Martin's Press, 1970)) and work are largely credited with fostering WID (the goal being to allow women to transition into economic sectors, whether as agricultural workers or as industrial hands). See also, Mehra, supra note 28, commenting on Boserup's studies.Google Scholar

141 Id. at 317.Google Scholar

142 Id. and citing Mehra, supra 28 at 141.Google Scholar

143 Id.Google Scholar

144 Id. footnote 113, citing INSTRAW (UN International Resource and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women), Credit for Women 15 at 19–20, U.N. Doc INSTRAW Ser. B/51, U.N. Sales No. E.96.III.C.2 (1995) (observing that initial programs pursued welfare goals rather than development goals).Google Scholar

145 Id. at 325–326 and referencing Martha Alter Chen, Introduction to Seeds 2: Supporting Women's Work Around the World (Ann Leonard ed., 1995).Google Scholar

146 Id. (defining sustainable development as a way to protect natural resources while at the same time allowing for the increased production of necessities in order to meet the needs of a growing population, and in footnote 200 cites to World Resources Institute, World Resources: A Guide to Global Environment 1992–93, 2 (1992)).Google Scholar

147 Id. at 328.Google Scholar

148 U.N. Blue Book Series Vol. VI, The United Nations and Advancement of Women 1945–1995 at 54–55, U.N. Doc. ST/DPI/1679 (1995).Google Scholar

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152 Id.Google Scholar

153 Lucie E. White, Article: Feminist Microenterprise: Vindicating the Rights of Women in the New Global Order? 50 Me.L.Rev.327 (1998).Google Scholar

154 Id.Google Scholar

155 Id. at 33 and citing in footnote 19 to Julie Korraine, Critique of the Cambridge Child Care Resource and Referral Network's Child Care Enterprise Support Program (Child Care Action Campaign Issue Brief, 1996); also citing to Peter Pitigoff, Child Care Enterprise, Community Development, and Work, 81 GEO. L.J. 1758 (1993).Google Scholar

156 Id at 331–332 and footnote 16 citing to Jude L. Fernando, Nongovernmental Organizations, Micro-Credit and Empowerment of Women, 554 ANNALS AM. ACAD. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 150 (Special Issue, The Role of NGO's: Charity and Empowerment, Jude Fernando & Alan Heston eds., 1997) at 161–64.Google Scholar

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158 Linda Mayoux, Women's Empowerment and Participation in Micro-Finance: Evidence, Issues and Ways Forward, reprinted in Sustainable Learning for Women's Empowerment: Ways Forward in Micro-Finance 2 (Linda Mayoux ed., 2003) and available online at http://www.microfinancegateway.org/content/article/detail/3765 Google Scholar

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160 Dyal-Chanda, supra note 38 at 258 and footnote 196, citing several reports that were conducted by Grameen Bank and previously available at the Grameen website, including David Bornstein, The Price of a Dream 19, 26 (1996); Alex Counts, Give Us Credit xiii (1996).Google Scholar

161 White, supra note 152 at 333.Google Scholar

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163 Id.Google Scholar

164 Id. at 236.Google Scholar

165 Id. and footnotes 276 & 277 citing Karen Jacobsen, Livelihoods in Conflict: The Pursuit of Livelihoods by Refugees and the Impact on the Human Security of Host Communities, Int'l Migration, Special Issue 2 (vol. 40(5) at 16).Google Scholar

166 Id.Google Scholar

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170 Id.Google Scholar

171 Id. and footnote 121, Women's Comm'n for Refugee Women and Children, Rights, Reconstruction and Enduring Peace: Afghan Women and Children After the Taliban (Dec. 31, 2001), at http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/725d9c085ced542-e85256b360056e43d?OpenDocument Google Scholar

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173 Dunn and Chartier, supra note 84.Google Scholar

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184 From an online article entitled “Amal as in Hope”, which was available at www.idrc.ca/en/ev-5416-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html online (copy retained by author, on file, October 2008) (This article was written by Narjis Rerhaye, a Moroccan journalist, and highlighted the work of Dr. Charrouf in pioneering the extraction of oils with local women working in a cooperative. Note: this article is no longer available and may have been withdrawn because argan tree oils are now being sold and distributed in the United States under Argan Oils, available at http://www.arganoils.com/.News/research section references the work of Dr. Charrouf).Google Scholar

185 Id.Google Scholar

186 Id.Google Scholar

187 Id. “Amal” means hope in Arabic.Google Scholar

188 Id.Google Scholar

189 Id.Google Scholar

190 Id.Google Scholar

191 Available at: http://www.arganoils.com/ Google Scholar

192 Terry M. Dworkin and Cindy A. Schipani, Linking Gender Equity to Peaceful Societies, 44 Am. Bus. L.J. 391 (Summer 2007)Google Scholar

193 Id. at 406. See also http://www.wougnet.org/Documents/UNIFEM/EmpowerRwandaWomen.html for a full discussion of the program, and all the groups involved in this project, go to http://www.wougnet.org/Documents/UNIFEM/EmpowerRwandaWomen.html noting (“An International Business Mentoring Committee is being set up to support innovative initiatives linking women's associations with foreign markets and investors. An example is a partnership between KIST, RITA, RwandaTel, the Ministry of Gender and the Ministry of Communications, to scale up through ICTs the activities of AVEGA, the association of widows of the genocide. AVEGA is already acting as focal point for many Rwandan women producers of local crafts, some of which have been sold on the international market through intermediary organizations”, and referencing http://www.bpeace.com/projprog_rwanda.php).Google Scholar

194 Id.Google Scholar

195 Dworkin and Schipani, supra 191at footnote 78, citing Keiko Morris, Macy's Sells Rwandan “Peace Baskets,” KNIGHT RIDDER TRIB. BUS. NEWS, Mar. 15, 2006, at 1. See also Macy's website at http://www1.macys.com/campaign/rwanda/index.jsp?cm_sp=SEARCH_MERCH-_-HOME-_-RWANDA (last visited November 23, 2008) to get information on the Rwandan artisan items being sold through Macy's.Google Scholar

196 It would be of interest to know who buys these products from Macy's, and whether the idea of supporting women in the developing world is a factor in their decision making. I was unable to find any data on this but if Macy's customers value purchasing actions that support women in the developing world, Macy's may gain from their promotion of these products in reputation terms by being perceived as “socially conscious”. This could attract new customers, or attract a different market segment, resulting in more sales and profits for Macy's.Google Scholar

197 Juliette Ayisi Agyei, Note: African Women: Championing Their Own Development an Empowerment-Case Study, Ghana, 21 Women's Rights L. Rep. 117 (Spring, 2000).Google Scholar

198 Id. at 126.Google Scholar

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200 Id. and at footnote 167, citing Kevin Shillington, Ghana and the Rawlings Factor, 155–56 (1992).Google Scholar

201 Karol C. Boudreaux, Article: The Legal Empowerment of the Poor: Titling and Poverty Alleviation in Post-Apartheid South Africa, 5 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 309 (Summer, 2008); see also http://www.undp.org/legalempowerment/faq/ Google Scholar

202 Id.Google Scholar

203 Faiola, supra 170.Google Scholar

204 Id.Google Scholar

205 Id.Google Scholar

206 Id.Google Scholar

207 Id.Google Scholar

208 Id.Google Scholar

209 Id. quoting the World Bank.Google Scholar

210 Social Enterprise Alliance website at http://www.se-alliance.org/.Google Scholar

211 Id.Google Scholar

212 Id.Google Scholar

213 NESsT website at http://www.nesst.org/.Google Scholar

214 See http://www.nesst.org/documents/NESsTUniqueandUniversal-paperMay2003.pdf.Google Scholar

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216 Kenneth Anderson, Microcredit: Fulfilling or Belying the Universalist Morality of Globalizing Markets? 5 Yale H.R. & Dev. L.J. 85 (2002)Google Scholar

217 Id. at 122, poem by David Whyte, from The House of Belonging, in Alan Rugman, The End of Globalization 1 (2000) at 88.Google Scholar