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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Unfulfilled Promises? NGOs' Micro-Credit Programmes and Poverty Reduction in Uganda |
Author: | Muhumuza, William |
Year: | 2005 |
Periodical: | Journal of Contemporary African Studies |
Volume: | 23 |
Issue: | 3 |
Period: | November |
Pages: | 391-416 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Uganda |
Subjects: | credit NGO Development and Technology Economics and Trade |
External links: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01426390500273858 http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4D84BFDE3257BE0F22FB |
Abstract: | President Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM) has been pursuing antipoverty strategies from within a neoliberal framework since 1987. These strategies have involved the extension of credit to the poor to engage in income-generating activities and so improve household income and reduce poverty. NGOs have been major players in the delivery of micro-credit to Uganda's poor because of their perceived 'comparative advantage' in grassroots development. However, examination of the credit programmes of four NGOs which operate in Mbarara and Mpigi districts - the Agency for Cooperation in Research and Development (ACORD), the Initiative of Small-Scale Industrialists Agency (ISSIA), Feed the Children Uganda (FTCU) and World Vision (WV) - indicates they have many limitations. Notwithstanding the positive innovations and good institutional performance, characterized by high repayment rates in the credit market, the NGO credit programmes did not necessarily translate into meaningful economic empowerment of beneficiaries. This failure is attributed partly to the condescending or top-down approach used by the NGOs' credit programmes, and the fact that stringent loan terms subjected the beneficiaries to perpetual dependency. Bibliogr., notes. [ASC Leiden abstract] |