A large number of micro-enterprise programmes in the United States have adopted peer lending technique from the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. These programmes, which are mainly aimed at helping low income women become micro-enterprise owners in cities, in rural areas and on Native American reservations, have demonstrated that some concepts imported from the Third World are transferable and can work elsewhere.
Accion International, based in Massachusetts, aims to create employment opportunities and a better quality of life, particularly through income enhancement, for low income families in the Americas. It works to promote self-help economic development for small businesses in urban and rural areas and has set up micro-loan programmes in 14 countries.
Accion International started providing loans in the United States in 1987, working mainly with Hispanics in Arizona and Southern California, and has initiated micro-enterprise lending schemes in Brooklyn and other areas. Accion works with micro enterprises in 'solidarity groups' of four people similar to the Grameen peer group system.
To qualify for a loan, borrowers must form a solidarity group with other people who are also seeking loans and approach Accion as a group. Unlike Grameen, every person within the solidarity group receives an equal loan. Each group member is responsible for ensuring that all the loans are repaid before anyone in the group can get a further loan.
- Dr Muhammad Yunus, The Grameen Trust, Mirpur Two, Dhaka 1216, Bangasdesh (tel/fax + 8802803559).
- Accion International, 1385 Cambridge St, Cambridge MA 02139, USA (tel 617 492 4930).
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