Tanglad writes:

A whopping 90 to 99 percent of these loans are paid back with interest, another shining indicator of microcredit’s success. But there is an ugly side to ensuring repayment, where poor women are made to police one another and punish defaulters with collective acts of aggression… Microcredit beneficiaries are grouped into cohorts of five to fifteen members. They are given clear instructions: “You are all responsible for the loan and have to make sure that no one defaults.” This lays the foundation of a very effective surveillance system, wherein poor women monitor other poor women. And the poorest women, the ones who need loans the most, are evicted from the group to minimize the risk of default.

Apparently, women involved in microlending go to great lengths to repay their loans, cutting back on family expenses, like food, and children's school items. Still, writes Sarah Bosely in the Guardian, "Women could change the face of Africa." Bosely reports from Uganda, where women hold families together, despite being victims of sexual extortion and violence. She notes that the UN finds that 60% of the billion poorest people on the planet are women; 70% of the 130 million children who are not in school are girls. Wouldn't it make sense that any assistance would be a good thing?

Not according to Tanglad, who argues:

The supposed success of “compassionate capitalism” strategies obscures the enormous social costs behind statistics such as amazing loan repayment rates. Social costs that are ultimately borne by women who are already marginalized by their socioeconomic and indigenous status.

Microcredit: “A Political Economy Of Shame” [Racialicious]
Hope Rests With Africa's Women [Guardian]
Related: Do Hopes For Development In Africa Really Only Lie With Women?

Earlier: Money Doesn't Make The World Go Around, But It Helps

Microloan organization Vision Finance, which started a program in the Rwandan town of Masaka three years ago, says that while the majority of borrowers are female, "four out of five defaulters are men." Jeanine Mukandayisenga, one of the businesswomen in Masaka who benefited from microlending, tells the Post: "They say that women care more about the family, but I do not know if that is true...I think it has more to do with the self-control woman show in hard times. We know how to survive when men despair."

But women aren't just thriving as money managers in Rwanda; women hold 48% of seats in the Rwandan parliament, which, according to the WaPo, is the highest percentage in the world. And it's not like Rwanda is an anomaly. The World Bank says that "in India's great economic transformation of the past 15 years, states that have the highest percentage of women in the labor force have grown the fastest as well as had the largest reductions in poverty." One of the most encouraging aspects of female success in Rwanda is that women are being seen differently by the culture as a whole. "Today, woman are in business; before, if a woman had some money, she would have to give it to the man," Rwandan high schooler Eric Muhire says. "They could not compete against a man. But now, they are competing and doing better."

[Image via The MotherHood]

Earlier: Justine Henin Retires • Basket-Weaving Brings Women Together
Money Doesn't Make The World Go Around, But It Helps

Might Kituka requested a loan on January 14th, and as of today enough people have donated to raise $1,650, the amount she needs to increase her stock of supplies. We'll be keeping tabs and report back how she does when we know more.

Female Business Owners Fault New Rules on U.S. Contracts [NY Times]
Kiva [Kiva.org]