Microenterprise development and the entreprenurial poor: including the excluded?

✍ Scribed by NITIN BHATT

• Book ID: 101290636
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 194 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-2075
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-162x(199710)17:4<371::aid-pad971>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

Microenterprise development has received much attention as being a participatory strategy that can potentially alleviate poverty by including the excluded in the process of development. But recent controversies regarding the purposes, processes and pro®tability of alternative microenterprise development techniques suggest that participation means different things to different people. A review of three types of microenterprise development institutions suggests that while some programme policies discourage participation, others encourage `inclusion' only in token. Only a few programmes support genuine participation of the entrepreneurial poor. Key policy issues related to the participatory principles, bene®ts and costs of microenterprise development are discussed.