W12 Reading: Microenterprise, global poverty and social development/ Joon Hee Lee

Micro-enterprise and micro-finance have been proposed as new ways to save poverty-stricken countries. With anecdotes, cases and media reports continuing to emerge suggesting that micro-enterprise and micro-financial programs contribute greatly to global poverty reduction, what exactly are they doing?

The governments of early developing countries generally placed priority on the expansion of large urban industries. This was an activity that expected industrialization to modernize countries' economies and create an economic growth spiral that drove most of their workforce to well-paid jobs, but by the 1970s, in conclusion, most had poor results.

Therefore, some people believed that developing micro-enterprise and local industries, rather than investing in large cities, would play a major role in solving poverty. This mainly involved small-scale financial activities (e.g., small loans) that could help the poor lead a stable life, which I thought could help the people develop their own strength to escape poverty.

While many success stories and research have had a positive impact on overcoming poverty, many scholars say it is hard to trust because objective and accurate evidence is not supported. It also points out that while there are positive examples, those who actually participate in these activities are very few among the poor, and that loans can lead to economic difficulties.

In conclusion, people now make the main issue of poverty a solution that involves a combination of individual, community, market and state interventions, rather than solving it using a single method.

After reading this article, I remembered the documentary "Living on 1 Dollar" that I had seen in other classes before. The American college students, who were the main characters of the documentary, were living in Guatemala when one of their group members had an upset stomach caused by parasites. The use of micro-finance from today's article came to mind because the money they had lacked the hospital's medical bills. Personally, I hope that these financial systems will be used more by people suffering from poverty. 

It is believed that it will be important to plan social development in various aspects as a way to solve poverty. What are some of the typical examples of this?

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