The Poor and their Money

The Microfinance revolution is usually considered to have been led by the NGOs, donor agencies, and more recently banks who offer poor people financial services. But what can we learn from the ways that poor people already manage their money? What are the essential elements that they prize so much that they are willing to pay high interest rates to money lenders, or spend time and energy setting up elaborate savings clubs? The poor and their money emphasizes the pivotal role of savings in the lives of the poor, and in so doing overturns the common misconception that they are ‘too poor to save’. Building on the huge acclaim that followed its first publication, the second edition of The Poor and Their Money brings readers up to date with microfinance developments in the twenty first century, including India’s self-help group movement, village banks, and microfinance on Wall Street. It also describes the most detailed accounts to date of poor people’s day-to-day financial strategies – their financial diaries. The book’s clarity and avoidance of jargon make it appealing not only to microfinance students and practitioners, but to general readers as well.

Stuart Rutherford is Senior visiting Fellow, Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester.

Sukhwinder Singh Arora is Senior Consultant, Financial and Private Sector Development, Oxford Policy Management Ltd, Oxford.