A Critical History of Poverty Finance

Nick Bernards

Description

'The definitive account of the history of poverty finance' - Susanne Soederberg

Finance, mobile and digital technologies - or 'fintech' - are being heralded in the world of development by the likes of the IMF and World Bank as a silver bullet in the fight against poverty. But should we believe the hype? 

A Critical History of Poverty Finance demonstrates how newfangled 'digital financial inclusion' efforts suffer from the same essential flaws as earlier iterations of neoliberal 'financial inclusion'. Relying on artificially created markets that simply aren’t there among the world's most disadvantaged economic actors, they also reinforce existing patterns of inequality and uneven development, many of which date back to the colonial era.

Bernards offers an astute analysis of the current fintech fad, contextualised through a detailed colonial history of development finance, that ultimately reveals the neoliberal vision of poverty alleviation for the pipe dream it is.

Acknowledgements
Acronyms
Introduction
Part I. Poverty finance and the antinomies of colonialism
1. A colonial problem
2. Poverty finance and nascent neoliberalism
3. Structural adjustment, backlash, and the turn to the local: Explaining the rise of microfinance
Part II. Making markets for poverty finance
4. Commercialising community: Experiments with marketisation
5. From microcredit to financial inclusion
Part III. Innovation to the rescue?
6. The forever-latent demand for microinsurance
7. Fintech and its limits
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Economic Policy
• Public Policy
• Modern
• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Histoire
• Grupo de los 20 (países industrializados y emergentes)
• África
• Microinsurance
• Poverty reduction
• G-20 major economies
• International economics
• Development studies
• Modern history
• Political economy
• World Bank
• International Monetary Fund
• 21st Century
• IMF
• Africa
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Microfinance
• Groupe des 20
• Banque mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780745344843
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A Critical History of Poverty Finance
Nick Bernards has crafted the definitive account of the history of poverty finance, skilfully revealing its entanglements with the uneven development of capitalism.
-Susanne Soederberg, Professor of Global Political Economy, Queen s University, Canada
In this outstanding history of poverty finance, Nick Bernards tackles the belief that if only markets could be designed more imaginatively, or the latest financial technology be applied, then it is only a matter of time before the poor are able to be productively included in the financial system. As Bernards points out, financial exclusion persists not because of a lack of design or fancy technology but because the problem of uneven development is persistent and structural; addressing this will require more effort than simply pinning one s hopes on yet another round of financial innovation.
-Andrew Leyshon, Emeritus Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Nottingham, author of Reformatted: Code, Networks and
the Transformation of the Music Industry and co-editor of Money and Finance after the Crisis: Critical Thinking for Uncertain Times
A Critical History of Poverty Finance
Colonial Roots and Neoliberal Failures
Nick Bernards
First published 2022 by Pluto Press
New Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright Nick Bernards 2022
The right of Nick Bernards to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 4483 6 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 4482 9 Paperback
ISBN 978 0 7453 4486 7 PDF
ISBN 978 0 7453 4484 3 EPUB
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
For Laura and Max, again
Contents
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
Introduction
Part I. Poverty finance and the antinomies of colonialism
1. A colonial problem
2. Poverty finance and nascent neoliberalism
3. Structural adjustment, backlash, and the turn to the local: Explaining the rise of microfinance
Part II. Making markets for poverty finance
4. Commercialising community: Experiments with marketisation
5. From microcredit to financial inclusion
Part III. Innovation to the rescue?
6. The forever-latent demand for microinsurance
7. Fintech and its limits
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
I started working on what would eventually become this book as part of a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship at Queen s University, Canada. Thanks are due to SSHRC for financial support, to the Departments of Political Studies and Global Development Studies at Queen s for giving me space to start working on it, and, especially, to Susanne Soederberg for her support as supervisor.
I ve since moved to the University of Warwick, where I ve benefited a great deal from working with brilliant colleagues in the School for Cross-Faculty Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies. I ve also had the good fortune at Warwick of being able to teach several cohorts of very good students on topics very closely related to my research. I m especially grateful to the students on GD 309 (Debt, Money and Global Sustainable Development), who have engaged with lectures and seminars in which I ve worked through some of the ideas presented in this book with enthusiasm and insight.
The book draws in places on archival research funded by the British International Studies Association, through their Early Career Small Research Grants scheme. I m grateful to BISA for this support.
Parts of this project have been presented in seminars at the University of Warwick, the University of Nottingham, and University College Dublin; at workshops hosted at the University of Durham, the University of Sussex, and the Balsillie School of International Affairs; and at various British International Studies Association and International Studies Association annual conferences. Participants and hosts at all of these events have helped a good deal in getting together the ideas presented below.
A number of people have helped refine various elements of this project as it has come together slowly over the last five years or so. Thanks are due to (alphabetically) Rob Aitken, Ali Bhagat, Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, Chris Clarke, Ben Clift, Florence Dafe, Martin Danyluk, Juanita Elias, Shaun French, Ingrid Kvangraven, Andrew Leyshon, Laura Mahrenbach, Stephen McBride, Johannes Petry, Tony Porter, Shirin Rai, Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Leon Sealey-Huggins, Alastair Smith, Susanne Soederberg, Celine Tan, Mat Watson (and surely to many others I ve neglected to mention) for reading or discussing various parts of the project as it has come together. Special thanks are due to Malcolm, Tony, and Susanne for reading over the full manuscript in draft form. This book is much better for their input. Of course, any remaining errors are my own.
Thanks to all at Pluto for their work bringing this book into production. I m especially indebted to Jakob Horstman for his excellent editorial work, his close reading of the manuscript, and generally for his support throughout the development of this book. Thanks also to Miri Davidson for copy-editing the finished manuscript. I m equally grateful to the four anonymous reviewers who provided very helpful comments at proposal stage which helped to give the project a much clearer direction.
I did most of the work of writing this book during what turned out to be a very strange year. I owe an enormous debt to Laura and Max. Both were around for much more of the writing process than any of us anticipated. Both provided (usually) welcome distractions, to which, in retrospect, I owe the fact I finished writing the book (mostly) sane. Max has been a nearly endless source of joy. I could not ask for a better friend or partner than Laura. This book is dedicated to them both.
Acronyms
A2ii Access to Insurance Initiative
ADBP Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan
AFI Alliance for Financial Inclusion
ARDC Agriculture Rediscount and Development Corporation (India)
ASA Association for Social Advancement
BGC Bank of the Gold Coast
BFA Bali Fintech Agenda
BKB Bangladesh Krishi Bank
BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
CBK Central Bank of Kenya
CCCAM Caisse Centrale de Cr dit Agricole Mutuel
CDO collateralised debt obligation
CFAO Compagnie Fran aise de l Afrique Occidentale
CGAP Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
CNCA Caisse Nationale de Credit Agric le
CPK Colony and Protectorate of Kenya
CRA credit rating agencies
EFL Entrepreneurial Finance Lab
FFP fondo financiero privado
FMO Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (Netherlands)
FMT FinMark Trust
FOMIN Multilateral Investment Fund
GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft f r Internationale Zusammenarbeit
GPFI Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion
HIGF Housing Investment Guaranty Fund
HLPs High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion
IAA International Actuarial Association
IADB Inter-American Development Bank
IAIS International Association of Insurance Supervi
ICPs Insurance Core Principles
IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development
IFC International Finance Corporation
IFI international financial institution
ILO International Labour Organization
IMF International Monetary Fund
IPO initial public offering
JFS Janalakshmi Financial Services
LAB Land and Agricultural Bank (Kenya)
LMICs Low- and Middle-Income Countries
M-CRIL MicroCredit Ratings International
MCRA microcredit rating agency
MFI microfinance institution
MIC Microinsurance Centre
MIV microfinance investment vehicle
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
RBI Reserve Bank of India
RCT randomised control trial
SHG self-help group
SIDBI Small Industries Development Bank of India
SIPs Soci t s Indig nes de Pr voyance
S P Standard and Poor s
STS science and technology studies
UKAP UK Actuarial Profession
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
USAID United States Agency for International Development
USGAO United States Government Accountability Office
Introduction
A World Bank official interviewed by the Financial Times in early 2019 rhapsodised the virtues of emerging financial technology (fintech):
It reduces costs, it s much more efficient, it can be scaled up It does come with risks as well because, you know, you really don t want to hurt those that are most vulnerable, so we have to be careful. But I think it is really remarkable. (Politi 2019)
Media outlets including the Guardian and The Economist have run glowing reports about the promise of fintech (e.g. Gould 2015; Noonan 2019). These have included breathless accounts of financial innovations ranging from psychometric credit scoring methods ( The Economist 2016) to MobiLife, a South African life insurer offering a (truly dystopian) product called FoodSurance - which pays out in weekly grocery vouchers sent to beneficiaries mobile phones if a family breadwinner dies (Noonan 2019) - to index-based livestock insurance schemes using satellite imagery to assess the extent of drought ( The Economist 2014). Even a more cautionary piece run in The Economist in early 2020 opened with the assertion that For those seeking to help the worst-off in poor countries, the mobile phone has been a magic wand ( The Economist 2020). There is a growing army of consultancies, think tanks, and philanthropic organisations similarly promoting finte