Banking the unbankable

Third World rural development is an urgent item on the world agenda. Banking the Unbankable is a valuable contribution to development planning as it presents an alter native way of development. The book examines eleven small scale credit schemes created by community groups in the Third World, that shatter the myth that the poor are not credit worthy.

While each of the schemes treated is differ ent in scope, structure, and procedure they all have certain elements in common which serve as guides for those involved in planning and implementing credit projects for the rural poor. The most important of these elements is people participation. Another is the impor tance of involving women in credit pro grammes. A third element common to all the schemes described is the crucial role played by grass roots non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in assisting banks, government authorities and donor agencies to shape new credit policies.

Here is development which really addresses the daily needs of the poor, not merely those of the national economy. It proves that if development programmes are properly designed and sensitively implemented they can become a key in unlocking the creative and productive potential of the world's poor.