ABSTRACT
Few recent ideas have generated as much hope for alleviating poverty in low income countries as the idea of microfinance. Confronting the schism between rhetoric and action – and between financially minded donors and socially minded programs – will first require that both donors and practitioners pay greater attention to who is being served. The socially oriented programs should have careful economic and social evaluations at the top of their research list. The win-win proposition has been a powerful piece of rhetoric, and it has kept many programs from repeating past disasters. The optimism of the win-win vision has generated much energy for the microfinance movement, and it has helped to discourage repetitions of the costly mistakes of the past. Addressing the schism opens up the chance to address misconceptions. The chapter has mapped avenues to pursue in rethinking microfinance to date and in constructing foundations for a next wave of microfinance innovation.
