ABSTRACT
Participation by women in the NGO-led micro-credit movement has been greater than could have been predicted when a few innovative organizations began creating large-scale micro-credit institutions in the 1970s. On the most fundamental level, credit matters. It matters in all societies that have a need for new business formation that is not solely dependent on affluent and well-connected entrepreneurs who do not need loans. The world over, there are non-profit organizations that have evolved from political to social to economic to a comprehensive institutional approach to community development. Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) extends credit to two million rural women for their micro-enterprises, BRAC's credit programme is operationally sustainable. It is hard to imagine three places as dissimilar as BRAC in Bangladesh, Carpi in northern Italy and the south side of Chicago. For-profit credit and information services are more powerful than subsidized credit and information services.
