ABSTRACT
Fall from Grace? In 2006, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize. The prize brought new attention to the role of the Grameen Bank as a pioneer
of microfinance. Those opposed to the Grameen model of microfinance had to
acknowledge its contributions to development. “Yunus was one of the early
visionaries who believed in the idea of poor people as viable, worthy, attractive
clients for loans,’’ said Elizabeth Littlefield, CEO of CGAP, a donor forum based in
the World Bank that advocates a market-based approach to development. And “that
simple notion has put in motion a huge range of imitators and innovators who have
taken that idea and run with it, improved on it, expanded it” (Dugger 2006). For a
moment, the Washington consensus on poverty, anchored by institutions such as
CGAP, seemed shaky.
