Poverty is not a shame. The shame is to deny its existence and to do nothing to combat it.
Bearing this in mind, Bahrain recently decided to fight poverty by duplicating Bangladesh’s model of the Grameen Bank, a bank that hands out small loans without any collateral to poor people to help them start small businesses that improve their lives.
The visit of Grameen’s founder, Nobel laureate Professor Mohammad Younus, to Bahrain at an official invitation last week, therefore, was significant for numerous reasons.
First, it was an official acknowledgement that a considerable segment of Bahrainis are mired in poverty. Second, it was an official recognition that eliminating poverty in the country through traditional means has not succeeded. In fact, such means, including donations, alms, and charitable funds, have only worked as painkillers while giving Islamic movements an opportunity to exploit the phenomenon to their political interests. And third, it was an indication that Bahrain has been concerned about learning from the experience of Asian countries. This is despite an argument that what suits south Asian societies may not be suitable for a region like the Gulf whose socioeconomic structures are entirely different.
It is true that each country has distinct characteristics and problems that differ from those of others, and consequently a successful model in a given country may not work in another. But what is also true is that any model underlies creative ideas and methods that can be adapted by other countries with some changes to suit their own distinct situations. This is exactly why more than 100 states, including some developed countries like the United States, have not hesitated to apply – in conjunction with other progressive social and economic policies – the Grameen Bank model of Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations in the world.
The significance of the Grameen Bank model is not only that it has succeeded in liberating millions of families from poverty and exploitation by middlemen but also its success in promoting some principles and norms while offering loans to the poor. Unfortunately, this has not widely been focused on, despite its importance, given that numerous development problems in the Third World stem from the prevalence of myths and outdated traditions that usually work as social barriers and restrict one’s ambition.
In the Grameen Bank model, loans are offered on the condition that borrowers must apply and enhance some sixteen concepts, including self-help and mutual aid, faithfulness, regularity, tolerance, and openness. Borrowers must also commit themselves to respecting law and order, helping protect the environment, promoting savings culture, increasing the use of contraceptives, using healthy foods and better drinking water, applying hygienic rules, and enrolling their children in schools.
Moreover, Grameen has played a significant role in Bangladesh in terms of encouraging its female clients to challenge the tradition of paying dowry to those who would become their husbands, one of the most backward social traditions in south Asia. This, however, is only one example of how the Grameen Bank model has helped women liberate themselves not only form poverty but also from fear, despair, and male-dominance, and experience greater self-confidence and self-esteem.
In fact, Grameen, whose female clients now forms as high as 95 percent of the total, has primarily focused on assisting and empowering women on the grounds that it is women who most affect the socioeconomic status of families. While men have priorities other than their families, women’s first priority is to ensure that their children get enough food and necessary medical care. Thus, they are usually more enthusiastic to work and increase their income, and consequently more concerned about meeting their pledges on time.
Identifying lessons from the Grameen Bank experience, one must also not forget the unique way of operating this microfinance institution. Grameen under the leadership of Younus has developed a managing system that gives maximum attention to the issues of innovation, creativity, training, self-criticism and learning from errors, cooperation and solidarity, flexibility, and decentralization. It embraced a parcel of measures that have allowed continuous adjustments and debates, facilitated the trial of new ideas, encouraged non-bureaucratic procedures, and helped credit officers conduct research and closely monitor borrowers.
elmadani@batelco.com.bh
*Academic researcher and lecturer on Asian affairs