Microcredit for Self-Employed Disabled Persons in Developing Countries

65 Pages Posted: 15 Mar 2007

Date Written: October 2005

Abstract

Microcredit has become a popular instrument to promote economic empowerment among poor entrepreneurs, and is increasingly being recommended to improve economic rehabilitation among persons with disabilities. However, the majority of the advocates of microcredit for persons with disabilities seem not to be informed on the involved "rules of the game". At the same time the microfinance community lacks information on disability issues. In this report we aim on closing the gap in knowledge and culture between the disability- and the microfinance communities. We apply resource based theory to analyze when microcredit for disabled persons is an appropriate tool and when it is not. We argue that asymmetric information between microfinance institutions and the disabled population is probably the main hindrance for increased penetration of microcredit services to disabled persons. We recommend disabled entrepreneurs with the necesarry resource base to be included as regular clients in mainstream MFIs or as regular members in self helping microfinance systems like ROSCAs. We provide lists of recommendations that are both easy to understand and to apply for MFIs, DPOs and donors. Due to the lack of theoretical and empirical knowledge available we see this report as a starting point and we advocate for increased research efforts within this field.

Keywords: Microfinance, disability, MFI, DPO, self-employment

JEL Classification: I31, J62, O15

Suggested Citation

Mersland, Roy, Microcredit for Self-Employed Disabled Persons in Developing Countries (October 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=970519 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.970519

Roy Mersland (Contact Author)

University of Agder ( email )

Serviceboks 422
N-4604 Kristiansand, VEST AGDER 4604
Norway

HOME PAGE: http://www.uia.no/microfinance

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