<p>Poor people often lack collateral, which is one of the reasons that they have no access to</p><p>formal financial institutions. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide financial services to</p><p>poor people. Traditional MFIs have received some criticism, for instance that they do not</p><p>target the poorest of the poor. This paper, with a field study from Dhaka, takes a closer look at</p><p>SafeSave, a new MFI working in a quite different way than the traditional MFIs in</p><p>Bangladesh. The conclusion of this paper is that SafeSave’s more flexible services are able to</p><p>reach the poor better than the services of traditional MFIs, but might not be the best solution</p><p>seen from a long-term development perspective.</p>

Poor people often lack collateral, which is one of the reasons that they have no access to formal financial institutions. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide financial services to poor people. Traditional MFIs have received some criticism, for instance that they do not target the poorest of the poor. This paper, with a field study from Dhaka, takes a closer look at SafeSave, a new MFI working in a quite different way than the traditional MFIs in Bangladesh. The conclusion of this paper is that SafeSave’s more flexible services are able to reach the poor better than the services of traditional MFIs, but might not be the best solution seen from a long-term development perspective.

Background Bangladesh is a developing country located in the southern part of Asia. Almost eighty percent of the total population of Bangladesh lives in rural areas and most of them are poor. These poor people are not qualified to get loan facilities from the formal financial sector due to the collateral requirements. And informal financial sector also make them unattractive due to their tendency of higher profit making. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank jointly awarded Nobel Peace Prize 2006 for the creation of innovative credit idea called “micro credit” for the poor people who are ignored both from the formal and informal financial sector. Micro credit has been introduced in Bangladesh in 1976 that allows the poor people to get small amount capital as loan without collateral for starting self income generating activities with the objective of alleviate their poverty level and gradually improve their life status. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the role of micro credit in rural poor people daily life status improvement process in rural areas in Bangladesh. This study investigates the role of micro on life status improvement process of these poor borrowers. Method The qualitative method has been chosen for this study which is implemented in the form of interview approach. Empirical data has been collected from the Grameen Bank borrowers and its official in Bangladesh. Results This study tried to cover how micro credit allows the poor people in financial access, how can affect their income level by starting self income generating activities, asset holdings capacity, basic needs, living standard, poverty level and finally on their life status. This study also covers how social welfare and other services offered by the micro finance institutions affect the poor people’s life status. Based on the empirical findings, this study suggests that micro credit has positive impact on borrowers’ income level, asset holdings capacity, basic needs, living standard and their poverty level. Social welfare services can increase human capital skills, personal awareness level of the poor borrowers. And finally all these things gradually improve the daily life status of these borrowers.

The combination of rising population and increasing food demand has placed tremendous pressure on the soil resource in Bangladesh, especially floodplain soils where rice may be grown year round. Although these floodplain soils contain minerals high in potassium (K) such as micas, K deficiency in rice paddy soils is increasing throughout Bangladesh. Harvesting of straw from fields exacerbates the removal of nutrients including K, and intensive cropping with unbalanced fertilizer has resulted in depletion of "readily available" K in large areas. Five representative floodplain soils in rice production were sampled by horizon to determine physical, chemical and mineralogical properties, assess soil K, investigate plant available K, and understand impacts of redox on K fixation and release. Total and nonexchangeable K were determined using concentrated hydrogen fluoride (HF) digestion and 1.0 M HNO3 digestion, respectively, along with NH4OAcextractable K. Cation exchange capacity under both oxidized and reduced conditions was determined. Assessment of adsorption and release of K as a function of redox was done in conjunction with seven different concentrations of potassium chloride (KCl) solution and three different soils. Significant amounts of K were present in all fractions of silts and clays. Potassium concentration was greatest in the coarse clay fraction. High HNO3- extractable K suggested that much of the K in soils was from mica interlayers. Acidic soils contained less K in all fractions than the less weathered, calcareous soils. The clay fractions exhibited mostly mica, vermiculite, smectite and kaolinite. The cation exchange capacity (CEC) of reduced soils was less under oxidized condition, due to collapse of the interlayer in response to increased layer charge upon structural Fe reduction. The adsorption of K was greater for calcareous soils under both oxidized and reduced conditions than for the acidic soils. Less native K was extracted under oxidized conditions than under reduced conditions. Less adsorption under reduced conditions may be due to an increase in solution Fe2+ which can compete with K+ for exchange sites on clays.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [301]-321). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Political Science, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis--Zürich. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 300-307).

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

No description available.

No description available.