O objetivo desta dissertação é proceder a uma avaliação comparativa das políticas de microfinanças no Brasil e na Colômbia, tendo como base a atuação das cooperativas de crédito nos países em estudo. Foram selecionados dois programas públicos de microfinanças que contemplam a atuação das cooperativas em suas estratégias de atuação, o Programa de Microcrédito Produtivo Orientado, no caso brasileiro, e o Banca de las Oportunidades, no caso colombiano. A avaliação foi realizada mediante a proposição e aplicação de um indicador capaz de sistematizar a atuação dos respectivos programas em cada país. Os critérios que permitiram a avaliação foram embasados na capacidade que os programas analisados têm de atingir os objetivos propostos, à luz da teoria sobre cooperativismo de crédito e microfinanças. / The aim of this dissertation is to proceed a comparative evaluation from politics of microfinances in Brazil and Columbia, basing the performance of the credit unions in the countries in study. Two public programs of microfinances had been selected that contemplate the performance of the cooperatives in its strategies of action, the PNMPO, in Brazil, and the Banca de las Oportunidades, in Colombia. The evaluation was carried through by means of applications of a pointer capable systemize the performance of the respective programs in each country. The criterion that had allowed the evaluation had been based in the capacity that the analyzed programs have to reach the considered objectives, to the light of the theory on credit unions and microfinances.

O objetivo desta dissertação é proceder a uma avaliação comparativa das políticas de microfinanças no Brasil e na Colômbia, tendo como base a atuação das cooperativas de crédito nos países em estudo. Foram selecionados dois programas públicos de microfinanças que contemplam a atuação das cooperativas em suas estratégias de atuação, o Programa de Microcrédito Produtivo Orientado, no caso brasileiro, e o Banca de las Oportunidades, no caso colombiano. A avaliação foi realizada mediante a proposição e aplicação de um indicador capaz de sistematizar a atuação dos respectivos programas em cada país. Os critérios que permitiram a avaliação foram embasados na capacidade que os programas analisados têm de atingir os objetivos propostos, à luz da teoria sobre cooperativismo de crédito e microfinanças. / The aim of this dissertation is to proceed a comparative evaluation from politics of microfinances in Brazil and Columbia, basing the performance of the credit unions in the countries in study. Two public programs of microfinances had been selected that contemplate the performance of the cooperatives in its strategies of action, the PNMPO, in Brazil, and the Banca de las Oportunidades, in Colombia. The evaluation was carried through by means of applications of a pointer capable systemize the performance of the respective programs in each country. The criterion that had allowed the evaluation had been based in the capacity that the analyzed programs have to reach the considered objectives, to the light of the theory on credit unions and microfinances.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the debate on microfinance commercialization, using the case of Chile. Another purpose of this thesis consists in mapping the field of microfinance in Chile. The hypothesis that is examined in this study is whether the commercialization of microfinance in Chile has brought opportunities and trade-offs with respect to poverty alleviation in the country. The methodology used in order to gain understanding of several aspects of commercialization of the microfinance sector in Chile is descriptive statistics accompanied by a qualitative analysis of the demand side of microfinance. To this end, interviews were conducted with several microfinance institutions and specialists. The results of the study indicate that the commercialization of microfinance in Chile has indeed brought opportunities and trade-offs with respect to poverty alleviation in Chile. Two opportunities that this study defines, are the increase in the scale of outreach and the increase of geographical outreach. Secondly, in contrast to these opportunities, a tendency for the commercialized microfinance institutions to pay less attention to the poorest segment of the Chilean population, is defined as a trade-off of the commercialization of microfinance.

Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, ob und inwiefern Mikrokreditprogramme zum Frauenempowerment beitragen. Diese Frage wird anhand des Fallbeispiels des türkischen Grameen Programms im westanatolischen Eskişehir mit qualitativen Methoden empirisch untersucht. Die theoretischen und methodischen Annäherungen an das Konzept des Empowerment bedienen sich dabei des Capability Ansatzes, des soziologischen Konzepts der alltäglichen Lebensführung sowie der Literatur zu Gender und Entwicklung und zum Patriarchat in der Türkei. Im empirischen Feld identifiziert die Arbeit drei unterschiedliche Zugänge zum Frauenempowerment durch Mikrokredite, die miteinander verglichen und diskutiert werden: Neben den Perspektiven der Kreditnehmerinnen selbst, deren Empowermenterfahrung als verbesserte Lebensführung definiert wird, steht zum einen das Empowermentverständnis der Autorin, das auf einer feministisch-liberalen und gleichzeitig globalisierungskritischen Perspektive fußt, und das Empowermentverständnis der Mitarbeiter des Mikrokreditinstituts, die dieses Verständnis an die Kreditnehmerinnen weiterleiten. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Kreditnehmerinnen die Mikrokredite trotz für sie problematischer Aspekte eher mit positiven Erfahrungen in Zusammenhang bringen. Des Weiteren betrachten die Mitarbeiter das Programm unkritisch, nach ihrer Ansicht bedeutet Frauenempowerment die Stärkung der Frauen, damit diese die Bedürfnisse ihrer Familien besser erfüllen können. Aus der Perspektive der Autorin bedeuten die Ergebnisse hingegen eine überwiegend unveränderte Fortdauer der Geschlechterungleichheit, die durch die Marginalisierung der Frauen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt und in der Gesellschaft gekennzeichnet ist. / This thesis deals with the question whether or not and to what extent microcredit programmes contribute to women’s empowerment. A qualitative analysis of the Turkish Grameen programme in Eskişehir, Western Anatolia, provides the empirical case study to address the question. The theoretical and methodological approaches to the concept of empowerment adapt and build on the capability approach, the sociological concept of ‘conduct of daily life’ and on the literature on gender and development and patriarchy in Turkey. In the empirical analysis, the study identifies three different approaches to women’s empowerment through microcredits that are compared, contrasted and discussed. In addition to the perspective of the participants themselves for whom empowerment is defined as an improved conduct of everday life, there is the author’s understanding of empowerment which is rooted in a perspective that is liberal-feminist yet critical of globalization. The third perspective is that of employees working for the microcredit institution who transmit their understanding of empowerment to the participating women. The results show that participants overall connect microcredits with positive experiences in spite of a number of problems that arise in the course of the programme. Moreover, employees see the programme very uncritically as women’s empowerment from their point of view consists primarily in enabling women to better provide for their families’ needs. From the author’s perspective, however, the results indicate a largely unchanged persistence of gender inequality marked by women’s marginalization on the labour market and in society as a whole.

The global economy celebrates microcredit as poverty alleviation for the individual and as a way to boost a country’s economic growth. This study examines if results from previous research on Grameen Bank’s microcredits are supported by statistics. By using Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method, five themes was conducted from the qualitative findings and then analyzed from capability approach theory and Schumpeterian growth theory. Results indicates that poverty have declined in Bangladesh, but it also shows that income share for the poorest has not increased nor the female employment rate.  Both the consumption and the GDP for Bangladesh have increased, but the conclusion of this study suggest that microcredits are convoluted and needs further studies that are comprehensive with both qualitative and statistical research that are more detailed and profound. Since the available statistics are inadequate further research generally about microcredits are needed, especially if banks and organizations worldwide are going to use it as poverty alleviation.

Previous research has emphasized the importance of promoting female entrepreneurship in developing countries. Women often lack assets, financial history and are disadvantaged in acquiring wage-employment. In Tanzania, female entrepreneurs face these constraints when seeking resources for entrepreneurial purposes. Provision of microcredits has thereby been highlighted to empower women. Impact assessments of women accessing microcredits has its focus on evaluating a change in the decision-making of women. Our study focusses on combining factors affecting female entrepreneurship and achievements. Scarce literature has covered the possible empowerment of Muslim female entrepreneurs caused by microcredits in the world and in the context of Tanzania. Many Muslims do not engage in interest-based transactions. Instead, they use the products of Islamic microfinance institutions, who refrain from using interest-based credits. Our study, therefore, aims to explore the possible empowerment of Muslim female entrepreneurs, comparing female entrepreneurs who use microcredits provided by conventional microfinance institutions (MFIs) and Islamic microfinance institutions (IMFIs). Our study points out in line with previous research that microcredits empower Muslim female entrepreneurs in Tanzania. The study highlights that Muslim female entrepreneurs in Tanzania prefer non-interest-based microcredits over interest-based microcredits, as they are in accordance with their faith.

Este estudio analiza el uso que se hace de la pobreza, en el cuadro actual de las relaciones capitalistas, como categoría fundadora y legitimadora de políticas de inversión bancaria, garantizando lucro en la esfera financiera. Estas políticas son implementadas por exigencias del mercado y ancladas en fundamentos teóricos-prácticos que favorecen una visión de pobreza como producto de decisiones individuales y que por eso es responsabilidad del individuo, que debe encontrar medios propios de superación. En el escenario de aplicación de la actividad financiera un significativo volumen de recursos has sido destinado para atraer a la mayor proporción posible de clase que vive del trabajo para el emprendimiento individual. Son acciones que hicieron del microcrédito una alternativa para el seguimiento de la población, que durante el crecimiento exponencial del desempleo, en los años 1990, fue absorbida por la ideología empresarial como salida para su reproducción. Para una mejor comprensión de los impacto socio-espaciales de las políticas de microcrédito productivo orientado, analizamos el Programa Credi-amigo del Banco del Nordeste, mayor expresión de esta política en América Latina y Brasil, a partir de investigaciones con trabajadores de los más variados seguimientos de actividades productivas, en la región que comprende a la actuación de la Unidad Petrolina en el estado de Pernambuco. Por tanto, el método dialéctico nos permitió identificar contradicciones en las complejas relaciones que se establecen en el movimiento de producción de espacio mediado por el capitalismo financiero. Los esfuerzos emprendidos por el gobierno brasileño para el fortalecimiento del emprendimiento como política social, amplió la circulación de esta forma de capital beneficiando su expansión y reproducción en el país, en este sentido actividades antes descartadas en el siglo XXl, provoca el florecimiento del estado en la reproducción de esta modalidad de capital en el país. La focalización en el pobre constituye la metodología de acción para hacer llegar el endeudamiento a la superpoblación relativa por medio del pago de intereses y de la relación de dependencia que se establece con este tipo de política. Por su parte, niega que el proceso que transformó del hombre en fuerza de trabajo, separándolo de los medios de producción, a través de variados mecanismos de expropiación intensificados en el desarrollo del capitalismo, en una primera instancia, el responsable de la producción de la riqueza y la pobreza. Es una estrategia mercadológica de individualización de las causas de la pobreza que oscurece a un sentido como producto de la Ley general de acumulación.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ / This study analyzes the use of poverty, in the current framework of capitalist relations, as founding and legitimating category of banking investment policies that guarantee financial profits. These policies are implemented under market demands and anchored in theoretical-practical foundations that strengthen a vision of poverty as the product of individual decisions and in this way it is the responsibility of the individual, who must find own ways of overcoming. In the scenario of the expansion of financial activity, a significant volume of resources has been allocated to attract the largest possible share of the proletariat for individual entrepreneurship. Actions that made microcredit an alternative for this population follow-up, which, faced with the exponential growth of unemployment, after the 1990s was absorbed by business ideology as an outlet for your reproduction. In order to better understand the socio-spatial bouncing of oriented productive microcredit policies, we analyze the Banco do Nordeste's Crediamigo Program, a major expression of this policy in Latin America and Brazil, based on research with workers with the most varied productive activities in the region which comprises the acting of the Petrolina unit in the state of Pernambuco. For this, the dialectical method allowed us to unravel the contradictions of the complex relationships that are established in the movement of production of space mediated by financial capitalism. The efforts of the Brazilian government to strengthen entrepreneurship as a social policy, increased the circulation of this form of capital, benefiting its expansion and reproduction in the country, thus, activities previously discarded and uninteresting, have become essential to its reproduction. The increase in public and private credit agencies, in the first two decades of the 21st century, confirms the State's ability to reproduce this type of capital in Brazil. By focusing on the poor has become the methodology of action to bring the debt to relative overpopulation through the payment of interest and the dependency relationship established with this type of policy. By incorporating poverty into credit policy, treating it as the only possibility of overcoming it, the State exposes its condition as a superstructure of capital's control and agent of global articulation of speculative profit. On the other hand, he denies that the process that has transformed man into a labor force, separating it from the means of production, through various mechanisms of expropriation intensified in the development of capitalism, is in the first instance responsible for the production of wealth and poverty. In time, it individualizes the overcoming of poverty in the poor / individual. It is a marketing strategy of individualization of the causes of poverty that obscures its meaning as a product of the General Law of accumulation. / Este estudo analisa o uso que se faz da pobreza, no quadro atual das relações capitalistas, como categoria fundante e legitimadora de políticas de investimentos bancários, garantidores de lucros na esfera financeira. Essas políticas são implementadas sob exigências do mercado e ancoradas em fundamentos teórico-práticos que fortalecem uma visão de pobreza como produto de decisões individuais e que, por isso, é responsabilidade do indivíduo, que deve encontrar meios próprios de superação. No cenário da ampliação da atividade financeira, um significativo volume de recurso tem sido destinado para atrair a maior parcela possível da classe que vive do trabalho para o empreendedorismo individual. São ações que fizeram do microcrédito uma alternativa para um segmento da população, que, diante do crescimento exponencial do desemprego, após os anos de 1990, foi absorvida pela ideologia empresarial como saída para sua reprodução. Para uma melhor compreensão dos rebatimentos socioespaciais das políticas de microcrédito produtivo orientado, analisamos o Programa Crediamigo do Banco do Nordeste, maior expressão dessa política na América Latina e no Brasil, a partir de pesquisa com trabalhadores dos mais variados segmentos de atividades produtivas, na região que compreende a atuação da Unidade de Petrolina, no estado de Pernambuco. Para tanto, o método dialético nos permitiu desvendar as contradições das complexas relações, que se estabelecem no movimento de produção do espaço mediado pelo capitalismo financeiro. Os esforços empreendidos pelo governo brasileiro para o fortalecimento do empreendedorismo como política social ampliou a circulação dessa forma de capital, beneficiando sua expansão e reprodução no país, nesse sentido, atividades antes descartadas e desinteressantes, tornaram-se essenciais a sua reprodução. O aumento de agências públicas e privadas de crédito, nas duas primeiras décadas do século XXI, comprova o fôlego do Estado na reprodução desta modalidade de capital no país. A focalização no pobre constitui a metodologia de ação para fazer chegar o endividamento à superpopulação relativa por meio do pagamento de juros e da relação de dependência que se estabelece com esse tipo de política. Ao incorporar a pobreza à política de crédito, informando-a como única possibilidade de sua superação, o Estado expõe sua condição de superestrutura de comando do capital e agente de articulação global do lucro especulativo. Por sua vez, nega que o processo que transformou o homem em força de trabalho, separando-o dos meios de produção, através de variados mecanismos de expropriação intensificados no desenvolvimento do capitalismo, é, em primeira instância, o responsável pela produção da riqueza e da pobreza. Em tempo, individualiza a superação da pobreza no pobre/indivíduo. É uma estratégia mercadológica de individualização das causas da pobreza, que obscurece o seu sentido como produto da Lei geral da acumulação. / São Cristóvão, SE