Lending small amounts of money to very poor households at commercial rates, rather than at the ‘usurious rates of loan sharks’ (S. Buckingham-Hatfield 2000). The classic model is the Grameen Bank, initiated in Bangladesh by Mohammed Yunis. Similar micro-credit schemes have been set up throughout the developing world, and have been enormously effective, not only in alleviating poverty and improving child nutrition, but also in increasing the voluntary use of contraception. N. Burra et al., eds (2005) assess the impact of micro-credit. Poverty trends would probably not be reversed, ‘but booming micro-credit would at least speak for a world where justice would have a greater place’ (Santiso (2005) Int. J. Soc. Sci. 57, 185).

http://www.grameen.com/ Grameen Bank website.