The Hypocrisy of Development!

 

This week’s reading on the various chapters of the book Engendering Development brought a lot of things into perspective for me. In the various sections read, we see how development and humanitarianism entrenches the already existing gap between the global north and the global south and consequently widening the inequalities that exist. Evidently, this occurs because of the form development takes which is being rooted in imperialist, colonialist and capitalist orientations. Development in this sense is about economic growth, industrialization, and free trade among others. As established in the book this form of development is a form of neocolonialism designed to enroll governments, natural resources and labor into the circuits of capital so that the very wealthy may continue to benefit from accumulation by dispossession (Trauger & Fluri, 2019). It is also coupled with poverty and inequality.

Essential to this form of development which I want to emphasize is the giving of micro-finance and micro-credit which comes in the form of small loans to people, mostly to women in deprived communities in an effort to provide them access to credit and by extension improving their lives and livelihood. Using Ghana as an example, the past decade has witnessed a massive growth in the establishment of micro-credit firms and microfinance in almost all the 16 regions in the country. Mostly, this credit is to support existing small-scale businesses. It is important to establish that even though these credits given are for a good course, majority of them come with conditionalities, high interest rates and short time schedules for payments.  Most people are not able to satisfy these conditions, and this results in them facing harsh treatments from lenders. Many people have fled their homes, and some have committed suicide because of their inability to defray their debts. Another strategy used by microfinance/credit agencies is also about savings. They encourage people to save with their agencies with the aim of gaining loans to expand their businesses in future. In Ghana, this is known as “Susu” and there are lot of people both men and women who are engaged in this venture. Most often, the loosing side in this venture is the many poor who have given up their resources with the hope for the future. A lot of microfinance/credit institutions have eloped with the monies of their clients in the name of investment while others have for a very long time now refused to give their customers their what is rightfully due them. Thus, the monies of the impoverished many become concentrated in the hands of wealthy few and the consequences of this is grave inequalities and poverty. Many people in Ghana today protest the streets of Ghana charging the government to come to their aid.  The very intervention that was meant to improve their lives have rendered them impoverished; many with their businesses collapsed and others in huge financial debts. Evidently, microfinance/credits work within capitalist frameworks while attending to or assisting poor individuals by providing access to credit and fair wages.

Customers of some microfinance companies in Ghana protest the streets of Accra over their locked up money.