&gt; Posted by Joshua Goldstein aka Mr. Provocative

There are no final victories when it comes to providing equal opportunities for groups that have suffered from historic discrimination and exclusion. This is true in the United States. This is true everywhere else in the world.  Attitudinal barriers that belittle and marginalize, originating in class, racial, or religious prejudice, may triumphantly come down in one generation only to be resurrected in the next – or even sooner if some shock to the body politic is great enough.

Thus, watchdog groups like the Center for Financial Inclusion’s Smart Campaign, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Anti-Defamation League can never call it quits and declare victory. Backsliding into bigotry is more likely the rule than the exception with our tribal species.

To bolster this glum supposition is this example of the ongoing difficulties facing another beleaguered minority: Twenty-five years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), there is new evidence about employment discrimination from researchers at Rutgers and Syracuse University.

<a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/upshot/fake-cover-letters-expose-discrimination-against-disabled.html?_r=0">According to The New York Times</a>, the researchers applied for thousands of accounting jobs, sending resumes and cover letters on behalf of fictitious candidates, some with disabilities, some without. Employers followed up with candidates via phone or email 26 percent less frequently when those candidates disclosed that they had a disability. The study ensured that disability was the only differentiator among the otherwise identically qualified candidates.

But <a href="http://kesslerfoundation.org/kfsurvey15">another study</a> from the Kessler Foundation shows signs of workplace hope. The foundation’s recent national employment and disability survey shows that once on a job about 16 percent of persons with disabilities (PWD) report negative attitudes related to their disability on the part of their supervisor. However, over 41 percent of these same individuals say that they were able to overcome this barrier. How? I believe it is likely that in many cases the employee with a disability gained acceptance because she demonstrated her pride and personal agency in completing tasks that challenged her boss’ presumptions about her inferiority. Attitudes change because of this assertion of self. Once on the job, daily performance makes the difference.

At the Center for Financial Inclusion, we are running the <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/pwd">Financial inclusion for Persons with Disabilities program</a> to encourage the microfinance industry to become more disability welcoming and friendly. Consonant with the Kessler study, the Center has found that the most effective way to change negative attitudes among the staff members at financial institutions is to have them get to know persons with disabilities. Familiarity in this case does not breed contempt but can open new pathways to acceptance. Our work in India, for example, has included the creation of tools and an operating model for MFIs to incorporate PWD, and disability awareness trainings for institutions across the country. Some of our partners now have more than 15,000 clients with disabilities. When given a chance, persons with disabilities make excellent clients.

While many supervisors’ prejudice can be defeated in the workplace when real, multifaceted people take the place of abstractions, a robust law really matters for the other roughly 60 percent of supervisors in the Rutgers/Syracuse sample whose prejudice appeared unshakeable in spite of contact.

The Rutgers/Syracuse study showed that Fortune 500 companies tended to discriminate significantly less than smaller firms. Demonstrating a lack of interest in candidates with disabilities was most prevalent at firms with fewer than 15 employees. Notably, businesses this small are not mandated to be inclusive under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

So a recipe for the greatest success seems to be a combination of laws with teeth and human connection. Neither alone does the trick. And one reinforces the other.

But while incremental societal change certainly does happen, vigilance without end to protect our vulnerable populations is a necessity. A willingness to play well with others is critical for human survival but in most cases the people played with are from the same tribe. The daughters of today’s supervisors, when they move into leadership positions themselves one day, will have to relearn the lessons of nondiscrimination against people who are different, all over again.

And that is why the Smart Campaign, the ADA, and other human dignity watchdogs, along with enforceable laws, are so central to the human rights enterprise.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/03/23/disability-inclusion-in-ecuador-and-around-the-world-an-interview-with-larry-reed/">Disability Inclusion, in Ecuador and Around the World: An Interview with Larry Reed</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/12/03/happy-international-day-of-persons-with-disabilities/">Happy International Day of Persons with Disabilities</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/05/28/attitudes-toward-persons-with-disabilities-in-indian-microfinance-institutions/">Attitudes toward Persons with Disabilities in Indian Microfinance Institutions</a>

Vigilance without End

&gt; Posted by Joshua Goldstein aka Mr. Provocative

In the seventh <a href="http://smartcampaign.org/about/smart-microfinance-and-the-client-protection-principles">Client Protection Principle</a>, the Smart Campaign lays out the way that financial services providers should handle complaints: 1) Effective client feedback mechanisms are in place; 2) Clients are aware of how to submit complaints and do so as needed; and, 3) Complaints are handled promptly and adequately.

Seems easy and straightforward enough. But making this process truly client friendly is truly a daunting challenge. On the “demand side,” poor customers may feel ill-equipped to pose questions to company representatives who come from a different class, caste, or ethnicity. The Smart Campaign’s <a href="http://smartcampaign.org/tools-a-resources/1075">Client Voice</a> research found as much in both Asian and African markets. It may be psychologically next to impossible—even in the most client friendly institution.

And if the psychological issue is not an obstacle, the technical and procedural challenges may be opaque enough to lead to failure anyway.

Even educated and savvy consumers can get lost in the complex maze of call center options delivered by that hideously cheerful computer voice - you know the one. “Lower touch” often means “no touch.” And even if a well-meaning customer service representative finally answers the phone and tries to help, he or she may be just a cog in a far flung system – unable to get the needed answers.

I experienced this maddening complexity first hand when I joined a new health plan with a “cost saving” mail order prescription plan. A common medication that cost $75 for a three month supply under my old plan cost $600 under my new plan, or more than seven times as much, according to the health plan website.

“It has to be a mistake, right?”, I said to the call center representative after a long time on hold. When you actually reach a human being, there is almost a kind of species recognition–the excitement of speaking to a fellow human. You want to hug them over the phone.

“Well, no, sir, I looked at your plan again, and that is what it says.”He was truly sorry. I could hear it in his voice. Sympathy among members of the family of the great apes.

Now what? I was not going to take this lying down. Not a master of the universe like me with a litigator’s zeal for combat. I would get the system to see that something had gone out of whack.

The drug plan rep advised me to take up my complaint with the health plan of which the mail order prescription company is a mere subcontractor. The health plan set the rates for the medication, not them. This shuffling between companies also arises in digital financial services, when banks, telcos and third party agents are all involved in a digital transaction and it is hard to determine who is responsible to solve which problem.

When I called the health plan the next day a representative answered within just a few seconds. He was sympathetic, and agreed that this seemed very strange.“I’m gonna put you on hold for a few minutes and get this sorted out,” he assured me. So far, so good.

When he came back on the phone a few minutes later, he said that the price was correct: this was the price the health plan charged for this particular medicine. No mistake. He was sorry but that was the way it was.

At this point, my anxiety was ramping up. Hyperventilation and out of control cortisol levels were surely next. “Oh come on. This is crazy. You can’t do anything? Ok, then who can do something?”

“You can appeal. You need to have your physician send a letter to our review board.”

“And where is that located?”

He wasn’t sure. He thought Salt Lake City. But all the necessary instructions to initiate an appeal could be found on their website.

Don’t panic, I said to myself, panicking. Do I just somehow absorb this extra cost? I had been told by my employer a couple of months before that my new plan’s benefits virtually matched the old benefits with only minor differences. Was this price discrepancy considered a minor difference? Didn’t seem minor to my wallet.

I found information on the website about how to file the appeal. And I contacted my physician’s office and had them “do the paper work.”

Weeks went by and I heard nothing. At this point I reluctantly decided it was time to bother someone from my employer’s human resources department to see if they could expedite things. By this time I was nearly running out of pills. She was great, immediately calling her contact with the health plan. She couldn’t have been more sympathetic or determined to help.

I had a warm feeling inside. Finally, I was on the right track.

Another couple of weeks passed with no response. So she called again and the rep said the appeal was still going on in the Salt Lake City office or wherever it was. Though she didn’t really know, and in any case, there was nothing she could do. It was up to me to get in touch with them directly. “Up to me? Up to me?” I was fuming. What kind of nonsense was this? My HR colleague agreed and promised to put the pressure on. We were not a negligible account and should have some clout.

By then only a couple of pills were left. So should I just pay $600 and get the meds? No. I was going to keep fighting even if my cholesterol (the reason for the pills) was going to spike. This had to have a just resolution. I believed that if I paid I would have no leverage to pursue the fight further. I would have been exhausted into acquiescence. But social justice fighters like me don’t give up on righteous causes easily, especially when it costs us more than $2,000 a year.

In a week my HR friend emailed me sorrowfully to say my appeal in Salt Lake City had been turned down. By now I was in a cardiac red zone, the ticker revving out of control. And I repeated my cri de coeur that by now she had heard ad nauseam about how outrageous this was. But she promised to figure out how to appeal the appeal.

Suddenly, on a day like any other day, the unexpected happened: my HR colleague emailed me that health care account managers urgently needed to speak with me. Something was up. Had the tariff gone even higher because of my complaining?

When I called the health plan not one but two representatives got on the line. People with names, yes names—both first and last. They began by apologizing and continued to apologize throughout the call. It turned out that there was a “coding error,” made no doubt in another far flung office, which had put my common generic drug in the “highest tier.” Clearly, up to this point, no human in the appeals process had ever checked the amount the computer spat out as the price. Not the call representatives, the doctors, the account executives.  Not anyone. Computer says, hominid do.

“What can we do to make this up to you? Our company puts our clients first. We are very embarrassed.” The “touch” that had been almost no touch couldn’t have been higher now.

I said something like make sure that you correct your processes so nothing like this happens to anyone else. That is the way you can thank me.

Even an arrogant, Ivy-educated SOB like me was brought to his sobbing knees by this ordeal. Most people would have in resignation submitted to the system long before I did. They would have assumed they were wrong. They might have seen it through the lens of fatalism.

Low income financial services clients don’t have a chance when a system goes as wrong as it did in my case. So setting up a complaint mechanism, as well intended as it is, may not be nearly enough. Say one of our poor customers overpays a loan due to a “coding error” made by some back office operator hitting the wrong key. What happens if this customer calls the complaint hotline? Will they get anywhere? Imagine encountering such a problem with the first financial institution you’ve ever used, and not having a formal education or an employer with business clout.

Big data, big systems, and poor human oversight make it all but impossible for everyone but the most privileged to have a fighting chance to redress their grievances. It is a terrible problem that is only getting worse.

Postscript:

Following this episode, the beleaguered health plan did a thorough review. It turned out that “coding errors” had infected a number of my claims and indeed the claims of some of my colleagues. I recently got a check in the mail for more than $100 for overpayments I hadn’t even known about, let alone challenged. I will let this speak for itself.

Editor: I think Josh feels that vindication is very sweet.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/11/12/why-does-consumer-protection-lag-in-africa/">Why Does Consumer Protection Lag in Africa</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/10/08/why-we-gave-consumer-protection-a-5/">Why We Gave Consumer Protection a 5</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/11/09/what-do-clients-care-about-results-from-research-in-pakistan/">What Do Clients Care About? Results from Research in Pakistan</a>

My Weeks in Customer Service Hell

&gt; Posted by Joshua Goldstein aka Mr. Provocative

[getty src="185088551?et=ldyBLnM0QgxhA9mADfOBvw&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=fdEJ5DBfqou8JnBsQD1y_AYpgCs4tO0qIcik9rfwzRI=" width="487" height="352"]

Today, in 2070, with advanced robotization of jobs in all sectors, “work” has become a minority pursuit and financial inclusion is mostly understood to mean government cash transfers. Other financial products like loans are anachronisms of a bygone era. The government knows that such transfer programs like “unemployment benefits” are the only way to keep the anemic engine of demand alive for the goods and services that are now produced by a smaller and smaller sliver of the population who live in Byzantine splendor far removed from the humdrum circumstances of the vast majority. (Indeed in 2070, “unemployment” is a forgotten term from an era when “work” was a defining feature of life.) And the lack of work extends to what is today called “knowledge economy” occupations as well as almost every other category of white and blue collar work. Now, all humans enjoy a pension plan that goes into effect at birth and is more than enough to meet basic consumption needs. The benefit ends only with death by lethal injection at the mandatory termination age of 120.

Am I painting a scenario that seems wildly implausible? Perhaps.

But look where we are today, 55 years away from 2070. In Martin Ford’s new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Robots-Technology-Threat-Jobless/dp/1480574775">Rise of the Robots</a>, he proposes a guaranteed minimum income, anticipating a reduction in availability of employment. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/books/review/rise-of-the-robots-and-shadow-work.html?_r=0">New York Times’ review</a> of his book, she says that even “tasks that would seem to require a distinctively human capacity for nuance are increasingly assigned to algorithms, like the ones currently being introduced to grade essays on college exams… Wired magazine quotes an expert’s prediction that within about a decade 90 percent of news articles will be computer-­generated.” Or this, from a front page headline in the May 15 edition of The Washington Post, “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/new-machine-could-one-day-replace-anesthesiologists/2015/05/11/92e8a42c-f424-11e4-b2f3-af5479e6bbdd_story.html">New Machine Could One Day Replace Anesthesiologists</a>.” The job scarcity of the future is already beginning to appear.

Ehrenreich writes that right now many highly educated young adults are in work limbo for years, going from temp job to temp job, with a secure future a fanciful dream. And we are not talking about those with no college degrees. Why? Because many companies decided that "'ever-advancing information technology' allows them to operate successfully without rehiring the people they had laid off. And there should be no doubt that technology is advancing in the direction of full unemployment." Yes, full unemployment.

For more evidence of this likely trend, here is some sobering evidence from The New York Times’ excellent columnist Eduardo Porter, who chronicles the decline of wages in the U.S. in recent times. “Government transfers,” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/business/big-mac-test-shows-job-market-is-not-working-to-distribute-wealth.html">he writes</a>, “have become a bigger source of income for working families in many industrialized nations, as earnings from the labor market have slowed. …In Canada, for example, labor market earnings for the bottom fourth of the income ladder grew by roughly $25 a year between 1979 and 2007. Government transfers increased by $78. For Canadian households one rung higher — between the 25th and the 50th percent of the earnings distribution — there were no increases in labor market compensation. All gains came from the government.”

So when I say that the most important pillar of financial inclusion in the future may be cash transfers, I am not exaggerating.

If we fast forward to 2070, what kind of world will we be living in? Freud once said that human fulfillment rested on satisfaction in two domains: love and work. For many of our descendants, the work component may be absent.

I believe that the time is now to enter into a global conversation on the meaning of a jobless future for humanity. Should we put legal limits on certain job eliminating technologies? For example, should we ban Google’s driverless cars to protect the jobs of millions of taxi drivers, truck drivers, and chauffeurs around the world?

The standard wisdom of economists for the last few centuries has been that the innovative whirlwind of capitalism leads to disruption of old industries and the jobs that characterize them, and that while this causes temporary hardship, ultimately these very same innovations lead to a new class of jobs and greater overall wealth and productivity. There is much truth to this.

But I do think it may be different with this job eviscerating disruption, and we rest comfortably in the received wisdom at our own peril.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/08/19/two-possible-futures-for-persons-with-disabilities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Two Possible Futures for Persons With Disabilities</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/05/04/the-missing-men-in-international-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Missing Men in International Development</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2012/08/30/equal-pay-for-equal-work-are-mfis-paying-women-employees-the-same-as-men/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Equal Pay for Equal Work: Are MFIs Paying Women Employees the Same as Men?</a>

Financial Inclusion 2070

&gt; Posted by Joshua Goldstein aka Mr. Provocative

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gatesfoundation/5098141100/"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-18096" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5098141100_116e7d448b_o.jpg" alt="" width="611" height="344" /></a>In The New York Times last week was a story of loss and despair titled “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/20/upshot/missing-black-men.html?_r=0&amp;abt=0002&amp;abg=0">1.5 Million Missing Black Men</a>”. It stated: “One out of every six black men, who today should be between 25 and 54 years old, have disappeared from daily life.” Where are these men? What does this mean to the women in their communities? The answer to the first question is that they often die early or are living out much of their lives behind bars. And the answer to the second question is equally tragic and heartbreaking: In many ravaged communities, there are not enough men to be fathers and husbands. In our republic, this reality of the missing men is a profound challenge to our values, our democracy, and our future as a nation. I think there is a consensus on that.

So, you ask me: What does this terrible set of facts about an American tragedy have to do with microfinance and international development? In my opinion, an awful lot. As policy makers and practitioners, it often seems that men have disappeared from our “interventions” and work plans. Resources are focused on empowering poor women, who will work hard and take care of the children (half of whom are boys), while the men are scoundrels or losers who cannot be counted on when it comes to the family’s well-being. Why prioritize men in poverty reduction strategies? Why waste resources on this failed sex?

Does this sound harsh? I hope so. I have been to enough conferences around the world, from <a href="http://skollworldforum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Skoll</a> to the <a href="http://www.microcreditsummit.org/">Microcredit Summit</a>, where poor men are missing from the conversation. And there is no urgent action plan being developed to counter this. Why? The pariah sex is treated as forsaken and unredeemable. This affects the next generation, too. As the fathers are written off, so will the sons be if this paradigm is perpetuated.

I believe international development professionals need to take up the challenge to return men to their families to be productive co-breadwinners. Not to empower these missing men is to condemn the poor woman in their lives to have to do absolutely everything for their families, from making all the money to changing all the diapers. Is that right or fair? In the U.S. and Europe, it is taken for granted today that men should shoulder more of the burden of raising a family—not less—in addition to working full time!  Women demand it. And men, to a great extent, have begun to comply. But when it comes to the “Global South” such expectations are not even part of the conversation.

In the U.S., as a response to the degraded and futile existence of too many African American boys and young men, the President has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/02/27/my-brother-s-keeper-new-white-house-initiative-empower-boys-and-young-men-color">announced</a> a bold new initiative called My Brother’s Keeper, “to help break down barriers, clear pathways to opportunity, and reverse troubling trends which show too many of our boys and young men of color slipping through the cracks in our society."

In my view, we should launch a campaign beginning today to push international development professionals to do more to take the Global South’s “second sex” more seriously. Of course it is a challenging proposition! But hope for a better world is in ruins if half of humanity is written off from the get go.

Photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gatesfoundation/5098141100/">Gates Foundation</a>

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/01/22/vulnerable-minorities-theres-an-elephant-in-this-room/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vulnerable Minorities: There's an Elephant in This Room</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/05/06/impact-study-needed-do-microfinance-conferences-help-the-poor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Impact Study Needed: Do Microfinance Conferences Help the Poor?</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/12/20/adding-gender-to-the-microfinance-bottom-line/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adding Gender to the Microfinance Bottom Line</a>

The Missing Men in International Development

&gt; Posted by Joshua Goldstein aka Mr. Provocative

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Last week some Democrats blasted conservative U.S. Senator Rand Paul for <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/14/politics/rand-paul-disability/index.html">saying</a> that many people who receive Social Security disability benefits are gaming the system. "What I tell people is, if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldn't be getting a disability check. Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts -- join the club," he said, drawing a few laughs from the audience. "Who doesn't get a little anxious for work every day and their back hurts? Everybody over 40 has back pain."

Hyperbolic and a little mean. Okay, a lot mean. And Rand Paul’s opposition to the Senate’s ratification of the <a href="http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml">Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities</a> is an outrage, but we should not overlook that on this issue of fraud and waste in the Social Security disability system, there is a lot of truth to what he says – and the system is in need of reform.

In my view he is making a very legitimate point about an important government benefits system that some experts believe is veering dangerously close to bankruptcy. Less than one percent of those who collect disability benefits ever go back to work. This strains credibility and puts the program’s long-term solvency at risk. One telling example: as unemployment benefits run out during a serious economic downturn, it is not uncommon to see a spike in disability claims. Put simply, people who could work but don’t have work escape to the shelter of another government program to pay their bills. This is wrong. And it is a problem for all of us, not least for persons with serious disabilities who really can’t work and who even Paul agrees, a just society is duty bound to support.

The U.S. experience (and as I understand it the Canadian experience as well) should serve as a warning to lower-income countries that are in the early stages of designing social welfare systems to cover citizens with disabilities. It is imperative for them to ensure that in their systems, going back to work is not inadvertently disincentivized.

And it simply defies plausibility that so few people are able to go back to work. The kind and reasonable explanation for this is that many people with disabilities want to seek work at times when their condition has moderated, but fear that earned income or savings will be held against them if they fall back into a more compromised state and seek to collect benefits again. These fears need to be allayed.

At the same time, this understandable rationale explains away only some of the long-term collectors of disability benefits. Another explanation points to less attractive aspects of human character that affect the disabled and the abled alike. Let me explain.

In my work as a disability rights advocate, I try to avoid the unfortunate tendency to idealize (or overstate the virtue and character of) the persons I lobby for - a dangerous occupational hazard for those with a righteous cause. Moving away from a charity, pity based model to a human rights model means to recognize the full spectrum of humanity of the person with disability: the capacity for industry and goodness as well as the capacity for sloth and evil. It cannot be emphasized enough that membership in a vulnerable minority (whether gay, woman, a person with a disability, etc.) whose group has suffered from ongoing discrimination, does not automatically endow a person with virtue or offer a special dispensation for a lack of achievement. Clearly some opportunists take cover and comfort in an aggrieved group identity to avoid owning up to their own personal failings. And some of the best-intentioned advocates go along with this canard.

That is why at the Center for Financial Inclusion we argue for equal opportunity in receiving financial services, not special preference. Just because one happens to be a member of a vulnerable minority doesn’t mean that person has an inherent “right” to receive a loan or another financial product.

Indeed, we make it clear to disability organizations we collaborate with that the person who has a disability has to meet the common criteria and standards that all clients are held to and is not granted or denied a loan as a “representative” of a minority but as an individual who happens to be creditworthy. Period.

In my view, many activists do their best to blur the distinction between the individual and the “class” or “special interest group” that a person may belong to. This does a grave disservice to those members of said group who simply want their equality and human rights to be honored.

Sometimes the obvious needs repetition: there are people in the U.S., Ghana, Paraguay, etc. who happen to have a disability (or who are a woman, or gay, etc.) who are also liars and lazy, and they should be held accountable as citizens regardless of their identification with a group that may have suffered historic discrimination.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/01/13/a-how-to-guide-to-realizing-disability-inclusion-at-mfis-is-now-available/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A How-To Guide to Realizing Disability Inclusion at MFIs is Now Available</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/08/19/two-possible-futures-for-persons-with-disabilities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Two Possible Futures for Persons With Disabilities</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/05/28/attitudes-toward-persons-with-disabilities-in-indian-microfinance-institutions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Attitudes toward Persons With Disabilities in Indian Microfinance Institutions</a>

On Disability Benefits, Rand Paul Has a Point

&gt; Posted by Joshua Goldstein aka Mr. Provocative

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Since October, more than 52,000 unaccompanied children, mostly from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have illegally entered the United States, mostly through the Rio Grande Valley. Until the justice system processes their cases, they’re being held in miserably overcrowded border detention centers, military bases, and other facilities in Texas and elsewhere.

All kinds of reasons are given for this exodus - gang violence, lack of economic opportunity, the perception that under a “liberal president” amnesty will be granted. The policy wonks and talking heads can debate the causes of this humanitarian crisis and assign blame to their hearts' content. And of course, we have to “study” the situation and make sure that if we allow some of these frightened minors to join family members in the United States, this doesn’t incentivize other youth to risk life and limb to set off on a dangerous journey from their homelands to reach the United States.

But come on pundits, these are children, scared, vulnerable children, some just a few years old. And whatever the proximate cause of their departure from their countries like violence or poverty, the destination for most of these children is usually pretty clear: loved ones, whom they miss. Many of these absentee parents/guardians had left their children behind years before and migrated legally or illegally to the United States and have been sending back remittances ever since.

The current crisis reminded me of my 2008 Mr. Provocative blog post about a fantastic book called Enrique’s Journey, which looks at the dark side of the explosive growth of remittance provision, resulting from separated families. The book helps get us into the hearts and minds of some of these children, who then, as today, are driven by a simple and powerful emotional mandate: they want to be with their mothers. Titled “<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2008/11/04/microfinance-keeps-families-together-the-sorrow-behind-the-explosion-in-remittances/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Microfinance keeps families together: The sorrow behind the explosion in remittances</a>,” here’s my post on the ever-pertinent Enrique’s Journey.

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-15518" src="http://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/enriques-journey.jpg" alt="" width="156" height="238" />The explosion of remittance transfers from people who have migrated to developed countries to their poor relatives back home has led to new wealth creation and a better standard of living for many. And this is, on the face of it, very positive.

But I believe that there is a particular sorrow behind a considerable percentage of remittances that demands greater scrutiny and perhaps some kind of remedial action. The transfer of money is often made by families living under the great stress of separation—such as an absent mother supporting the small children she has left behind—an abandonment from which some never recover.

<a href="http://www.enriquesjourney.com/" target="Blank">Enrique’s Journey</a>, (2006) by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sonia Mazarin, is the harrowing story of a teenage Honduran boy who embarks on a dangerous journey, riding the tops of freight trains, to reach the United States in search of his mother Lourdes, whom he has not seen since he was five years old. He is, says Mazarin, one of an estimated 35,000 migrant children each year who sneak into the United States (many others are turned away at the border) with the dream of reuniting with a mother they hardly remember.

Like countless other impoverished, single mothers, Lourdes left Honduras for the United States with the best interests of Enrique in mind. Hers is an agonizing decision, driven by economic necessity and the dream of a better future. Lourdes does find work, remits money regularly, and within a year or two plans to return to Honduras. But that last, critical piece of her plan is not possible.

As a five-year-old, all Enrique understood was that his mother had abandoned him. His loss ultimately drives him to risk everything and head north to find her. But, after years of separation, the kind of perfect bonding he longs for with his mother is not achievable, leaving him bitter and confused.

When impact studies are done about the value of remittances, it is inevitable that proxies for success like school attendance and increased consumption are used. And that makes sense. But poor people are as psychologically complex as the rest of us, and increased material well-being afforded by remittances may be counteracted by the profound social dislocation and loss that children like Enrique suffer. (And what good is school attendance if a child cannot concentrate anyway?) As a first step, a public health campaign to educate migrant mothers about how best to communicate with the children they have left behind, in order to minimize the psychological damage, would be well advised.

Transfers of money are no substitute for the daily reassurance of parental love that allows children to flourish, and that means doing more to keep families together. Microfinance institutions focus on serving people where they are. Made explicit in the mission statements of microfinance institutions might be something like the following: Working capital loans to the self-employed poor sector make it possible for mothers and fathers to stay with their children.This is a very impressive achievement of the microfinance revolution that, in my opinion, should be highlighted more and is surely an impact that we should design studies to measure. It certainly is another powerful argument for exponentially expanding the reach of microfinance.

Reading recommendation: Readers of this blog might also be interested in Edwige Danticat’s memoir, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Im-Dying-Edwidge-Danticat/dp/1400041155" target="Blank">Brother I’m Dying</a>, which is filled with poignant passages about separation, loss, and the role of remittances in the lives of the Haitian poor.

Image credit: <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/immigrants-who-have-been-caught-crossing-the-border-news-photo/452198062" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pool/ Getty Images</a>

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2011/02/01/remittances-a-key-driver-of-economic-reform-in-cuba/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cuba &amp; Remittances: Can the 'Money in the Mail' Drive Reform?</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/04/18/unexpected-benefits-of-mobile-money/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beyond On-Ramps and Uptake: Exploring Surprising Benefits of Mobile Money </a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/10/18/mobile-money-domestic-remittances-innovations-in-savings-top-picks-of-the-microfinance-blogosphere/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mobile Money, Domestic Remittances, Innovations in Savings - Top Picks of the Microfinance Blogosphere</a>

In Light of the U.S. Border Crisis, Revisiting ‘Enrique’s Journey’

&gt; Posted by Joshua Goldstein aka Mr. Provocative

There is unfortunately no reliable substitute for family support when it comes to helping a person succeed with their schooling, with their disability, or with their microfinance loan.

Thomas Friedman of The New York Times recently <a href="http://blogs.wgbh.org/on-campus/2014/5/4/interview-college-heading-huge-disruption/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> educators in Shanghai what made Chinese schools successful, compared to schools in the United States. The unequivocal answer was that while improved teacher training that the U.S. emphasizes was of course important, far and away the key to student achievement was intensive parental involvement; Chinese schools spend time and resources insuring that parents are trained in how to help their children learn.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKKpjvPd6Xo?rel=0&amp;w=580&amp;h=326]

A heretical Mr. Provocative agrees with conservatives that throwing billions into the latest education reform fad will have extremely limited success as long as family support is anemic or absent. (This is not to say that reformers don’t routinely ask parents to take more responsibility but clearly such a nudge is not enough.) “It’s the parents, stupid,” or, “It’s the family, stupid.”

We have to point at the family as the prime mover even when this is hurtful and it causes “guilt and shame.” Nothing wrong with pricking the conscience. This is a “theory of change” that is millennia old and has long had some success for most religions—in a positive way. But public policy cognoscenti shun the language of judgment and conscience. In not asking more of families are we not party to what George W. Bush called “the bigotry of low expectations?”

My “it’s the family, stupid” sentiment has been reinforced by listening to a recent <a href="http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Navigating-Deafness-On-The-Way;search%3Atag%3A%22ep1308%22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ted Talk</a> by Stanford graduate and Rhodes Scholar, Rachel Kolb, who was born profoundly deaf.

Rachel has managed remarkable success in navigating the hearing world, a sadly rare feat for someone from the deaf community. She credits her parents for her achievements and happiness. They never told her she couldn’t do something. They concentrated on her abilities not disabilities and did whatever it took to help Rachel pursue her education and dreams. One example: Young Rachel loved horses, but was told at the stable that a deaf child could never be safe on a horse. Her parents found a trainer who did not buy into this nonsense.

Rachel’s parents learned sign language when she was an infant so that they could better communicate with her. Later, they provided her with years of intensive speech therapy that made it possible for her to deliver this incredibly articulate Ted Talk. In a world where most deaf Americans read at a fourth grade level, and only a third of deaf children complete high school, Rachel, who has steeped herself in literature from a young age, is planning on becoming a writer.

The point is that without family support, Rachel would live a marginalized life with few opportunities to become herself. And among persons with disabilities who are clients of microfinance institutions, my anecdotal research, visiting MFIs around the world, tells me that the family is the guarantor of success, the most reliable collateral.

Such families help the relative with a disability realize the dream of building a business. So if, for example, a young woman in a wheel chair takes out a loan to buy a bread oven, she will do the baking at home and a relative will take the loaves to market and sell them. The individual loan empowers the economic activity of at least two people in a household! A caretaker and a dependent have morphed into business partners. I would guess that many individual microfinance loans to the non-disabled are de facto family loans, but I have no statistics to back that up.

So what frequently happens to the poor, disabled person who lacks family support and encouragement ---as well as a disability friendly financial services provider? (And that is the vast majority, since only 0.5 percent of current clients of MFIs are persons with disabilities.) Her fate is similar to the school child who is not encouraged by her family---but far more hellish. Out of embarrassment families hide her away, deprive her of stimulation, and condemn her to a kind of solitary confinement, stunting her growth for good.

The moral of the story: We all need the love and support of others, especially our families, to flourish in our lives. At home, at school, at work. There is no such thing as a “self-made” human.
Video credit: <a style="color: #4e87a0" href="http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Navigating-Deafness-On-The-Way;search%3Atag%3A%22ep1308%22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TEDx</a>
Have you read?
<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/01/13/a-how-to-guide-to-realizing-disability-inclusion-at-mfis-is-now-available/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A How-To Guide to Realizing Disability Inclusion at MFIs is Now Available</a>
<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/10/22/combatting-exclusion-for-persons-with-disabilities-in-india-and-mexico/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Combatting Exclusion for Persons with Disabilities in India and Mexico</a>
<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/05/15/coping-with-clients-suffering-from-cognitive-deficits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coping with Clients Suffering from Cognitive Deficits</a>
&nbsp;

There is No Such Thing as a Self-Made Human

&gt; Posted by Joshua Goldstein aka Mr. Provocative
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It is time for an impact study on the value of so many microfinance conferences. What drives and sustains this cottage industry, rife with redundancy, terrible for the carbon footprint, a wound to a poor NGO’s bottom line, and arguably a poor use of staff time, especially when said staff is in charge of putting the conference together?

Yes, I know the arguments for attending and/or putting on conferences: networking with newbies and golden oldies; sharing interesting, even industry disruptive ideas; exploring or deepening partnerships with other kin; raising the visibility of the industry through the media that finally this time will give microfinance the coverage it deserves.

And ABOVE ALL, may the gods be merciful, connecting us with the funders to insure the NGO’s future in perpetuity—or at least until the end of the calendar year.

All these are valid and honorable reasons to attend—in moderation.

As for me, I am a guilty regular at the parties among other guilty regulars, who I am quite sure may harbor some of the same doubts about the number of annual microfinance extravaganzas on the docket that I do—all conferences claiming to be the one indispensable conference that no one can afford to miss. Like me, they surely reflect on how the bucks spent on air fare, four star hotels, lavish meals, and other extravagances could be used directly to relieve a thousand human beings suffering in poverty somewhere with a direct cash transfer. And instead are being used to cosset us like the poverty royals that we are.

I have two or three ideas why this conference monster has grown exponentially. They run the gamut from the venal to the heart-rending. The venal reason is that in many organizations status is somehow conferred by keynote speeches, appearances on panels, and even report backs on attendance. Come on, we know there is some truth to that.

The heart-rending reason that we attend so many conferences? To overcome the doubts and insecurity that we feel about the value of our work. A warm hug, a photo, and some inspiring words from Muhammad Yunus or Michael Chu (choose your own guru) reassures us that there is meaning to our work. Then we ride on the updraft of this good feeling until the next conference, when we are reassured of our virtue and significance again. Thankfully, we only have to wait a few weeks at most for the next hug.

So what can be done to convince the powers that be to reduce the number of annual conferences from 200 to, say, 100? Well, to start would be to develop a set of metrics to justify or gainsay the value of a multitude of conferences. Right? Everyone in microfinance pines for metrics these days. No?

So how about going for the gold – a randomized control trial (RCT) to study the benefit of attending a conference. The control group would be randomly assigned to stay in their cubicles or continue their work in the field. The conference goers would be evaluated on such criteria as number of new funders obtained, new ideas incorporated in work plans, and ultimately, how they have gone on to change the world.

Such a study would cost some money, sure, but if all of us high rollers in the industry cancelled just one of our yearly conference rendezvous, that would pay for the study in no time. And if the data proved that cancelling or consolidating conferences led to productivity gains and reduced costs, millions and millions would be saved.

Anyway, for all of us travel addicts, no need to worry in the short-term that our lifestyle will get snipped: the RCT will probably take years.
Image credit: <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/microphone-and-audience-royalty-free-image/157402110" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lebazele/Getty Images</a>
Have you read?
<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/04/30/exploring-unexpected-connections-at-the-skoll-world-forum/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Exploring Unexpected Connections at the Skoll World Forum</a>
<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/08/19/two-possible-futures-for-persons-with-disabilities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Two Possible Futures for Persons With Disabilities</a>
<a style="color: #4e87a0" href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/02/12/the-difficult-crawl-towards-non-discrimination-financial-and-otherwise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Difficult Crawl Towards Non-Discrimination – Financial and Otherwise</a>

Impact Study Needed: Do Microfinance Conferences Help the Poor?

&gt; Posted by Josh Goldstein aka Mr. Provocative

<a href="http://www.victorialabalme.com/communication_and_presentation_skills/?p=436" target="_blank" rel="attachment noopener wp-att-9845"><img class="alignright wp-image-9845" style="border: 0" src="http://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/lady-justice-propertymanager-com_.jpg" alt="" width="330" /></a>The painful crawl toward full inclusion of all citizens in all realms of activity is one of the major storylines in American history. It is a key measure of the success of our democratic experiment that we, the people of the 21st century, continue to work with uneven success to perfect our society. How far we have come from the republic of our 18th century founders when only white male property owners enjoyed the privileges of full citizenship! But the advances toward equal rights and opportunities for women, African Americans, gays, persons with disabilities, and other minorities have come through the hard work over many generations of devoted citizen activists fighting for their causes and constituencies.

The point is that rights are not obtained by one Presidential decree, like the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in Confederate territory, or one legal remedy, like the <a href="http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=63" target="_blank" rel="noopener">19th Amendment</a> to the United States Constitution that enshrined women’s right to vote. These were essential milestones that secured progress, but they were preceded by decades of struggle and would have proven ephemeral if the generations that followed had not persisted in that struggle. There were many setbacks and detours along the way. Nothing was automatic or achieved without extraordinary persistence and sacrifice.

In pursuing financial inclusion, the Center for Financial Inclusion works toward this ideal of non-discrimination, with a special emphasis on economic equality and opportunity for poor people around the world. Nowhere is this more pointed than in the “<a href="http://smartcampaign.org/tools-a-resources/548" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Responsible Treatment of Clients</a>” principle, one of the Smart Campaign’s <a href="http://www.smartcampaign.org/about-the-campaign/smart-microfinance-and-the-client-protection-principles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Client Protection Principles</a> for customers of financial institutions.

The Responsible Treatment of Clients principle declares that financial institutions will not “discriminate.” And in the accompanying <a href="http://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/20120301_sc_responsible-treatment-of-clients-practicing-non-discrimination.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guidance document</a> it elaborates as follows: “Client selection and treatment should not involve discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, political affiliation, disability, religion or orientation. Non-discriminatory treatment is important for providing access to financial services to all clients who can use them and builds their confidence in the fairness of the provider.” And the newly promulgated <a href="http://smartcampaign.org/certification/certification-standards" target="_blank" rel="noopener">certification standards</a> will require compliance to this core principle if certification is to be granted.

Here is what worries me: Requiring immediate compliance with this noble non-discrimination principle may be unrealistic. The principle is ahistorical and non-contextual. It implies a global consensus on rights and assumes a universality that does not exist. Tolerance, let alone acceptance of homosexuality, just to name one example, is not a given in most countries. Far from it – as we know perfectly well to this day in the United States.

The principle may be at odds with a particular country’s local history, time-honored mores and folkways. When I look at how long it has taken, and continues to take the United States (more than 200 years) to come into imperfect compliance with the very principles upon which it was founded, I believe we need to be patient and tactful in asking for immediate compliance from financial institutions in other nations that have different founding premises. This is both unrealistic and unfair and could have the unintended consequence of provoking a fierce reaction and setting back the cause of equality.

At the same time, gently pushing institutions towards non-discrimination and equal opportunity should continue. The ideals enshrined in the Client Protection Principles are worth fighting for. But the principles must have enough built-in flexibility to take account of local realities. The certification teams will have to find ways to strike the right balance and should be prepared for the complexity of the task. The crawl towards inclusion is not a straight line.

Great change does not happen overnight.

Image credit: <a href="http://www.victorialabalme.com/communication_and_presentation_skills/?p=436" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Victoria Labalme / Property Manager</a><a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/11858/9780821396346.pdf?sequence=5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
</a>

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/01/28/microfinance-ceos-smart-campaign-certification-is-a-clear-step-toward-responsible-microfinance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Microfinance CEOs: Smart Campaign is a "Clear Step" Toward Responsible Microfinance</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/01/22/vulnerable-minorities-theres-an-elephant-in-this-room/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vulnerable Minorities: There's an Elephant in This Room</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2012/08/30/equal-pay-for-equal-work-are-mfis-paying-women-employees-the-same-as-men/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Equal Pay for Equal Work: Are MFIs Paying Women Employees the Same as Men?</a>

The Difficult Crawl Towards Non-Discrimination - Financial and Otherwise

Josh Goldstein

Peru

Guatemala

Canada

El Salvador

Honduras

China

Colombia

Dominican Republic

Ghana

India

Mexico

Nigeria

Paraguay

Tanzania

United States

Zambia

Persons With Disabilities

Complaint Resolution

Consumer Protection

Payments

Women

Remittances

Aging and Older Adults

Financial Capability

Financial Inclusion Strategy

Fintechs

Housing Finance

Impact Investing

Microfinance

Risk Management

Saving

Social Performance

Youth

Smart Certification

Blog Post

Mr. Provocative

China’s economy has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, with a booming micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) market. There are over 50 million MSMEs in China that collectively account for over 60% of China’s GDP and over 50% of the government’s tax income. These businesses create 80% of total employment in China’s urban areas.

Despite China’s overall economic growth, the need to foster full financial inclusion is still imperative. In 2010, 38 million MSMEs lacked access to formal financial services, forcing them to borrow informally from friends, family, and moneylenders.

India is a global leader in financial inclusion. For over a decade, Accion has worked with and learned from India’s innovators, investors, and policymakers to expand economic opportunity for its people and businesses.

Most of Mexico’s people lack access to a formal bank account. Accion has worked in Mexico for decades to create a thriving and competitive financial sector that embraces innovation and protects its clients.

Though Nigeria’s government has set ambitious goals for financial inclusion, the majority of its people lack a formal bank account. Accion has worked in the country since 2007 to expand access to financial services.