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August 09, 2007
Suggested Reading about Dar es Salaam and microfinance
Hello Watsonblog readers!
Work is pretty hectic right now but I thought I should suggest some resources for those who might be interested in learning more about microfinance, Dar es Salaam or microfinance market research.
For a very thorough introduction, I would recommend The Economics of Microfinance by Beatrice Armendariz and Jonathan Morduch. It is kind of technical and reads like a textbook in places but definitely extremely informative and comprehensive.
For something a little easier, read Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Mohammad Yunus (founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh) and Nobel Peace Prize winner). It's a really fast read and chronicles the very foundations of microfinance from the founder himself.
About Dar-es-Salaam, Crisis, Urbanization, and Urban Poverty in Tanzania by Joe Lugalla gives you a pretty comprehensive explanation of the city's problems. It's kind of out-dated and really dry but one of the only books I have found exclusively about Dar-es-Salaam.
For books on urbanization in general, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend Planet of the Slums by Mike Davis. While it doesn't have that much to do with microfinance, it is one of my favorite books-it's extremely well-written and chronicles the numerous affects of urbanization in the developing world, citing examples from cities across the world.
Also, check out the UN Capital Development Fund Website (www.uncdf.org) for tons of information on microfinance. AND OF COURSE, most importantly, visit FINCA International's website www.villagebanking.org to learn more about the organization I am working with this summer.
Besides that, I have been busy finishing up the market research fieldwork and writing reports. More to come on research results in the near future.....
