Hi <I just re-read what I wrote below. It is not meant as an attack on people currently working in the field of micro-finance but rather a dissatisfaction with the underlying assumptions involved. It is part of a wider problem I see [1] with 'innovation' today> Business orientated strategies have the associated need for results and accountability and whilst such strategies are often implemented by organizations which are very professionally managed and transparent I am not convinced that they are the most appropriate solution we have. The proposition is that low-income countries typically suffer from a "missing middle" in which poor access to inputs leaves an economic gap in small and medium-sized enterprises. This missing middle can according to the theory best be created by providing capital to the large number of informal micro-enterprises. Whilst this 'middle' is definitely a problem it is not in our best interests (in my opinion) to try to solve it by basing our efforts on an economic model I believe is at best flawed (capital-intensive and growth-oriented) in which people are consumers, firms earn profits by defeating rivals and the goal is to maximize shareholder value by any legal means, and so on. I believe we should focus our efforts on a model based on relationship capital - on collaboration and repeated interactions and on care and maintenance. In this model risk can be shared and spread as communities pool both knowledge and access. The challenge for us then as software developers is to move beyond designing systems which collect 'proofs' about 'social impacts' to constructing a framework and the API's which enable this new relationship economy to flourish. [1] http://ianlawrence.info/random-stuff/where-are-the-things-we-were-promised -- http://ianlawrence.info