Wishing poverty out . . .
Madan Shahu studies the rise and growth of a microcredit institution
The story begins with a prologue and dramatic description: "On a hot, dry night, well after midnight, seven silent but exiled youngmen approached the single-storied building, and then stopped in its garden. Each knelt and touched the earth with one hand, holding the other to his breast. They made a pledge committing themselves to brotherhood and to a new form of organisation to fight rural poverty." The building was the RHD resthouse at Uthuli in Manikganj and the time, March 1978. Of the seven two were employees of BRAC, already a prominent NGO, one a government employee, another a local college teacher and three worked for CCDB, an international NGO. One of the latter three was Shafiqual Haque Choudhury, the acknowledged leader of the group. They were disappointed by the apparent failure of the new state to establish justice and progress. Their pledge was to develop an organisation from a rural base which would 'set off a process of rural change' to be matured into a national political force to hold the 'reins of power'. They actually dreamt of a countryside freed from the curse of poverty. This was virtually the birth of ASA, the association for social advancement, more than 30 years ago. But before talking about the stages of ASA's development over these 30 years, the author prefers to have glimpses of the relevant stages of history of some 300 years, perhaps to take the readers to the beginning. Well, everything we are in today had its beginning years, decades or centuries ago. So has the evolution of an organisation started with a vow to establish the rights of the poor -- social, political, economic -- some 30 years ago, and now continuing as a prominent microcredit provider to them. This part of the world now called Bangladesh has been inhabited mostly by poor and some rich people for thousands of years. Earlier they were subjects and king and king's men. The writer tends to hint at how the periods changed from Hindu to Buddhist to Muslim to British. Like many parts of the world this part also experienced invasion and influence which only caused some religious and cultural changes, but the poor remained as poor as before. But the exploited and the deprived always want to be freed to some affluence even if it is in their imaginations and dreams. Ultimately in the British period the peasants practically rose to a movement with demands in 1831 but were suppressed by the colonial rulers. But the activism did not die away. The peasants revolted against unjust taxation and exploitation time and again, although not much successfully, in the final years of British rule and during Pakistani domination. Here the author suggests that the peasant activism continued into modern times, reflected in ASA's earliest 'ideals'. These transitions have not been without political leadership, and the author tends to mention such names as AK Fazlul Haq, Moulana Bhashani and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, all very much linked with peasants' rights, peasants' movement and birth of Bangladesh, respectively. Stuart Rutherford, a Briton, lived and worked in Bangladesh for quite a considerable period for and with the poor. In the process he gained first hand experience of how the poor live and of their livelihoods. He himself found an organisation that provides basic banking services to the poor. His own involvement in microfinance as a practitioner gives him a background and perspective of authentic writing on the subject. He astutely describes ASA's transition from an organisation primarily aimed at mobilising the poor towards realising their rights to ultimately a financial institution helping the poor gain strength for overcoming their plight. Shafiqual Haque Chowdhury, ASA's conceptual and organisational leader, has been an admirer of Moulana Bhashani who particularly reflected a socialist approach in his mass movement. While launching ASA with some fellow radicals, Shafiqual Haque Choudhury might have thought of a similar movement for the have-nots, because approaches otherwise, including the cooperatives, have virtually failed to emancipate the have-nots from economic exploitation. Meanwhile, Prof. Muhammad Yunus' concept of microcredit was making strides among the poor under the nomenclature 'Grameen Bank'. And in the mid to late eighties ASA was also in transition. By late 1980's ASA's antipathy to credit was gone and the organisation was ready to extend it itself. Within the period Shafiqual Haque Choudhury's ASA had moved from the path of confrontation with the powers-that-be to the plinth of empowerment of the poor. Now it is the story of the organisation's gaining ground in the field of microcredit, its chief operative's innovative approach in providing credit to more members at lesser cost, keeping it attractive with some facilities attached. It's a success story of ASA fast expanding as a microcredit institution, gradually discarding donors' aid and building own capital, erecting its own 15-storey office building in Dhaka, introducing bigger (small enterprise) loans to members and their insurance, extending technical assistance (in microcredit) beyond the country as well as establishing partnership with foreign financial institutions (ASA international) and its rating as a top microfinance institution by international publication (Forbes magazine) despite Grameen's winning a Nobel Prize. ASA now looks up to an international image. ASA opened a joint fund with Sequoia of the Netherlands in late 2005 calling it Catalyst Microfinance Investors (CMI). They would invest with "promising young microfinance organisations in countries with big population of poor people -- India, China, Vietnam and Cambodia, for example." The organisation also decided to use 'ASA' brand where possible under the grouping "ASA International." For instance, in Nigeria, ASA's old UNDP partner is applying for a bank licence and may change its name to ASA Nigeria. ASA is serving seven million members in the country. It has the experience of and expertise to help the poor help themselves to come out of the poverty trap. And it can be anywhere in similar situations. Shafiqual Haque Choudhury tells the author, "ASA will send its own managers to establish new ventures ... so that local managers can be exposed directly to ASA work ethic. In some cases ASA will set up training centres in the receiving countries to speed up the process." The author says that microcredit is "a useful service that may not always transform poor people's lives but rarely fails to help them" and concludes that 'ASA's internationalisation is something to celebrate.' 'The Pledge' is a 214-page comprehensive description of the successful birth, evolution and spread of a microcredit institution against a historical (including social, political, economic) background of this part of the world called Bangladesh. The author has aptly talked about other major microfinance and development organisations while describing ASA's progress. While others follow a group guarantee system, ASA operates without it on its own cost-effective innovative way. So the reader gets here an overall perspective of microfinance in the country's economy. The reader-friendly near journalese of the author helps one progress fast from chapter to chapter.
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