We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky

The Seductive Promise of Microfinance

Mara Kardas-Nelson

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English

St Martin's Press
15 July 2024

Development studies; Social classes; Development economics; Finance

"A deeply reported work of journalism that explores the promises and perils of microfinance, told through the eyes of international lenders and women borrowers in West Africa

In the mid-1970s, Muhammad Yunus, an American trained Bangladeshi economist, met a poor female stool maker who needed money to expand her business. In an act widely known as the beginning of microfinance, Yunus lent $27 to forty-two women, hoping small credit would help the women pull themselves out of poverty. Soon, Yunus's Grameen Bank was born, and the idea of giving very small, high-interest loans to poor people took off. In 2006, Yunus and the Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize for ""efforts to create economic and social development from below.""

But there's a problem with this story. There are mounting concerns that these small loans are as likely to bury poor people in debt as they are to pull them from poverty, with borrowers from India to Kenya facing consequences such as jail time and forced land sales. Reportedly hundreds have even committed suicide.

What happened? Did microfinance take a wrong turn, or was it flawed from the beginning?

Mara Kardas-Nelson's We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky is about unintended consequences, blind optimism, and the decades-long ramifications of seemingly small policy choices. The book is rooted in the stories of women borrowers in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Their narratives, woven through a deep history of modern international development, are set against the rise of Yunus's vision that tiny loans would ""put poverty in museums."" Kardas-Nelson asks: What is missed with a single, financially focused solution to global inequity that ignores the real drivers of poverty? Who stands to benefit and, more important, who gets left behind?"

By: Mara Kardas-Nelson
Imprint: St Martin's Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 155mm, Spine: 40mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781250817228
ISBN 10: 1250817226
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 15 July 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: No Longer Our Product

Mara Kardas-Nelson is an independent journalist focusing on international development and inequality. Her award-winning work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, NPR, The Guardian and elsewhere. Mara has also spent years working in global health. Originally from the U.S., she has also lived in Canada, South Africa and Sierra Leone. Her time in different parts of the world informs the questions she asks, and how she frames her stories.

Reviews for We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky: The Seductive Promise of Microfinance

"""Through a dazzling, superbly paced combination of astute history and on-the-ground observation in Sierra Leone, West Africa, Mara Kardas-Nelson holds the claims of microfinance up to the light. I wish that every new idea touted as the solution to the world's problems had such a thoughtful and compassionate examination."" --Adam Hochschild, bestselling author of American Midnight and Leopold's Ghost ""What happens to money loaned to extremely poor people? Who gains and who loses? In her tour de force, exhaustively researched book, Mara Kardas-Nelson explodes myths - in some cases, lies - bringing tough truths to microfinancing, high-interest loans, and even the Nobel Prize. We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky should be mandatory reading for everybody looking for solutions to extreme poverty."" --Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health"