 Is social capital fungible? The rise and fall of the Sanduk microcredit project in NgazidjaIain Walker Journal of Eastern African Studies, 2012, vol. 6, issue 4, 709-726 Abstract: In 1993 the Sanduk, a French microcredit project that was explicitly modelled on the Bangladeshi Grameen Bank, was established on Ngazidja. Reasoning that in order to succeed the project would need to adapt to local conditions, the project operators drew up a blueprint for the project that was inspired by the Grameen Bank but attentive to the specific social and cultural context, thus merging Bangladeshi principles of social solidarity with a Ngazidja cultural context. The concept of social capital was invoked and oversight of the bank conferred upon customary authority figures, the assumption being that men who had acquired status in a ritual context would be able to exercise authority over the banks debtors. This proved not to be the case; many of the banks found themselves operating without effective control and were chronically dysfunctional. This paper looks at how the concept of social capital framed thinking within the project management, and suggests why this led to failure. Date: 2012 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjeaxx:v:6:y:2012:i:4:p:709-726 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2012.729779 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Eastern African Studies is currently edited by Jim Robert Brennan More articles in Journal of Eastern African Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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