LECTURE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR VIEWING!!

Click here to watch Milford Bateman's lecture (approx 60 minutes) - and here to see the question period (30 minutes).  Details of the lecture below:

January 26th, 2012, 7:00-8:30pm

Scotia Bank Theatre, Sobey Building, 903 Robie St., Halifax, NS

More Milford Bateman news and updates here

MICROFINANCE & THE ILLUSION OF DEVELOPMENT: FROM HUBRIS TO NEMESIS

The last thirty years has seen the microfinance model rise to dominate the poverty reduction agenda in both developing and transition countries. Recently, however, the microfinance model has run into serious problems, and many are now claiming that it has actually made the situation much worse for the poor overall. This lecture will explore the ways in which the microfinance model has actually set back the chances of sustainable local economic development and poverty reduction and what might be done to restore the local financial system into a positive force for change.

Milford Bateman is a freelance consultant on local economic development policy and Visiting Professor of Economics at Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia. He completed his PhD at the University of Bradford, UK, on the subject of small business and local economic development policies. Dr Bateman is  one of the most active policy consultants working in the Balkans and wider Eastern Europe, with more recent assignments also covering the Middle East. Cambodia, Colombia, China and South Africa. He is the author of ‘Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism'.

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FREE WEBINAR with Milford Bateman held on Thursday, January 26th, 1pm AST

Microfinance vs. Co-operative Finance: Is there a difference?Webinar materials will soon be available online- please check back soon.

 Featured Speaker: Milford Bateman;  Guest Panelist: Anuj Jain

The last thirty years has seen the microfinance model rise to dominate the poverty reduction agenda in both developing and transition countries. This webinar will examine the ways in which the microfinance model has actually set back the chances of sustainable local economic development and poverty reduction. The contrast will be made between this poor performance and co-operative finance models, such as credit unions and financial cooperatives, which are unequivocally associated with sustainable economic and social development and growth, and thus also sustainable poverty reduction. The webinar will focus on why co-operative financial institutions are a better choice both for personal borrowing, and for local enterprise development and expansion.

Anuj Jain is a Senior Fellow in Microfinance and International Development at the Coady International Institute at St. Francis-Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, with 18 years' experience working for CARE International in the microfinance and livelihoods development fields.

Coady Institute's Comparative Study on Member-owned Financial Institutions

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SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS FOR MAKING THESE EVENTS POSSIBLE:

- Office of the President, Saint Mary's University

- IDS Lectures & Speaker Series (International Development Studies, SMU)

More about Milford Bateman

Read Milford's article in Red Pepper magazine

Milford Bateman is a freelance consultant on local economic development policy and, since 2005, a Visiting Professor of Economics at Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia.

After two years of field work in the former Yugoslavia, he returned to the UK in 1990 to complete his PhD at the University of Bradford, UK, on the subject of small business and local economic development policies. A year later, Dr Bateman moved to the University of Wolverhampton, UK, to take up the tenured position of Lecturer in East European Economics.

In 1996 Dr Bateman was appointed an Associate Professor and Head of the Local Economic Development in Transition Economies Unit (LEDTEU). In 2000, Dr Bateman moved into full-time consulting, first at the OECD in Paris working as an advisor on SME policy to the Investment Compact, before moving to Croatia to open the Western Balkans office of a major UK economic development consulting company.

Dr Bateman is seen as one of the most active policy consultants working in the Balkans and wider Eastern Europe, with more recent assignments also covering the Middle East (Jordan, Qatar, UAE) and Cambodia, Colombia, China and South Africa. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, including ‘Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism' published by

Zed Books in 2010, with a special Asian market version published in late 2010 by Books for Change based in Bangalore, India. 

His most recent work was editing ‘Confronting Microfinance: Undermining Sustainable Development', which was published by Kumarian Press in 2011 and looks at the impact of microfinance in the Western Balkans.

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