Whose Sustainability Counts?: BASIX's Long March from Microfinance to Livelihoods

By the end of 2010, the glowing reputation of microfinance was beginning to tarnish. The collapse of the microfinance industry in Andhra Pradesh, well-publicized client indebtedness, and the Bangladesh’s government’s sacking of Grameen Bank President Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize-winner and venerated father of microcredit, represented a critical turning point for the industry.

Where does microfinance go, then, in the midst of such crises? Are the basic principals of finance for the poor sa...