ABSTRACT
The need for more responsive remedies to alleviate global poverty is widely recognized and well documented in the literature on the subject of “poverty.” Research on interventionist policies as well as successes of various alleviation strategies by specifi c world bodies, large benevolent organizations and other sizable participants, is also prominent in the literature. However, there appears to be fewer conclusive fi ndings in regards to the utility of specifi c interventions such as those utilized by microfi nancing institutions (MFIs). Given the increasing differentials among provider typologies, types of poverty alleviation strategies, the poor themselves and their environmental diversity, a clearer understanding of the performances of these different innovative interventions is important. This chapter seeks to shed further light on the diffusion of micro-fi nance innovations as applied by MFIs in East Africa. The chapter achieves this by discussing the implications of the 2005 “International year of Microfi nance” initiatives on the fi ght against poverty and as engaged by MFIs since. On the basis of studies conducted mainly in the developing world, and in particular in Africa, this chapter makes an assessment of the needs “ fi t” between the most popular innovations currently being used, namely the mobile microfi nancing innovations as MFI intervention strategies that have informed poverty alleviation efforts and the perceived needs of poor women in East Africa. The chapter proposes that the lack of perceptible successes of microfi nance innovations, plus the continual increase in tiers of poverty, within this target group and growing unattended needs in spite of such MFI intervention could suggest that there may be some degree of misalignment between some of the prevailing innovations strategies and the realities of the environments of this diverse and complex grouping. As such the chapter highlights the possibility that effective strategies by MFIs in applying appropriate innovations may be derived from the application of provision strategies that are in the main derived from a good understanding of the local environment and therefore are more sensitive to, closer and more relevant to the realities and expectations of the targeted poor.
