Are SHGs a public good?

Over the past year or so, the micro-finance movement has been the subject of intense scrutiny, faced with charges of fraud and exploitation. In Bangladesh, the Grameen bank and its iconic founder Mohammed Yunus have been accused by the Government of accounting fraud and diverting money. In Andhra Pradesh, micro finance institutions (MFIs) have been found indulging in practices that exploit the poor.

I have already blogged and written about these allegations and will not dwell on them here. Suffice to say that there are critical procedural/administrative problems and more importantly, serious corporate governance issues with many MFIs. In the absence of meaningful steps to address them, there are strong headwinds against any sustainable progress for the MFI model.

However, there are two interesting macro-perspectives from this debate, especially in Andhra Pradesh, that deserve greater discussion.

1. There is the argument that the spectacular success of MFIs in Andhra Pradesh overlooks the role of the government in creating a million-strong Self Help Groups (SHGs) that the MFIs could readily use (a la "ready cooked food"). There is palpable resentment at the fact that the MFIs, who merely walked in and piggy-backed on the fruits of the state government's efforts of more than a decade to develop SHGs, are claiming and getting a disproportionate share of the credit for the success of micro-finance activities in Andhra Pradesh.

In fact, the officials of the state government have even gone on record to argue that MFIs should confine themselves to non-SHG lending, "They cannot make profit by lending to the poor. Let them lend to the rich and make profit and leave welfare of the poor to the Government."

Without getting into the merits of how the credit for the success of micro-finance should be apportioned, it may be useful to examine what should be respective roles of the government and private sector in such areas.

Clearly, there are two distinct activities - formation and strengthening of SHGs and micro-lending to these SHGs. The strength of the former determines the success with the latter. In other words, SHGs form the fixed social infrastructure on which micro-finance rides.

I am inclined to see striking parallels between SHGs and classic public goods. It is now well-documented that apart from being channel to funnel credit to the poor, SHGs also play a critical role in women's empowerment and is a platform for enhancing the effectiveness of government interventions in many areas. Therefore, the net social benefits of SHGs exceed its net private benefits to the agency forming such groups. Private agencies like MFIs will naturally have less of an incentive to invest time and resources in forming SHGs.

In the circumstances, as is the case with public goods, it may be appropriate if governments focus on the formation of SHGs and invite the private sector to play a greater role with micro-lending. This does not mean an exclusive role for each in their respective areas, but a major role. So the way forward may be for governments to focus on forming SHGs and strengthening them, and for private sector to partnering with governments in increasing the volume of micro-lending. And all this assumes that the governance and other problems related to MFIs are largely resolved.

2. The second issue is related to the respective roles of the government and the private sector in combating poverty. More specifically, the success of the MFIs (most conspicuously, the success of SKS with its IPO) has generated a strong feeling that MFIs are making super-normal profits by exploiting the poor. This in turn raises the issue of what should be ethical standard for private agencies working in the area of development, the so called social enterprises.

Is it alright for a private social enterprise firm, playing by the rules of the game (assuming that the rules are themselves fair), to make profits even as it delivers on certain social objectives (as being delivered through the regular government initiatives)? In this case, is it acceptable if MFIs follow the rules, make micro-loans, and in the process also make handsome profits? Or should their profits be capped at some level? Or should the cost of lending be brought down and thereby reduce the excessive profit margins? Or should a share of their huge profits be ploughed back into helping the poor in some other effective manner?

In other words, is it acceptable for a private social enterprise, functioning with its capitalist efficiency and playing by the letter and spirit of the rules of the game, to work towards the objective of maximizing its profits?