Staff:Visiting Research Fellows
 Tazul Islam
Visiting Research Fellow
Southeast Asian Documentation I
Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation
Microfinance in Southeast Asia: A Comparative Study with the Experience
of Banglades Research Interests
1. Grameen Microfinance in Southeast Asia
2. Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation
3. Development Finance for Small and Microenterpises
4. Grameen Bank Phase 11
5. Gender and Poverty
6. Rural Finance
My current research explores the state-of-the-art of microfinance institutions
in Southeast Asian countries, and in the process looks into the areas where
probable improvements may be made in line with the relatively success stories
of the Grameen Bank and other giant microfinance institutions in Bangladesh.
The microfinance-led poverty alleviation program, while it has worked elsewhere,
has not been proven to be successful in Southeast Asian countries. Excepting
a very few, most of the programs in this region have not even scratched
the surface of poverty, let alone the goal of financial sustainability.
The poor in the region as elsewhere in the world need not only credit,
they also need flexible financial services including voluntary savings
and insurance services. The provision of such services will not only alleviate
poverty, it will also help achieve the goal of financial sustainability
for the lending institutions.
Within Southeast Asia there is considerable diversity between countries
in the degree to which systems (for example, Grameen, Village Bank, Credit
Unions, and Self-help Groups models) of microfinancing have emerged and
in the institutional forms developed or adapted for them. But the general
consensus, however, is that there is ample scope for improving the financial
services to the poor in almost all countries in the region. The Bank Rakayat
Indonesia (BRI) in Indonesia, the giant microfinance organization in the
region, in contrast to the sophistication that has developed in the savings
services the range of credit services does not seem to be as well developed.
In countries like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar there huge scope
for introducing Grameen II type flexible financial services.
However, my research does not in any way support the unrealistic prescription
of a blanket replication of the Grameen model. There is not a Grameen blueprint
that can be handed out universally and replicated. An approach or method
cannot be replicated in a fixed, prescriptionary way. Replication demands
a lot of experimentation and adaptation. With proper modifications, where
necessary, the GB approach, however, has a fair chance of success in densely
settled poverty-stricken rural areas in Southeast Asian countries. But
the replication mechanism specific to each country has to be worked out
through trial and error.
Academic Career
- 2003 Ph.D (Development Studies)
Auckland University, New Zealand
1996 Certificate of Proficiency Specialization, two Masters’
Economics Papers, Auckland University, New Zealand
1976 Master of Arts- Economics
Dhaka University, Bangladesh
1974 Bachelor of Arts with Honours- Economics
Dhaka University, Bangladesh
- *Country Working Experience
Japan, New Zealand, Viet Nam, Kuwait, Bangladesh
*Teaching and Research Experience
• Working as a Professor in the Faculty of Business Administration at the
American International University-Bangladesh since September 2006 and was
promoted to the post of Associate Dean for the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences since January 2008.
• Working as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for Southeast Asian
Studies in Kyoto University, Japan since March1, 2008.
• Worked as a Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral
Research Fellow in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department of
the University of Tokyo from April 2004 to March 2006.
• I am an Honorary Research Associate, Centre for Development Studies,
The University of Auckland since 2003.
Publications
-
- 2008 Microcredit and Poverty: Financial Services that Work for the Poor,
Journal of Economic and Social Change, Vol. 20 (1) pp. 25-35
- 2008 Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation: Good, Bad, and Room for Improvement,
Journal of Economic and Social Change, (Forthcoming)
- 2008 Institutional Innovation, not Financial Liberalization, that Matters
Most, Management Development, Vol. 5(1), with Jackson, K. (Forthcoming)
- 2007 Microcredit and Poverty: a book published by Ashgate Publishing Limited, UK.
- 2006 Microcredit and Poverty: Quality Financial Services, Journal of Rural Economics, 2005, with Izumida, Y.
- 2005 “Prudence and Control: Thoughts on Supervising and Regulating Micro-Credit
Institutions in Bangladesh”, in K. Jackson, N.Lewis, S. Adams, & M.
Morten (eds.) Development on the Edge: Proceedings of the Fourth Biennial Conference
of the Aotearoa New Zealand International Development Studies Network (DevNet). Centre for Development Studies, University of Auckland, Auckland, pp.
160-166, (2005), research paper with Jackson, K.
- 2005 Regulation of Microfinance NGOs: General Reflections and the Case
of Bangladesh, International Journal of Rural Management, Vol. 1(1), pp. 45-57, with Jackson, K.
- 2004 Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation: The Need for Quality Financial
Services, Journal of Institute of Bangladesh Studies, Vol. XXVII, pp. 195-201.
- 2001 Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation: Smooth Talking on a Rough Road,
Discourse: A Journal of Policy Studies, Vol. 5(1), pp. 43-59 with Jackson, K.
- Conference Papers Presented
- 2005 Microcredit and Poverty: Making Services Work for Poor People, International Conference for Agricultural Economics, Hokkaido, Japan, July
17-9
- 2004 Regulation and Supervision of Microfinance NGOs by Apex Financial
Institution: Bangladesh as a Case Study’, a technical report, 4th DevNet Conference, Development on the Edge, CDS Auckland, New Zealand,
December 17-9, with Jackson, K.
- 2003 Mirofinance and Poverty Alleviation in Bangladesh, Research Seminar,
Development Studies Centre, Auckland University, New Zealand, September
18
- 2003 Microcredit in the Asia-Pacific Region, Research Seminar, Development Studies Centre, Auckland University, New Zealand, May 14
- 1998 Interest rate policy and the demand for loans of the poor in Bangladesh,
Research Seminar, Department of Economics, Dhaka University, Bangladesh, October 11
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