Poverty eradication greatest moral challenge of current century - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 14 Words: 4274 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Economics Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? Poverty eradication is the greatest moral challenge of current century. There are more than three billion human beings in the world live in debasing poverty. Islamic societies are much worse than the rest of the world in the issue of addressing the poverty problem. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Poverty eradication greatest moral challenge of current century" essay for you Create order The Islamic world has over 1.2 billion people, extending from Senegal to the Far East, comprising six regions: North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Except for a fistful of states in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, there are high and rising poverty levels in both urban and rural regions of most Muslim countries. Poverty levels have also associated with high inequality along with low productivity. In Indonesia alone which is the worlds largest Muslim population, almost half of the local populations, about 129 million people are poor or vulnerable to poverty with level of incomes less than only $2 a day. Bangladesh and Pakistan comprise 122 million people and followed by India at almost 100 million Muslims under poverty line. Usually debt or loan is central cause to the difficulties faced by the poor people. The Islamic response to eliminating this problem is to make free interest and collateral loans available to the po or people. Since Islamic rules require borrowers and lenders of the capital to share the risk of profit or loss equally, loans are made on a profit/loss sharing basis. Islamic banks, which are the main source of loans, have a significant responsibility in facing the credit needs of the poor people. Unfortunately, Islamic banks are often not meeting these needs. As an alternative, an innovative and broadly utilized way to meet the financing needs of the poor was innovated and created by Muhammad Yunus, an Economist from Bangladesh. yunus begun the Grameen Bank, a microcrdit organization. Microcredit involves providing small collateral-free loans to poor people who have a powerful desire to start a business and make a good living for themselves and their families. Such people are usually denied loans from conventional banks because they have no valuable assets that could be collateralized. Conventional banks and conventional microfinance institutions usually consider these people a s high-risk borrowers or customers and do not supply them financing. Yunus believes that the poor are bankable and providing credit available to the poor not only improves their live, but it also could overcome the poverty problem and thus increase the welfare of the community as a whole. However, his organization charges interest for loans. While the subject of charging interest is obvious and significant difference between Islamic banking and conventional microfinance institutions. In this paper, I argue that this difference is not insurmountable and there are significant ideological and practical links between Islamic banks and microfinance institution. These links have not been clearly established in the literature and I believe these are important to detail so that more services can be giving and offering to the poor in Islamic states. In this paper, I first describe Islamic banking and microfinancing, then develop a link between Islamic banking and microfinancing, and final ly show how participation in micro enterprises by Islamic banks would help the poor and the society as a whole. Along time, Islamic financial services industry have expanded well beyond the Islamic world and are not offered only by Islamic banks, but also by Islamic windows of financial institutions. Islamic financial services industry are currently exists in India, Japan, china, Germany, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States and Canada. The United Kingdom, which was ranked tenth on The Bankers list of Top 15 Countries by Sharia-compliant Assets in 2007, has recently announced its aim to make London a global centre for financial markets in the Muslim world. Research Problem Microfinance Institutions believe that the rural poor and even the urban poor can greatly benefit from Microfinance and the services it offers. The implication of these concepts is taking care of those who cannot be taken care of by the market, who cannot play with economic forces or do not have access to economic means to enable them to exploit the economic opportunities around them (Khan 1997, pp. 12-13). Microfinance, as defined by the Grameen Foundation in Bangladesh, consists of making small loans, usually less than $200, to individuals, usually women, to establish or expand a small, self-sustaining business. It also serves as the financial channel for the poor and helps them to increase household income and economic security. Ultimately, the goal of microfinance is to give low income-people an opportunity to become self-sufficient by providing a means of saving money, borrowing money and insurance thus, giving these group of people a chance to be part of the financial syst em (www.grameenfoundation.org). Micro financing involves making small collateral-free loans to poor people who have a strong desire to start a business and make a good living for themselves and their families. These people are usually denied loans by conventional banks because they have no valuable tangible assets that could be used as collateral. Conventional banks usually consider these people as high-risk customers and deny them credit. mohammed Yunus(founder of grameen bank) believes that the poor are bankable and making credit available to the poor not only improves their livelihood, but it also could increase the welfare of the community as a whole. However, his system of microfinancing charges interest for loans. The issue of charging interest is a core difference between Islamic banking and conventional microfinance. In this paper I will discuss the credit risk issue in conventional microfinance since the poor do not have valuable tangible asset so can be collateralize d as well as Islamic banking and its tools and instruments to overcome the credit risk as an alternative. I also argue that this difference is not insurmountable and there are important ideological and practical links between Islamic banking and conventional microfinance. Both systems are committed to the creation of a just society using distinctively Islamic practices that encourage entrepreneurship and risk sharing. Background of study In retrospect, Prophet Muhammad (pboh) was one of the poor and then became a successful merchant for many years before he became a prophet. This was mainly due to the microfinance capital for his ventures that was provided on a PLS based on mudarabah by a wealthy widow, Khadijah, who later became his wife. Business, with its associated risks, was basic to the arab economy. The poor will remain poor, not because they are dull but because they do not have opportunity to access to capital. said a Friedman (www.scribd.com). This is precisely the primary function of Microfinance, which is to give the poor chance to access to financial services. In addition, this will help also creating domestic financial markets that meet poors financial needs. Microfinance appeared since years and decades ago. There were many informal savings and credit institutions established in many parts of the world. These include the susus of Ghana, chit funds in India, tandas in Mexico, arisan in Indonesia , cheetu in Sri Lanka, tontines in West Africa, and pasanaku in Bolivia, as well as numerous savings clubs and burial societies found all over the world. (www.globalenvision.org). Indonesian Government has promoted Islamic microfinance. In 2002, Bank Indonesia prepared a Blueprint of Islamic Banking Development in Indonesia, in which it presented a decade plan for the development of the Islamic finance industry, including support for the 105 sharia rural banks. Indonesia now facilitates a supportive regulatory framework and has licensed 35 new Islamic banks five years ago. Bank of Indonesia is also doing efforts in capacity building by establishing a centre in Medan to offer training in and certification on Islamic financial operations to sharia rural bank staff, managers and directors. About 80 percent of Pakistan people are poor according to the Economic Survey 2005-2006 (defined as exceedingly poor, ultra poor, poor, vulnerable poor). The number of people in the lowest thre e of these income categories is more than 36 million yet according to a USAID study, only 600,000 of Pakistan people were received microfinance in 2005. However this is meaningful growth from only 60,000 in 1999, it leaves countless people out. While other people not using microfinance are just not interested in it, many may affect out of conventional microfinance due to its reliance on interest-based financing, which is prohibited by Islam as usury. The central Bank of Pakistan, which has a legal and regulatory framework in place for conventional microfinance institutions, also developed guidelines in 2007 for the rapid expansion of Islamic microfinance. The guidelines stipulated four types of institutional arrangements for offering Islamic microfinance, i.e., via: (i) the creation of Islamic microfinance banks, (ii) Islamic banks, (iii) conventional banks and (iv) conventional microfinance banks. The guidelines set forth requirements regarding licensing, appointment of sharia a dvisers to rule on sharia compliance, and segregation of Islamic product funds (and related documentation) by banks and MFIs that offer both conventional and sharia-compliant products. As a result of the microfinance industry growths from humble outset in Bangladesh and Latin America to an industry with broad global scope, there were a growing hard work to create and facilitate an Islamic model of microfinance. An Islamic model of microfinance represents a new paradigm of social adventure in which profit and loss sharing (pls) replaces interest-based mode of financing. The growth of Islamic microfinance has led organizations such as the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a multilateral organization distributing knowledge about microfinance, and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to start understanding this new model to alleviate the poverty. The earliest microfinance institution founded in the early 1720 was the Irish Loan Fund System established by Jonathan Swift, an author and a nationalist. This lead many institution to be founded in all Ireland approximately 300 funds. After an enactment law in 1823 allowing charity institutions to be legal financial intermediaries providing financial services to Irish people. And thus, this system spilled over to Europe and many parts of the world. Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh which was founded in 1983, has begun an action project paper on the viability of creating a credit system to provide financial services to the poor. Together with his students, started targeting villages of poor people, especially women, by providing loans and encouraging them to participate in financial services that will help them to improve their lives. By giving free collateral loans to the poor, Yunus created a verbal contract to be settled within 52 weeks with very law interest than what the local loans providers charged. By December 2009, it has 7.97 million borrowers 97 % of them are women. With 2,562 branches, Grameen Bank provides services in 83,458 villages. It covers more than 100 % of the total villages in Bangladesh. And, its methods have become the cornerstone of the microcredit industry (www.grameen-info.org). Microfinance market grew out of experiments in Asia and Latin America however; the best known was started in Bangladesh in 1976 and this following the wide-spread starvation in mid 1974. Backers argue that the microfinance has helped to alleviate the poverty, improved education levels, and generated millions of small enterprises. Theory of microfinance has been nowadays spread worldwide. In the other hand, the existence of Islamic banks was in early 1960s and it has been in a consistent phase. In 1963, the Mit Ghamr Saving Bank was established in Egypt. Few years later in 1971, the Mit Ghamr Saving Bank was affiliated into a new government institution which is under government supervision, the Nasser Social Bank. A major expansion in Islamic banking activities started in the 1970s. The enlargement and development of Islamic banks is mainly due to the petrol revenue upturn in the Gulf area and the growing economic scale of the more conservative Muslim countries of the Gulf area [Wilson 2000]. In 1970s, many of Islamic banks were set up including the initiative of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) that established the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in 1975s. Within the same period, Jordan Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Kuwait Finance House, and Faisal Islamic Bank in Egypt were established. In 1978, the Islamic Banking System International Holding was established in Luxembourg. This was the first Islamic financial institution on the West. The rapid development of Islamic banking worldwide depicts that the extension of Islamic banking was not only restricted to the Middle East but it has also attention of its international aspects. The enlargement of Islamic banks continued in the late 1980s, where the Islamic Bank Intern ational was established in Denmark, Dar al-Mal al-Islami established in Switzerland, and Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad was established in 1983, in Malaysia and followed by Qatar Islamic Bank. In 1990s,in 1992 the Indonesian government took the initiative to establish the first Indonesian Islamic bank which is Bank Muamalat. Research Objective The objective of this research is to examine the viability of Islamic banking principles to provide microfinance facilities in the interest-based economy which contradicts with the Islamic financial system as well as examination the link between Islamic banking and microfinance. The examination will be carried out through the general framework of Islamic financial principles and guidelines.This objective is achieved by studying Various applications of Islamic banks and microfinance institutions, analyze their products, and then explain the Shariah rules in their regard. In order to achieve that, the study gives the conventional definition of microfinance through studying its historical emergence and spreading. The study also describes the primary components and significance of the Islamic Banking System explaining its position in the Islamic Law, as well as the similarities and differences between the two concepts. In an attempt to resolve some of the differences between the Islami c Financial Institutions and microfinance institutions regarding uses of interest based loans microfinance System, the study provides some solutions by giving the view of the majority to the issue. Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Unlimited number of studies and researches on poverty indicates that exclusion of the poor from the financial system leads to their inability to improve their lives. At the moment, nearly three billion people in developing countries have little or no access to formal financial services. This problem is well addressed and since, Microfinance has been a powerful poverty alleviation tool in the globe. In the end of 2007, the microfinance institutions are serving about 80 million people in developing countries (Obaidullah and Khan, 2008). Among the most complete researches on this topic, Dhumale and Sapcanin (1999) have outlined a technical note in which they attempted to explain and analyze how to make combination between Islamic banking system with microfinance. They have took into their consideration the three main instruments of Islamic finance which are (musharakah, murabaha and mudharaba) trying to apply them as instruments and tools to design a successful microfinance project . In (2004) Range, underlined in his paper how the prohibition of Riba in Islamic financial system does not make any obstacle in building up microfinance products, in the other hand the side effects of Islamic principles could probably enhance it, and thus the high rate of return (profit rate) compared to a fixed interest rate. Some Islamic researchers developed economic reasons to illustrate the ban on interest as well. Among those, Annan(1986) who argued that interest could prevent and cause full employment by adding incremental cost to production, and thus higher cost of production could prevent producers hiring more workers which typically lead to high unemployment. Sinclair,( 2001); Kempson and Whyley,( 2000) mentioned that one of the primary reasons for economic and social inequality is financial exclusion. Disadvantaged and poor have excluded from access to financial services and capital especially affordable credit (Whyley and Brooker, 2004). As a consequence poo r could remain in the cycle of poverty for long period of time and could be forever. Shahinpoor (2008) found that debt is usually central to the difficulties faced by the poor people. The Islamic financial system response to eliminating or mitigating this difficulty is to make interest free loans and collateral available to the poor. Since Islam requires borrowers and lenders to share the risk of profit or loss equitably, loans are made on a profit/loss sharing basis. Islamic banks, which are the main source of loans, have an important role in meeting the credit needs of the poor and in encouraging and promoting their welfare. Unlikely, Islamic banks are often not meeting these obligations. One of the proposed solutions to overcome this problem is microfinancing, first microcredit institution introduced by Muhammad Yunus, an economist in Bangladesh, in the early 1970s. Yunus started a bank called the Grameen (village) Bank of Microfinance (Hussain et al., 2001). The bank was s tarted based on Yunus belief that credit is a powerful weapon and poor peoples access to credit is crucial for building a just and ethical society where people live with dignity and hope for their future. Yunus (1997) argues that credit unlocks the door to all other important human rights: food, shelter, education, and health care. Some authors such as Al-Harran (1990, 1996, 1999), Ahmed (2001), (2006), Akhtar El-Gamal (1996, 1998), Dhumale and Sapcanin (1998), and others, believe in the great potential of Islamic banking system to involve in microfinance programmes to cater for the needs of the poor people who usually fall outside the formal banking services. (Akhtar, 1996, 1998; Hassan and Alamgir, 2002 Al-Harran, 1995, 1996, 1999; Al- Harran, 1990; Al-ZamZami and Grace, 2000; Dhumale and Sapcanin, 1998;)believe that Islamic banking can apply diverse financial tools and instruments together with other available mechanisms such as charity, waqaf and zakat, which are can be in tegrated and applied into microfinance programmes to promote entrepreneurship amongst poor people and subsequently help in poverty alleviation. Asyraf wajdi, (2008) highlighted the relevance of microfinance as a globally accepted practice to Islamic banks. The Islamic banking system has an in-built dimension that encourages financial services and activities to the poor people, as it resides within a financial channel strengthened by the forces of Shariah injunctions. These Shariah injunctions combine Islamic financial services with genuine concern for alleviation and eradication of the poverty, equal distribution of wealth and social justice at the same time as prohibiting involvement in non-shariah compliant and illegal activities, which are detrimental to social and environmental well-being. Shahinpoor (2008) has described that the principles and practices of Islamic banking and microfinancing, and also demonstrated an important link between the two systems. Both microfinanc e and Islamic banking institutions are based on the belief that everyone in the community is entitled to economic justice. Both believe in interest and collateral-free loans and believe that everyone, including the poor, are creditworthy and should be given the chance to participate in domestic economic activities. Beside that he also demonstrated that the gap and differences between the current practices of Islamic banking and microfinance could be eliminated. The practices from each could be combined properly. Essentially, that is, Islamic banking practices should be combined with interest free microfinance. Chapter 3 Methodology This study applies qualitative methods as its study approach. The methodology will be used in this study is first to describe the basic principles and instruments of Islamic banking and microfinance as well as two survey will be conducted one for Islamic banks and microfinance institutions officials so to test their level of understanding and applying of Islamic principles as micro finance instruments and the other one for micro finance participants of Islamic banks and micro finance to test their level satisfaction on services provided by both practices and later to show the link between the two financial practices. In general, it is known that the two practices are not suitable since microfinance practice allows interest on loans and Islamic banking prohibits interest payment based on Islamic law. Both practices, however, promote fairness, equality and justice for all people of the society and encourage entrepreneurship by giving free-collateral- loans to the poor people. The two practices, therefore, are theoretically and ideologically can be linked. This study presents that they are also can be practically linked. Methods and principles of Islamic banking and finance The Islamic alternative to interest free loans and financing is profit-loss sharing principles (PLS).In other words, participants of financial markets should share in profits and risks of loss. Islam considers profit-loss sharing, rather than interest, to be closer to its sense of ethics, social justice, fairness and equity. Both parties, the lender and the Brower share the risk of the investment as well as the profit from it. Profit and loss sharing of the investment addresses the asymmetric information problems that exist in the conventional banking and financing system. There are basically two risk-sharing principles practiced by Islam banking. Both principles are based on one objective: the sharing of profits through joint participation. These two practices and principles are called Mudarabah and Musharakah. between these two, Mudarabah is the most commonly applied risk-sharing method used by Islamic banking and finance (Lewis and Algaoud, 2001). A Mudarabah can be defined a s a contract between two parties whereby one party provides the capital and another party provides the entrepreneurial abilities. In Mudaraba, the financier or the capital provider does not participate in the management of the business as well as collateral should not be required from entrepreneur. However, the lender is entitled to a percentage of the profit or loss that resulted from the business. Profit has to be shared in a percentage basis and not base on a lump-sum amount and there is no guaranteed rate of return and the percentage must be mentioned prior to execution of the contract . In addition, the lender is not liable for losses beyond the fund that contributed to the business. In the other hand, the entrepreneur is not liable for losses beyond loss of time and effort used in running the business unless it is proven that the loss is a result of herhis mismanagement. Another profit and loss-sharing principle used in Islamic banking and finance is called Musharakah or pa rtnership. Under Musharakah agreement, the entrepreneur and the capital provider jointly contribute to the capital according to pre-determined proportion. The two participants are partners in case of profit or loss. Mudarabah and Musharakah are considered as a two pillars or a cornerstone of Islamic banking and finance according to Ariff (1982). In both practice, the risk is shared by both parties of the transaction and they have to obey all Islamic rules and restrictions. moreover both parties involved in the transaction, could not invest or engage in any business that is contradict with the Islamic ethical standards and values. However, there are, alternative methods to Mudarabah and Musharakah. These methods are less risky and are applied by Islamic banks if the profit-loss sharing principles could not be used. While there are so many alternative methods applied by Islamic banks and capital providers, I only discuss in this paper three of them that I believe are related to this study. Among these methods is Murabaha, or cost plus profit margin another one is called Qard al-hasaneh, or benevolence loans which is free interest loans and the third one is Ijara, or leasing contract. Murabaha does not fall under a profit-loss sharing principle. Instead, it is based on cost plus profit margin. As such, the bank or the facilitator posses the product on behalf of the customer and then adds a percentage to the cost and facilitates it to the customer. The customer then promises to pay it back in a pre-specified date or base on installments. In Murabaha, the bank or the facilitator behave like an intermediary between buyer and seller and does not share in profits or losses. The risk therefore, is much lower under Murabaha method if compared to the Mudarabah or Musharakah methods. Initially , the profit margin might pretend like another form of interest charged by the bank but in another name. Her up to this point we may arise a question like, If interes t is not allowed in Islamic banking, then how Murabaha could be justified? The answer for this critical question could be as follow Murabaha is justified in islam because in a Murabaha transaction, a good is bought and sold by the bank for profit and the transaction is not burley exchange of money. In this transaction the bank is taking a risk by buying the commodity. The transaction is not complete unless the customer buys the commodity from the bank and the customer may change his/her mind and reject to buy the product. This makes Murabaha perfectly legitimate according to the Islamic law (Wilson, 1990). There is only one form of Islamic loan called Qard al-hasan, is interest free loan that the Quran encourages Muslims to make to people who need them (Ahmad et al., 1983). As such, the bank is allowed to charge a service charge for facility of the loan. The bank or the financier of the Qard al-hasan not only provides financial support to the borrower but also provides moral supp ort. These kind of loans are often given to charitable institutions or people with sudden need for funds (death, natural disaster and etc.). Ijara or leasing principle is when the bank purchases the product and leases it to the client for a certain number of period. The lease arrangements, their terms and conditions, are agreed by both parties pre-execution of the contract . In some Ijara contracts, the client has an option to buy the commodity from the bank. In this case, the lease payments could use to the purchase of the product (Lewis and Algaoud, 2001). Research Hypothesis In order to examine the viability of Islamic banking principles to provide microfinance as well as the link between Islamic banking and microfinance the following hypotheses set so that it can be tested in this research. Islamic banking rules allow microfinance institutions to provide free-interest loans to the poor. Islamic banking rules allow microfinance institutions to provide free-collateral loans to the poor. Islamic banking rules allow the microfinance institutions and borrowers to agree on a certain percentage of profit per period before the loan is finalized.