Small amounts of money or equipment given to individuals or women's groups can help create stable home incomes, but banks won't lend such small amounts — especially to women — because of the uncertainty about the clients' ability to repay.
What if instead of trying to end extreme poverty, we focused on creating lasting prosperity—such that more and more people improve their economic, social, and political well-being in a sustainable manner? The difference may seem subtle, but it requires a fundamentally different approach to development.
Prosperity is not generated through an influx of well-intentioned resources to poor countries. Instead, it takes root when organizations invest in what we call market- creating innovations. These types of innovations transform complicated and expensive products into ones that are simple and affordable, so many more people can access them.
What makes them especially powerful is their unique ability to create jobs and generate much needed tax revenues which then fund the development of a region's infrastructure and institutions. - Clay Christensen
