The Pledge: ASA, Peasant Politics, and Microfinance in the Development of Bangladesh

The Association for Social Advancement (ASA) of Bangladesh recently topped Forbes magazine's first-ever list of the world's best microfinance banks. This is an extraordinary achievement for an organization that started life as a revolutionary movement aiming to bring a peasant-led government to the newly created and desperately poor South Asian nation of Bangladesh. This book tells the story of how ASA's determined but practical-minded founder and leader, Shafiqual Haque Choudhury, steered his organization through the maze of competing ideas about how best to develop poor countries. The book sets Choudhury's accomplishments in the context of Bangladesh's chaotic but inspiring postcolonial history and is rich in its understanding and descriptions of how ordinary village and slum dwellers deal with the complicated web of politics, international donations, and development expertise. The author's long and intimate knowledge of ASA and of Bangladeshi microfinance makes this one of the best case studies of a development organization available to the general public.

About the Author :
Stuart Rutherford is the founder of SafeSave Bangladesh, an organization that provides reliable basic banking services, profitably, to poor men, women, and children in Dhaka. He became interested in how poor people manage their lives and their money as a result of working in developing countries as an architect and then for NGOs. From this perspective he became involved in microfinance as a practitioner (in Bangladesh), teacher, consultant, and writer. He is the author of The Poor and Their Money (Oxford University Press, 2000) and is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester, UK. He lives in Japan.

Review :
"Stuart Rutherford is the single most astute observer of how microfinance really works."--Thomas Easton, Asia Business Editor, The Economist "This insightful and powerful book about ASA, one of the world's great microfinance institutions, gives a rare view into the real world of microfinance. With his deep knowledge of Bangladesh, microfinance, ASA, and the economics of poverty, Stuart Rutherford uses a variety of perspectives to show how ASA developed and how millions of poor people benefit. The Pledge reveals, at multiple levels and over a 30-year period, the stages of ASA's development. And it does this in astute juxtaposition with the changing environment of Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in Asia. This book is a gem."--Marguerite S. Robinson, author of The Microfinance Revolution "Stuart Rutherford's The Pledge is an outstanding contribution to the microfinance literature. ASA is generally accepted to be the most efficient and successful microfinance institution in the worl--and therefore worthy of careful study. There are few authors able to capture the complex nuances and issues of microfinance and write on them with such entertaining clarity...and Rutherford is particularly well placed to document ASA's story, as he has worked with the organisation for nearly two decades. The Pledge provides valuable insights and will be one of the top five 'must read' books for anyone and everyone interested in microfinance."--Graham A. N. Wright, Programme Director, MicroSave