Articles authored by Castillo, Alfonso

Full-text sample article FREE from Taylor & Francis. Proyecto Tequisquiapan (PT) provides protective microfinance services in a small region of rural Mexico, including, importantly, open access deposit facilities. The authors report on new research which examined PT's record in enabling people with different degrees of vulnerability to build assets and protect themselves from both sudden shocks and more predictable demands for lump sums of cash. PT was found to be relatively more useful for the most vulnerable households.

The author argues, using the example of microfinance institutions, that it is essential to build genuinely solid and alternative institutions if development is to take its direction from the poor and vulnerable. He sets out his view of the characteristics such institutions would have, and the vulnerabilities currently seen in microfinance institutions.