In the several days since the news that Yunus' microfinance movement would be coming to the U.S., I've had some time to consider what this says about how we treat the BoP institutionally. To me, the fact that Yunus' forays in NYC are seen as so newsworthy illustrates the "us and them" (or "U.S. and them") mentality we have in dealing with poverty.

By this, I mean that in general, there is a thick barrier separating domestic poverty programs from those that work internationally. Just go to Kiva or Microplace and try to find a U.S. based project to invest in. We at New Ventures don't cross this line either, maintaining ourselves as an internationally-focused organization, and the same principle works for the many poverty-focused organizations that bill themselves as domestic in scope.

Odd that in this age of globalization, goods and capital are increasingly flowing across borders indiscriminately, yet we think that how we impact poverty should be determined and defined by national boundaries?

I remember thinking that Paul Collier was implying as much during a talk I attended a while ago in which he discussed his book The Bottom Billion. To paraphrase, he made the argument that we shouldn't target support for the poor in China or India because those countries' growth rates are high enough, people are reaching the middle-class etc. In other words, unlike the poor in sub-saharan Africa, they're doing just fine.

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