The fight against poverty and microfinance method

Poverty, as one of humanity's most significant problem, occupies the agenda of many states in today's world. Besides preventing individuals from involving in social life and gaining economic freedom, poverty leaves the states in an economically disadvantaged position. With the endeavors of many national and international institutions, the attempts to resolve the problem of access to resources that people in poverty experience has been made. Today, however, the effects of poverty can be observed more significantly in undeveloped and developing countries. Therefore, through fighting against poverty, such countries aim to reduce the effects of poverty, and ultimately end poverty. Within this context, such countries refer to many different methods and attempt to employ these methods. Microfinance, which was employed as a tool especially after 21st century, has come forward in order to achieve this goal. Microfinance is based on providing poor individuals with loans in low amounts with low interest. Within the scope of this study, the effects of microfinance approach on fighting against poverty have been investigated. As a result, it is concluded that microfinance is an effective method in terms of fighting against poverty; however, it is by itself not sufficient to end poverty. As is true for the developing countries such as Turkey, microfinance relieves the poor economically only in the short term.