I LIMITI E I SUCCESSI DELLA MICROFINANZA E DELLA FINANZA INFORMALE: CASO STUDIO IN KIBERA, KENYA

Two financial systems are present in the developing countries and are meant to support the lives of the borrowers: the banking system and the informal one. The former has shown many difficuties and limits in really helping and sustaining the development in these countries. On the other hand, the informal sector seems to be more suitable to any situation and more able to meet the real needs of the people. In particular, self-help groups seem to have an impact on life satisaction, which is the main indicator we have chosen to analyze, together with trust and altruism. We conducted a field research in Nairobi, Kenya, in the slum of Kibera in particular, where we noticed that participants have level of life satisfaction comparable to those with higher incomes. We also wonder if these nonmonetary criteria are better than the economic ones in order to assess projects in developing countries.