The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz [Book Summary – Review]


After spending only three years as a Wall Street banker, it was determined by Jacqueline Novogratz that she desired to make a bigger distinction in the globe. She quit her job, promising to her a good career, to assist individuals undergoing poverty in Africa.

Initially, even though she was a fairly inexperienced Western who had little idea what human beings in the improving globe require or wish, she soon started to comprehend. It was discovered by her that specialists in the West who aim to imagine that poor individuals know what they require are frequently wrong: charity and charity work is often going to the wrong human beings or wasted on poorly drafted projects.

What human beings in the growing world desire are the dignity of assisting themselves, as opposed to philanthropy.

While the writer went to Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania, amongst different domains suffering from misery, she discerned that holding individuals in improving domains in charge of helping projects makes them much more possible to achieve.

The next sections show to get you to discover:

  • why it is harder to give your money productively than to gain in the initial place,
  • How else was a guy called Harmless (or in the different word Innocent), and
  • How can improvement assistance work preferable provided that you claim the receiver’s repayment?

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Chapter 1 – The people who have an important role in annihilating misery in improving domains are native women.


It is known by everyone who watches the news that misery harms the improving globe. Even though it has been tried by human beings in the West to pull the improving globe out of misery via several approximations such as government helping and charities, they have failed at times. Why is that?

Oftentimes, philanthropy and charity work are not addressed to the correct human beings – women. In the improving globe, it is frequently decided by women how a family must spend their cash, making them the most reliable expander in their society. Helping them will probably manufacture efficient outcomes.

Once she desired to assist the underprivileged in Rwanda, it was drawn to this conclusion by Novogratz. She aided establish a micro-loan firm named Duterimbere, which gave very little loans to underprivileged individuals who could not suit conventional bank credits. She soon discovered that many ladies in improving domains took out credits to extend their small businesses, which frequently included the sale of vegetables such as tomatoes and onions.



Duterimbere showed up to be very accomplished, and its achievement was excellent since it permitted domestic women to resolve where the cash must be spent, instead of the so-named specialists. In this method, it is gone opposite the general help industry rationale that specialists must direct assistance, and domestic individuals have little say.

Even though it was productively assisted by poor societies escaping the misery by these microloans, Duterimbere encountered the issues of many women not repaying themselves.

Novogratz found a solution in making borrowers more accountable.

Outcomes were discovered by Novogratz to hold borrowers more responsible.


Chapter 2 – To get people to save from misery, you must hold them responsible.


It comes against a pesky problem by many poor individuals: the reason for not get bank loans for them is they are thought too poor to entitle, but they cannot begin an attempt to get a decent livelihood without a loan.

In this vicious circle, it is partly owing to a common bank (mis)understanding that poor human beings suffer from a culture of misery: since they don’t even desire or think to heal themselves, they waste any credit given to them and never repay them.

The great achievement of micro creditors has indicated that this apprehension is wrong: It can be and do pay off their debts by poor individuals as long as accountability is found.

What was the latchkey providing Duterimbere to increase its loan repayment rates is accountability.

Initially, the company saw very few women repaying their debts since they saw no cause for it: Why would a wealthy Western-backed financial firm miss out on a little loan?



For instance, it was declared by a rice seller that since she was not able to repay the loan, her rice stock was stolen. Even so, once her home was visited by a Duterimbere representative, she discovered a big bag of rice hidden away. It was considered by the borrower that she could simply shake off not repaying the loan.

The firm sent a message to borrowers that they certainly must repay their debts to agonize such mistakes. It was said by Duterimbere that provided that a borrower fails to pay back, she will not be able to borrow again – no apology.

The policy answered the purpose. As soon as the aforesaid rice seller learned about the novel rule, she repaid her whole debt and then became a trusted customer.

Moreover, the accountability tactic has assisted to turn Duterimbere into not only another pure Western charity in the eyes of women, but also a grave financial firm that can assist lift them out of misery.


Chapter 3 – Give honor to indigent individuals by allowing them to escape misery on their own.


It is believed by many individuals that those who are in misery can eradicate themselves if they get adequate aid. However, cash is not sufficient. It was needed by human beings to sense their honor to be genuinely supported to convert their lives.  Allowing them to come out of misery in their path is the only path to give them honor.

Think about a small bakery built by the Rwandan administration in Kigali so those poor women can work. The bakery was supported by two foundations and sold its products to administration offices while hiring 20 women.

While it sounded nice on paper, it only didn’t work: The bakery made a sustained missing of $650 a month and therefore survived only when charities backed it up. While at the exact time, women working there were gaining 50 cents a day, which was not adequate to get them out of misery.



The answer? Strengthening and accountability.

It was moved in and persisted on by Novogratz about running the bakery like a company for which women would be responsible for its expenditures and selling. They would obtain a base fee and receive a commission for the entire sales made and efficiently attribute their fees to the result of the project.

Slowly, it was started by the worker to sense they had a share in the achievement of the bakery and started to make and develop the decisions themselves. They named it the Blue Bakery, and soon it rose so much that the women quadrupled their revenue, gaining two dollars a day, which was much more than the ordinary income of Kigali women.

What gave the women trust and honor to no longer be based on a backup from different people was the achievement and sense of possession. They sensed confidence in selecting for themselves what they desired.

The following sections will show you what we can find out from the unsuccesses of conventional help programs.


Chapter 4 – Where there is a deficiency of accountability, illegality (or indifferent vocab corruption) permits the process to be blocked.


While there are many undiscovered legends about improving domains, one is correct: corruption is common and it is blocking welfare.

What is the source of corruption? Where does it come from? Its resource is a deficiency of accountability.

For instance, provided that no one follows where a charity’s cash proceeds or how efficiently it is being managed, it’s extremely possible that someone is taking benefit for obtaining profit.

It was found out by Novogratz this trend during, after her time in Rwanda, she went to Kenya to type a document for UNICEF about women’s groups supported by alien help. There she discovered that a shortage of accountability had made the Kenyan administration extremely putrid. It was in the state to select which projects should be financed and relied on a bidding race and sketchy betrayed its authority by requesting for a “pay” of 20 percent of the financing to guarantee the winning offer.



Because of corruption and shortage of accountability, it is guided to bad services, since cash is missed out from project financing and no one sensed in charge of seeing that the project achieves what it’s assumed to. Corruption and deficiency of accountability indicate that donor-funded projects, begun with the most excellent of faiths, usually unsuccess. For instance, the reason that corn mills that have been constructed during Africa as a piece of a plan to energize regional economies have been discovered empty or idle is that there’s no combustible to operate them or no one in the society comprehends how to adjust them.

In many cases, projects never produce enough benefits to cover their initial investment.

In many circumstances, it is shown that projects never manufacture sufficient advantages to cover their first investment.

Owning those included wholly accountable defined incomes are more possible to convert on the hedge and projects are more possible to own the positive effect the financiers, donors, and receivers intended.


Chapter 5 – What are important goods for setting up a better community is confidence.


It is generally admitted trust by human beings in the improved globe as it is. For instance, once you employ a builder, you presumably believe her to give in a house built according to code. And providing that the builder is unfaithful to you, she will be held responsible by the justice system.

However, in the improving globe, faith cannot be underestimated, as there is likewise a deficiency of regulatory agency or legal judicial involvement.

Once the guard she had employed to watch her home stole her cash, jewelry, and dresses, it was experienced by Novogratz as this distinctive standard of confidence firsthand. This was after she gave him about two months’ extra wages to cover his kids’ school expenses. Ironically, Innocent was the name of the guard.

Come up against this treachery, she instinctively desired to report Innocent to the police. However, in Rwanda, it would be an unjustly heavy penalty to do so, because the local penal justice system is cruel and untrustworthy. Since she could neither trust Innocent nor the justice system, her just choice was to dismiss him.

It is exemplified and reinforced this lack of trust by the Rwandan administration by constantly going to common places to see what human beings are telling about politicians.



This basis of insecurity seriously harms a country’s improvement potential.

It was discovered by Novogratz that even though half the community lives in slums in Karachi, Pakistan, they do not plan affordable housing because they are insecure.

In the previous, it was promised purchasable housing and never delivered by housing developers, therefore, now poor human beings are suspicious of being defrauded.

For this kind of project, an administrator had to live on the building site to construct confidence with the locals who were watching it nearby.

The last chapter will show you a different charity vehicle to conventional charity.


Chapter 6 – What mixes the advantages of conventional help and firm investment is patient capital.


A real fact that usually shocks human beings is that giving your cash is much more difficult than winning it for you to handle it effectively! This issue is proved by the many unsuccesses of charity programs in the improving globe.

And charity not only loses out to get human beings out of misery: at the same time is a conventional financial investment. The reason that investors frequently fall short is refused by them to loan to poor human beings and sense unpromising to ensure them with quick returns.

Nevertheless, a third path is found: neither charity nor conventional business, a mixture of the two.

This approximation is named patient capital: with the comprehending that returns may be under market expectations, projects are funded above a long period of time. This approximation concentrates on improving and backing up the firm rather than providing brochures or getting fast turnarounds.

The writer’s attempted capital fund, Acumen, does precisely that. It usually invests huge sums in entrepreneurial programs that have the aim of ensuring significant social advantages to poor realms, such as protected water systems and inexpensive-cost, quality homes.



Thanks to the patient capital approximation, it is mixed with the most excellent of charity and market approaches. When it comes to a common investment, the patient capital awaits to perceive a return from the fund it has ensured. This approach eliminates the danger of giving cash without imposing accountability.

Moreover, patient capital commits the funds to the domestic people, rather than letting outsiders, so-named specialists, determine where the cash will be spent. In this path, the individuals most similar to their local issue can check where to invest in resolutions.

For instance, in a home project in Pakistan, Tasneem Siddiqui, whose promoter was a native man, had a matchless comprehension of the domestic human beings, and apprehending that came with being part of the society. He understood what they desired: beginning to construct tiny homes for themselves, and then to slowly enlarge as their budget could last. He also assisted Acumen hand down which area to construct, since he comprehended more about the area than an outside specialist could do. And it assisted Acumen to obtain backup in society. Just an organizer with such domestic information can be very important to the achievement of a project.


The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz Book Review


Conventional improvement assistance frequently fails since the receivers are not kept responsible and the domestic group is not authorized to decide how to most excellent use the help. By a novel form of charitable investment, named patient capital, has been indicated some encouraging outcomes in discussing these problems.


Place yourself in different individuals’ shoes.

Usually, upon we consider assisting others, it is improved by us as our own opinions of what serves most suitable and then trace our viewpoint of the solution. However, to assist others, we require to discover what they demand and desire, not what they consider and demand. We can put ourselves in different individuals’ shoes to comprehend others. Live with the individuals you try to assist and handle the regular challenges they come up against.


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Savaş Ateş

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