News
July APPG meeting: "Microfinance in the Islamic World" July 9th. Committee Room 21
The APPG on Microfinance/Microcredit is pleased to announce details of our July APPG meeting.
Please click here for more details of the event.
First APPG meeting of 2008: "Microfinance: a commercial or social endeavour?" April 2nd
The APPG on Microfinance/Microcredit is pleased to announce details of the first APPG meeting of 2008.
Please click here for more details of the event.
UK announces £5 million in support of Afghanistan Microfinance scheme
International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander announced an additional £5 million to the Government of Afghanistan’s microfinance scheme. This brings the UK’s total investment in the scheme to £35 million.
The scheme has provided small loans to over 400,000 people so far – 280,000 of whom are women. By the end of next year, the scheme will have benefited some 400,000 women.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus in the UK
On Thursday 14th February, Muhammad Yunus adressed a gathering of the Microfinance Club. The theme of his talk was 'microfinance and social business for poverty allieviation' and coincided with the release of his new book 'Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism'.
Founder of The Jamii Bora Trust, Ingrid Munro addresses joint Microcredit Summit Campaign/RESULTS & MF Club event.
Jamii Bora is a microfinance institution that started in 1999 when 50 former beggars and slum dwellers asked Ingrid Munro - then head of the African Housing Fund - to help the improve their lives. She agreed, and since then the programme has grown into a nationwide microfinance institution with over 130,000 members and 60 branches all over Kenya.
On Monday 8th October, Ingrid Munro kindly agreed to address a joint Microcredit Summit Campaign/RESULTS & MF Club event to share her remarkable story.
APPG on Microfinance - Newsletter Summer 2007
For news and information on the work of the APPG on Microfinance please click here
Peace Prize Winner Yunus backs G8 Microcredit Fund - March 2007
Nobel Peace Prize winner and anti-poverty pioneer, Muhammad Yunus has this week commended Germany's efforts to create an African microcredit fund at the 2007 G8. In addition, he noted that the true value of such a fund will only be optimised if it focuses on reaching the poorest:
"I welcome a German-led initiative in microfinance from the G8 Summit in 2007. I just want to caution the G8 leaders to make sure that the bulk of the money goes to people living on less that $1 a day."
Germany to push for African Microcredit Fund at 2007 G8 Summit – February 2007
Germany’s Development Minister has publicly announced Germany’s intention to launch an African Microcredit Fund at this year’s G8 Summit. During its G8 Presidency Germany will be looking to encourage other G8 countries to support the creation of this new Fund to promote African enterprise.
For more information on the proposed initiative click here.
British Government Lead on Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund – January 2007
The British Department for International Development is taking a leadership role in developing the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund. This Fund, identified as a key recommendation in the 2005 Commission for Africa Report, will be launched in summer 2007 in partnership with a range of donors, including the Dutch government, African Development Bank and IFAD.
Challenge Funds, like the AECF, have been used by donors for a number of years and have proven to be effective at bringing the private sector on board with development initiatives. They are an innovative way of increasing resource flows to particular issues; DfID’s Financial Deepening Challenge Fund, for example (which focused on banking the ‘un-banked’) meant that the $15 million invested by donors leveraged $72 million from the private sector.
For more information on the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund click here.
Global Microcredit Summit 2006 – November 2006
The second Global Microcredit Summit took place in Halifax Nova Scotia in November 2006. The four-day Summit was attended by over 2,200 participants from more than 110 countries, with high level spokespeople including: Queen Sofia of Spain; Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz; and newly awarded Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus.
The summit, its supporters, and attendees had much to celebrate. Those who had been watching, and working towards, the audacious goal of “reaching 100 million of the world’s poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment and other financial services”, were rightly overjoyed by the progress which had been made towards this shared vision.
Latest data from 2005 illustrated that 113 million people received micro-loans in 2005 (a nine-fold increase from the number in 1997 when the campaign began) and that 82 million of these borrowers were classed as heads of the poorest families.
But, demand for microfinance continues to outstrip supply, and its potential to impact on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving poverty by 2015 has not yet been fulfilled.
The Summit therefore set two new goals, symbolising phase II of the campaign:
- To reach 175 million of the world’s poorest families with credit for self employment and other financial services by 2015 and
- To ensure that 100 million of the world’s poorest families cross the $1 a day threshold by 2015.
For more information on the Global Microcredit Summit and the ongoing work of the Microcredit Summit Campaign click here.
Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank Win Nobel Peace Prize – October 2006
Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of ground-breaking Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his outstanding contribution to social and economic advancement through the provision of small loans, known as Microcredit.
Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in the mid 1970s when the poorest in society lacked any access to financial services. Yunus reflects, “... when I look back, my strategy was whatever banks did, I did the opposite. If banks lent to the rich, I lent to the poor. If banks lent to men, I lent to women. If banks required a lot of paperwork, my loans were illiterate friendly. Yes, whatever banks did, I did the opposite.”
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Microfinance/Microcredit, established to build political commitment for this innovative and proven tool for poverty alleviation, warmly welcomed the announcement.
Annette Brooke MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Microfinance/Microcredit commented, “Muhammad Yunus is an inspirational and life-changing individual. His longstanding commitment to empowering the poorest in society, particularly women, through the provision of small loans has created a sea-change in the way we view development. The Grameen Bank model provides a hand-up rather than a hand-out and the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus is thoroughly deserved”.
For more information on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus click here.