Full Coverage: Microcredit

17.04.2008 Ravaged by ethnic unrest and socio-economic deprivation, Karbi Anglong is the first district of Assam in north-east India to have implemented a quality management system for facilitating public services. Cooperative units for dairy processing and banking are a series of development initiatives aimed at freeing the district of its poverty tag.

22.02.2008 Decades of warring guns may have turned Afghanistan into a ‘collapsed state’, but the country is now on the road to recovery, says Ehsan Zia, the Afghan Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. Community Development Councils help villagers decide their own projects while microfinance initiatives have benefited women in rural areas.

14.01.2008 New technological innovations in agriculture, electronics and medicine have helped boost income and reduce the number of people living in poverty, says a new World Bank report. Developing countries also need to strengthen the spread of technology through better infrastructure and improved research, the report adds.

12.01.2008 Concept of micro-credit is bringing about a silent revolution in more than 60 districts of rural Nepal by helping people in augmenting their income. Hundreds and thousands of poor families have access to different micro-finance institutions and they indeed are trying to take the maximum benefit out of this facility.

11.01.2008 The recent Annual Micro Finance Colloquium 2008 at Jaipur underlined the need for more initiatives for the financial inclusion of the poor in India’s western state of Rajasthan. A report released at the meeting highlights future opportunities and challenges for scaling up the sector.

07.12.2007 The ILO and the Bill & Milinda Gates Foundation have come together to help develop new kinds of insurance for low-income people in impoverished countries across the world. Thirty-four million US dollars given by the Gates Foundation will create the Microinsurance Innovation Facility that will provide grants and technical assistance to organisations working with the poor.

19.11.2007 Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank, says Bangladesh will eradicate poverty by 2030 and wants India to take up the challenge as well. On a recent visit to India, he spoke on the bank’s role, poverty museums, and issues close to his heart.

15.11.2007 The MDG Monitor is a new resource offering from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with several other UN bodies with assistance from Google and Cisco. It is a quick and easy MDG tracking tool for policymakers, journalists, students and development professionals.

15.11.2007 A new resource, the MDG Monitor, created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with several other UN bodies with assistance from Google and Cisco, is an excellent tool for policymakers, journalists, students and others to learn about the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

02.11.2007 Hyderabad based APMAS will host the 7th National Level Training on SHG (Self-Help Group) Federations during December 3-8 in the southern Indian city. The training will include field visits by participants to learn existing practices, apart from interactive classroom sessions.

26.05.2007 ASUNCION, May 25 (IPS) - Esperanza Santos Aranda, who lives in a poor neighbourhood in the Paraguayan capital, used to sell vegetables at a precarious market stall. But thanks to a 60-dollar loan, she was able to open up her own small clothes-selling business.

26.12.2006 a growing number of women, who have formed self help groups and started making candles, papads and pickles, are now making forays into ambitious new projects in an effort to cement a new future.

21.12.2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 21 (OneWorld) - The richest 2 percent of adults in the world own more than half the world's wealth, according to a new study released by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University.

05.12.2006 Pas dhënies së linjave kreditore për bankat komerciale në Kosovë, Banka Evropiane për Rindërtim dhe Zhvillim, i ka ndarë 3 milionë euro kredi OJQ-së, Programi për Ndërmarrjet në Kosovë (KEP), duke iu mundësuar kështu ndërmarrësve kosovarë, më shumë qasje në shërbimet financiare për të krijuar biznese të reja, apo të bëjnë zgjerimin e bizneseve ekzistuese.

24.11.2006 Microfinance Information eXchange, Inc. (MIX is a global, web-based, microfinance information platform. It provides information to sector actors and the public at large on microfinance institutions (MFIs) worldwide, public and private funds that invest in microfinance.

15.11.2006 While access to microcredit serves as a useful complement to the survival strategies of poor households, it is not a strategy of poverty alleviation and growth.

07.11.2006 The award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 jointly to Muhammad Yunus, the recognised creator of the "microcredit" model of finance for the poor shows the Nobel Committee's recognition that peace is not really possible without more equitable development. The most engaging aspect of Muhammad Yunus' contributions lies in his flexible approach to looking for new solutions for meeting the needs of the poor.

03.11.2006 Hundreds of financial experts and activists are due to gather in the Canadian city of Halifax this weekend to explore new ways of helping the world's rural poor with small business loans.

24.10.2006 BEIJING, Oct 24 (IPS) - Celebrating the success of microfinance as an antidote to poverty has raised some uncomfortable questions here over China's reluctance to allow civil society a bigger role in addressing tough social issues.

19.10.2006 The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus, regarded as the father of microcredit, comes at a time when microcredit has become something like a religion to many of the powerful, rich and famous. Walden Bello, winner of the Right Livelihood Award, 2003 comments in 'The Nation'.