Microcredit Summit Campaign

Microcredit Summit Campaign - Bringing Hope to the World’s Poorest

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The Microcredit Summit started in February of 1997. More than 2,900 people from 137 countries gathered in Washington, DC to launch a nine-year campaign to reach 100 million of the world’s poorest families. With training in self-employment and the help of many financial institutions and business services, they initially strived to reach the women of these poor families. That goal was almost reached in November of 2006, causing the Campaign to be re-launched and extended until 2015 with two new goals:

Goal #1: Working to ensure that 175 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families, are receiving credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2015

Goal #2: Working to ensure that 100 million families rise above the US$1 a day threshold adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), between 1990 and 2015.

The Campaign brings together microcredit practitioners, advocates, educational institutions, donor agencies, international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and others involved with microcredit to promote best practices in the field, to stimulate the interchanging of knowledge, and to work towards reaching our goals.

As of December 31, 2005, 3,133 microcredit1 institutions have reported reaching 113,261,390 clients, 81,949,036 of whom were among the poorest when they took their first loan. Of these poorest clients, 84.2 percent, or 68,993,027 million, are women. Eight hundred forty-seven of these institutions submitted an Institutional Action Plan in 2006. Together these 847 institutions account for 88 percent of the poorest clients reported. Assuming five persons per family, the 81.9 million poorest clients reached by the end of 2005 affected some 410 million family members.

The core themes of the Microcredit Summit Campaign are:

• Reaching the poorest
• Reaching and empowering women
• Building financially self-sufficient institutions
• Ensuring a positive, measurable impact on the lives of clients and their families

Success Stories through Microcredit Summit Campaign: La Maman Mole Motuke lived in a wrecked car in a suburb of Kinshasa, Zaire with her four children. If she could find something to eat, she would feed two of her children; the next time she found something to eat, her other two children would eat. When organizers from a microcredit lending institution interviewed her, she said that she knew how to make chikwangue (manioc paste), and she only needed a few dollars to start production. After six months of training in marketing and production techniques, Maman Motuke got her first loan of US $100, and bought production materials. Today, Maman Motuke and her family no longer live in a broken-down car; they rent a house with two bedrooms and a living room. Her four children go to school consistently, eat regularly, and dress well. She currently is saving to buy some land in a suburb farther outside of the city and hopes to build a house.