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Canada Pledges $40M To Microfinancing Projects |
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M. |
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Nov 12, 06 - 12:42 PM |
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(...too bad that Tuvalu corrupt past haunts it today)
Canada has pledged more than $40 million towards microcredit projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay announced Sunday.
12/11/2006
Microcredit financing is a strategy that helps the world's poorest access small loans -- often less than $200 -- without down payment or credit history, for the purpose of starting small business ventures.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay announced the funding pledge Sunday along with Josee Verner, Minister of International Cooperation, in Halifax, where a four-day conference is focusing on the innovative aid strategy.
About 2,000 people from around the world are gathered four the four-day Global Microcredit Summit.
MacKay said the funding will be delivered through Developpement International Desjardins, Canadian Co-operative Association and Oxfam Quebec.
The microcredit concept gained renewed global notoriety one month ago, when Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for a bank he founded in Bangladesh, which provides small loans that help people living in poverty become self-sufficient.
Yunus helped open the Halifax summit. He told those gathered that microcredit projects help the world's poorest gain access to financial services, ensuring that "no one is left behind."
MacKay said Canada's commitment will provide new opportunities for people who desperately need them.
"Around the world, the power of microfinance is transforming lives," MacKay said in a release.
"It is leading to better prospects for families and communities-improved health, education and local economies-by giving people an opportunity to have a stake in their futures and countries. Canada's new government is a leader in microfinancing in Afghanistan, which is part of our efforts to foster self-reliance. Microcredit is helping Afghans build the road to freedom and democracy."
Verner said the funding commitment allows poor people, and women in particular, to start their own businesses and provide for their families.
Representatives of some of the world's largest financial institutions are also attending the summit, including Citigroup Inc. and American International Group Inc.
Spain's Queen Sofia called the summit a key moment in the global fight to end poverty.
The summit "is a significant milestone in progress towards an inclusive financial system that will look after the neediest in society," she said at the summit.
Yunus started the Grameen Bank in 1983. Since then it has loaned $5.7 billion, with a repayment rate of almost 99 per cent.
The bank has been used as the model for similar institutions in more than 100 countries. |
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