The Microcredit Summit Campaign
About Us

History of the Campaign

The first Microcredit Summit, held February 2-4, 1997, gathered more than 2,900 people from 137 countries in Washington, D.C. They launched a nine-year campaign to reach 100 million of the world’s poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the year 2005. By 2005, that goal was very nearly reached and in November of 2006 the Campaign was re-launched to 2015 with two new goals:

  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.
  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.

The Microcredit Summit Campaign is a project of the RESULTS Educational Fund, a U.S.-based grassroots advocacy organization committed to ending hunger and poverty. To find out more about RESULTS and its International Affiliates, click here

What are the core themes of the Microcredit Summit Campaign?

These are the four core themes of the Microcredit Summit Campaign:

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

To learn more about our core themes, you can read papers commissioned by the Microcredit Summit Campaign. You can also read the State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report, detailing the progress of the Campaign since 1997.

Who are the poorest families?

The Microcredit Summit Campaign defines the poorest families in developing countries as the bottom 50% of those living below their country’s poverty line or those living on less than $1.25 a day adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), based on 2005 prices. In the industrialized world, the Campaign targets all those who live below the poverty line.

Reaching 100 million of the world’s poorest families is only one step in eradicating poverty worldwide, however.  Currently (August 2008), the World Bank estimates that 1.4 billion people (roughly 280 million families) are living on less than US$1.25 a day (learn more).

Read more about serving the poorest in our commissioned papers:

Why target Women?

Women are often responsible for the upbringing of the world’s children, and the poverty of the women generally results in the physical and social underdevelopment of their children. Experience shows that women are a good credit risk, and that women invest their income toward the well being of their families. At the same time, women themselves benefit from the higher social status they achieve within the home when they are able to provide income.  Read more about this in our commissioned papers:

How are institutions, other than microcredit lenders, contributing to the Summit's goal?

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide social services such as literacy, health, and family planning are partnering with microcredit practitioners or are moving to incorporate microcredit training and other services into their programming. Educational institutions provide the foundation for what we value as a global society; it is important that they educate students, the future leaders of the world, about the powerful potential of microcredit as an anti-poverty tool. Advocacy organizations can help build the commitment of the general public and of the world’s governments through fundraising, education, policy development, and research focused on the Microcredit Summit’s goal. These are the contributions of just three of the fifteen Councils that incorporate almost every sector of society.

How can I get involved with the Microcredit Summit Campaign?

Here are four ways to get involved in the Microcredit Summit Campaign:

  1. Stay informed. You can subscribe to our new e-bulletin and receive periodic informational updates via e-mail on the progress of the Campaign. 
  2. Learn from your colleagues. Your organization can join one of fifteen different Microcredit Summit Councils. To determine which Council your organization should join, click here.
  3. Implement what you learned and share your results. After joining a Microcredit Summit Council, your organization should submit and implement an Institutional Action Plan. An Institutional Action Plan (IAP) outlines the work an organization has done and intends to do to further the goal and core themes of the Microcredit Summit Campaign. Each Council Member is requested to submit an IAP annually. Please click here to download the IAP appropriate to your organization’s Council.
  4. Engage others in the Campaign. Your organization should look for other ways to contribute to the campaign, including enlisting other organizations to join the Microcredit Summit Campaign. E-mail us to request outreach materials you can send to interested organizations. You can also contact us about opportunities to volunteer with the Microcredit Summit Campaign.