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| Volume 1, Issue 1: March 2003 | ||||
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In This Issue Speech Excerpts from the Microcredit Summit +5 Plenary Session: Ensuring Impact International Year of Microcredit Archived Issues
Vol 1 Iss 4 Sept. '03 E-News Information |
Speech Excerpts from the Microcredit Summit +5HE Vicente Fox, President of Mexico and Chair of the Microcredit Summit +5: "I am fully convinced that the fight against poverty concerns the world over, and not only a few countries... microcredit may be one of the best tools to overcome poverty in a dignified manner..." HE Isatou Ndjaie Sady, Vice-President and Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs, the Gambia (reading the remarks of HE Alhaji Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh, the President of the Republic of the Gambia): "...Microfinance is a viable option for rural income generation, household food security, as well as poverty alleviation in general. And I do hope that our partners are equally convinced." HE Prommin Lartsur Nsuriday, Deputy Prime Minister, Thailand: "...To date after 15 months of operations 74,000 Village Funds have been established [in Thailand] and loans for farm use, handicrafts, trading and emergency needs were extended to 5.5 million borrowers totaling 74 billion baht. Loan delinquency averages 4.5 percent." HE Begum Sehba Musharraf, First Lady, Pakistan: "Microcredit is one instrument that holds the greatest promise for transforming the lives of the economically underprivileged." Señora Marta Sahagún de Fox, Spouse of the President of Mexico: "The 21st century is the century for women...This Microcredit Summit represents an important step in favor of women’s rights and of marginal communities." Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, United Nations Undersecretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Land-locked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States (reading a statement from United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan): "Microcredit is a critical anti-poverty tool and a wise investment in human capital. Now that the nations of the world have committed themselves to reduce by half by the year 2015 the number of people living on less than $1 a day, we must look even more seriously at the pivotal role that sustainable microfinance can play and is playing in reaching this Millennium Development Goal." Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Managing Director Grameen Bank, Bangladesh: "When we were discussing in Washington, about 100 million, there was no Millennium Development goal at that time. Today the whole world has promised, all the leaders of the world have... committed themselves to reduce the number of poor people by half by 2015. Do they really mean it? I hope they do. If they really mean it, they will embrace us, all of us who are in microcredit, because their job will be made so much easier." Sam Daley-Harris, Director, Microcredit Summit Campaign: "If we do not know whether the work we do or the work we fund reaches people who live on less then dollar a day, then we don’t know whether our work contributes to cutting absolute poverty in half. If we do not know whether the families with whom we work or the institutions we fund are helping families move above a dollar a day, we can say our work contributes to cutting absolute poverty in half, but we won’t really know if that is so." Ted Turner, Chairman, United Nations Foundation: "[The UN Foundation has] made a $3 million grant to the United Nations to expand microcredit to an additional 20 countries in the past couple of years and [there is] no investment that we’ve made that we’re more excited and optimistic about ... this is just a terrific program." Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): "...Microcredit is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart, and is still in my view one of the great opportunities to bring to scale the poverty reduction agenda that many of us share...I became involved with microcredit more than 20 years ago and I am as convinced today as I was then that we have only just begun to realize its potential." Hugh Grant, Chief Operating Officer, Monsanto Company: "Microcredit enables many impoverished people, mainly women and often mothers, to provide goods or services that were not available, or were not affordable before. They are creating value for their families, and value for their communities...So I congratulate all of you on the value and the energy that you are unlocking for people worldwide." Paul O’Neill, former United States Secretary of the Treasury: "In developing economies and even in the more developed world, microfinance plays a crucial role in delivering seed capital to these entrepreneurs...I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing the success of these programs in recent visits to developing nations and the real world results are inspirational. The Millennium Challenge Account will reinforce these ideas." Jack Litzenberg, Senior Program Officer and Poverty Team Coordinator, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation: "...Let the message go forth that the question should no longer be, "Why microcredit?" the question should become, 'Why are not more world resources invested in microcredit already?'" Victor Menezes, Senior Vice Chairman, Citigroup, USA: "...[Citibank] strongly believes that [microcredit] is a commercially viable option and we really believe that this is the best way to alleviate poverty and help development around the world. So we are committed to do this and I can tell you that our commitment is long-term." |
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