Return to E-news Main Page
Return to Microcredit Summit Home
|
|
|
||
| Volume 1, Issue 6: January '04 | ||||
|
||||
|
Return to E-news Main Page Return to Microcredit Summit Home |
||||
|
In This Issue UN General Assembly Launches Program for International Year of Microcredit Register Now for the Asia Pacific Microcredit Summit Region Meeting of Councils Archived Issues
Vol 1 Iss 5 Nov. '03 |
Plenary Session: Building Better Lives - Sustainable Integration of Microfinance with Education in Child Survival, Reproductive Health, and HIV/AIDS Prevention for the Poorest EntrepreneursRemarks by Kunio Waki
I'd like to…also congratulate Dr. Chris Dunford for the most illuminating presentation on the subject of today's panel….I have been working in the whole area of microfinance, basic education, child survival, gender, reproductive health, for the last thirty-two years with the UN system.…But, when I worked in Bangladesh and India in the 1970s, I came to my own conviction that the only development mission is essentially to empower weaker sections of society, including women and girls in rural areas and also advance landless agriculture workers, subsistence farmers, and also marginal fishermen, who are barely surviving in a very difficult situation. I was also convinced that empowerment should take a different form, which categorized into three. First, organizing and group formation, so that women and marginal farmers can voice their views….Secondly, empower women and girls with knowledge and consciousness.…Thirdly, provide microfinance to eliminate exploitation from moneylenders and middlemen, provide income to empower women for better choices in life. So money is power….But all of these things have to be done, linking sometimes with the government services, which are often very elitist, not reaching the poor people. I believe all these three empowerment activities should be taking place at the same time if possible. |