Jordan Times
Monday, October 11, 2004
Microcredit summit opens with calls to increase donor funding
Held in preparation for the UN International Year of Microcredit in 2005, the summit seeks to fulfil the international community's pledge to provide access to microcredit for 100 million families across the globe by 2005
By Rami Abdelrahman
AMMAN — Microfinance should not be viewed as a reward or a privilege but as a right to be enjoyed by all members of society, Her Majesty Queen Rania said in a statement at the opening of the Middle East/Africa Region Micro-credit Summit Meeting of Councils yesterday.
The three-day summit, attended by more than 650 participants from over 75 countries, seeks to find solutions to give the poor in the region more access to financial resources to alleviate poverty.
Held under the patronage of Queen Rania, the conference is organised by the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organisations (AGFUND), in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and the Microcredit Summit Campaign in Washington, DC. It brings together leading microcredit practitioners, government officials, NGOs, corporations and foundations to promote best practices in the field, learn from each other and work towards Millennium Development Goals of cutting absolute poverty in half by 2015.
In her statement at the conference, Queen Rania said, “microfinance enables individuals to enhance their lives,” adding that microcredit is not only humble amounts of money financing small projects, but a way to break all obstacles preventing the creativity of humanity.
Held in preparation for the UN International Year of Microcredit in 2005, the summit seeks to fulfil the international community's pledge to provide access to microcredit for 100 million families across the globe by 2005.
For her active role in microcredit in Jordan and the world, Queen Rania, who is on the board of directors of the Foundation for International Community Assistance, has been invited to be a Global Emissary for the Year of Microcredit, with the goal of raising awareness on the importance of microfinance in eradicating poverty, and engage broad constituencies in the goals and objectives of the year.
Addressing the opening session of the conference, AGFUND President HRH Prince Talal Ben Abdul Aziz, announced an initiative for an Arab-African microcredit fund and called on Arab leaders and the Arab League to include poverty alleviation as a priority item on the agenda of upcoming Arab summits.
Delivering a message on behalf of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, ESCWA Executive Director Mervat Tilawi said increasing access to financial resources is certain to improve the living conditions of the poor around the globe, as well as a means to empower women and improve education and health.
But Annan stressed that the participants at the summit should focus on removing obstacles that hinder the distribution of microfinance and ensure that those most in need are effectively targeted.
According to the Microcredit Summit Campaign, half of the world's population exist on less than $2 a day, but according to the campaign director Sam Harris, microcredit is a proven method that reduces poverty everyday despite the fact that poverty rates around the world are on the rise.
Over the next three days, participants and microcredit specialists from most parts of the world will discuss issues regarding microfinance and how it can reduce poverty and unemployment across the globe, with special attention given to the Middle East and North Africa.
The opening ceremony was also attended by Professor Muhammad Yunis, the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, who started his pioneer institution in Bangladesh with $27 and has so far distributed loans of over $3 billion, and many high-ranking officials and leaders in the microcredit industry.
Yunis called on the international donor community to double its aid to micro-credit banks and organisations to help the world reach the 2005 objectives.
Later on Sunday, His Majesty King Abdullah and Queen Rania received Prince Talal Ben Abdul Aziz at Raghadan Palace where the Monarch expressed appreciation of the prince's role in supporting women, children and family programmes in the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
The first microcredit summit was held in Washington, DC. in 1997 with around 3,000 people from 137 countries launching a nine-year campaign to reach 100 million of the world's poorest families, especially women, with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2005.