More than a billion people the world over survive on less than a dollar
a day. But those who work with the poor, say giving them tiny loans can
have a tremendous impact...
This week we're bringing you the show from Halifax, where we've found a
gathering of people who want to revolutionize the way the world’s
poorest people get access to money. Imagine, 90 percent of the
world’s population can never access the banking services you and
I take for granted. Today, we'll talk with a Nobel Peace Prize winner
who says extreme poverty can become history.
Also today, Listen Up will talk with the banker to the poor for the
world's richest family; Bill and Melinda Gates. Why are they getting
involved? And we'll talk one-on-one with Canada's Minister of Foreign
Affairs on why your tax dollars are going to help the micro credit
revolution. Financial services that transform lives.
Micro
Credit is the provision of just loans and Microfinance is the
provision of loans as well as other financial services such as
savings, insurance and remittance products and deal with only one
aspect of poverty.
Microenterprise
development takes the foundation of microfinance and adds to it
business training, mentoring, personal, leadership and spiritual
development.
“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.” - United
Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan
When
Business Week hailed 2006 as the year of Microfinance, one reason was
this man: Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, who shared the Nobel
Peace Prize with the bank he founded 30 years ago. Yunus pioneered
the practise of giving tiny loans to the poor. He found that putting
even minimal financial resources in the hands of those with no
collateral or credit history can give them a major boost towards
self-sufficiency.
Professor
Muhammad Yunus, Founder and Managing Director of Grameen Bank
in
Bangladesh, is internationally recognized for his work in poverty
alleviation and the empowerment of poor women. Grameen Bank, admired
and replicated around the world, is a microcredit institution
dedicated to providing small amounts of capital to the poor, without
collateral, for self-employment. The bank has proved beyond any
doubt that the poor are very much creditworthy. From its origins as
an action-research project in 1976, Grameen Bank has grown to provide
collateral-free loans to 6.4 million borrowers in Bangladesh, 96% of
who are women. Grameen Bank today lends 750 million dollars a year to
the poorest, including beggars, while maintaining a repayment rate of
99%. Professor Yunus' autobiography, "Banker to the Poor:
Micro-lending and the Battle against Poverty," has been
translated to 17 languages. He has received many awards, both
national & international honorary doctorate degrees, and also
serves as a member of various committees and advisory boards within
the country and abroad.
Muhammed
Yunus :
“People
in the beginning were not sure that it would work, because how can
people pay back if you are not tying them down with something solid
that they cannot ignore? But we ignored that advice and went around
and gave loans on the basis of trust. Basically is what we do is
banking on trust. And it works. People say Bangladesh must be some
funny country … it wouldn’t work anywhere else in
the world,
today it works in almost every single country in the world.”
It’s
a hand up—according to the Nobel prize
winner who began his
work in 1976—not a hand out. And thanks
largely to the
Grameen bank Yunus founded, 80 percent of poor families in Bangladesh
today are on the road to economic independence. Their goal is to
reach 100 percent by the year 2010. But, says Yunus, that’s
only
the beginning.
Muhammad
Yunus :
“We
are a long way from the number of people that we want to reach. One
sweeping number I can give is that almost 2/3 of the world’s
population have no access to conventional banks, financial services.
So you have a big vacuum out there. At one time I used to say that
conventional banks are practicing some kind of commercial apartheid.
They draw a line and … 2/3 of the world’s
population is on the
other side of that line. Credit should be accepted as a human right,
so you don’t debate about it any more. So go right ahead and
establish that human right for everybody.”
The
Opportunity International Network combines worldwide reach with local
expertise in the life-changing arena of microfinance. Small loans in
the hands of a poor entrepreneur can transform families and entire
communities. Multiply that by 42 partners running microfinance
programs in 28 different nations, and you can change the world. The
Opportunity International Network provides the infrastructure for it
all — offering support as well as access to powerful
strategies and
technology. Larry
Reed is Chief Executive Officer of Opportunity International
Network, a global coalition of 42 microfinance organizations in over
25 countries. Beginning his service with Opportunity-US in 1984,
Larry has held a variety of senior positions within the organization.
In 1991, he founded Opportunity's Africa Regional Office in Zimbabwe,
and served as Africa Regional Director until 1996. Upon returning to
the US, he became Vice President of Opportunity-US for global
operations. Opportunity internationalized its structure in 1998, and
Larry was asked to lead the new Opportunity International Network.
From 1999 to 2002, Larry served as chair of the Small Education
Enterprise Promotion (SEEP) Network, a research and advocacy group of
microfinance industry practitioners. He has also published several
articles on microfinance and served as a contributor to "The New
World of Microfinance" (Rhyne, Otero, et. Al.,1996), “Serving
with the Poor in Africa” (Yamamori, Myers, Bediako and Reed)
and
“Globalization and the Kingdom of God” (Goudzwaard,
2001). Larry
is a graduate of Wheaton College and the John F. Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University.
Lawrence
Yanovitch – The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Lawrence
J. Yanovitch has 20 years of operations management and public
policy experience in microfinance. He currently serves as Senior
Program Officer in the Financial Services for the Poor division of
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He previously served
as
Director of Policy & Technical Assistance at FINCA
International.
Mr. Yanovitch has managed and supported the development of
microfinance institutions in 34 countries. He holds a B.A. in
Business Administration from the University of Washington and a DEUG
in International Studies from Université de Paris, la
Sorbonne. He speaks five languages.
CHRISTOPHER
SHORE – WORLD VISION USA
Christopher
Shore is the Director of the Microenterprise Development Group, World
Vision USA www.worldvision.org
Maimouna
Kebe – Centre for Advanced Study of
International
Development, Michigan State University
“In
my country you are considered young if you are under 35 years. And
this category of population is more than 77 percent of the
population. How can we develop our country if they are out of the
social/economic process? They need to be integrated in this
process…
We
have to identify what is our main resource. Our main resource today
is our human being – human being. That’s why we
have to focus our
development on human being.”
What
we've learned at the micro credit conference is that over 80 percent of
the world’s population lives with just one percent of its
resources. But there are a few things that tie us together and
one of them happens to be television. In fact, in this home in India
where I visited, a television set was on. Somehow electricity was
getting into this home.
These stories are shared around the globe, and we have a responsibility
to help our neighbours who live on far less than one dollar a day. If
you're watching us from that part of the globe—Listen Up is a
program which goes all over the world—write to us at an internet
cafe if you can, and we'll try to connect you to the micro credit
revolution we've discovered here. For the rest of you watching from the
North American audience, we need to get behind what’s happening
for the world’s poorest families. Check it out in detail at our
website at listenuptv.com. Find an agency you can partner with and lets
make tomorrow a better day for the world’s poorest families.
There’s more on this on our website. You can download the show on
podcast or watch it online. Thanks for joining us. That's this
week’s look behind the headlines with a spiritual view.
A
Conversation with the Hon. Peter MacKay
Here
at home, the Canadian government has taken notice, and recently
pledged more than $40-million dollars to help people in the
developing world gain access to financial services. LU talked with
The Hon. Peter MacKay about his thoughts on Micro Credit:
Lorna: Tell us why the
issue of
Micro Credit matters to Canadians.
Hon.
Peter MacKay:
Well
because it (Micro Credit) works. And it’s transformative. And
it
empowers people to help themselves. That’s the beauty of
micro
credit; it gives them the access to capital to purchase the raw
materials for production and women in particular in countries that
are so impoverished, having this kind of confidence and this kind of
life altering experience that they get thru micro credit and this
kind of purpose that they gain is truly an inspiration. And Canada,
by its announcement today of an additional $40 million by our
previous commitment of our micro credit program in places like
Afghanistan we’re making a huge contribution and
that’s what
Canadians want to hear. We’re a generous country by nature
but
we’re also practical in wanting to understand how it works
and how
that difference is actually being achieved....To see the impact on
the ground… to see how this is allowing women to come out of
poverty to do more for their families and their communities, it
really it changes your life… it impresses you so much to see
their
enthusiasm, the vigour that they have to make those businesses a
success and the results that they’re achieving …
and they’re
paying money back. This is what is so remarkable. For the amount of
money, one of the first things they want to do is pay that money back
which speaks to the integrity, it speaks to the intent and it speaks
to the people themselves who just want to do more for themselves.
They just need that start. They just need that first ability to get
going.”
Listen Up with Lorna Dueck is available ON-LINE in a variety of ways.
Click here to find out more!
Pacific 1:30
am Monday
Mountain 2:30am
Central 3:30am
Eastern 4:30am
National Religious Broadcasters (NRB)
Eastern 8pm Monday
10:30am Wednesday
DVD's of all our shows are available for sale. To place an order, please call (905) 336 9777 x27. Copies are $15.00 which includes shipping. Payment can be made by cheque (made payable to Listen Up TV); VISA or Mastercard.
Read Lorna's Globe & Mail columns by searching
our archive.
Read 'Media & The Message'. Lorna says if the church wants to impact society, we need to share our stories.
On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
