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..Press
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UNESCAP News Services
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Date 18
November 2004
Press Release No: L/62/2004
UN Launches International Year of Microcredit
2005 - Microentrepreneurs Ring in the Year by Opening Stock
Exchanges around the World
18 November 2004 — The United Nations launches
the International Year of Microcredit today in an effort to
build support for making financial services more accessible
to poor and low-income people. It will aim to raise public awareness
about microcredit and microfinance, and promote innovative partnerships
among governments, donors, international organizations, non-governmental
organizations, the private sector, academia and microfinance
clients.
The Year’s overarching goal is to provide greater access
to credit, savings, insurance, transfer remittances and other
financial services for poor and low-income households in order
to move towards more secure livelihoods and prosperous futures.
“The world has set an ambitious course to meet the Millennium
Development Goal of cutting in half, by 2015, the proportion
of people living on less than one dollar a day. Microfinance
is a powerful tool to help us get there,” said Mark Malloch
Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP).
Although microcredit and microfinance have already had a positive
impact on the household income and quality of life of millions
of poor people, many still lack access to financial services
that could raise their standard of living and protect them against
economic setbacks. Billions of people could benefit from financial
services, although today only a tiny fraction of this demand
is being met. To meet this huge gap in services, the Year calls
for constructing inclusive financial sectors that strengthen
the powerful, but often untapped, entrepreneurial spirit that
exists all over the world.
“By viewing poor people as vital contributors to their
local and national economies, the International Year of Microcredit
2005 has the potential to unleash a new wave of microentrepreneurship,
giving poor and low-income people a chance to build better lives,”
said Jos? Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General of the UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA).
Launch observances are beginning the day with the ringing of
opening bells at stock exchanges around the world by microentrepreneurs
from Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Mexico, Rwanda
and the United States. The participants are all recipients of
the Global Microentrepreneur Awards coordinated by Harvard Business
School and other graduate schools. In New York, local microentrepreneur
award winners are scheduled to open the NASDAQ market, while
nine exchanges from Karachi to Zurich and from Manila to Maputo
are also taking part in this coordinated initiative.
“Stock exchanges play an essential role in efficiently
allocating capital in national economies and globally,”
said Stanley Fischer, Vice Chair of Citigroup and Chair of the
Advisors Group for the International Year of Microcredit 2005.
“Today, the world's stock markets are focusing on the
people to whom this Year is dedicated: microfinance clients.”
At opening celebrations at UN Headquarters in New York and elsewhere
throughout the world, experts will address the challenge of
expanding the reach of microfinance by identifying best practices
and the hurdles to wider availability.
Another primary aim of the Year is to increase public awareness
about the reliability of microfinance clients, especially women,
in repaying loans, managing household incomes, building assets
and enterprises and contributing to the economy.
One key need is to collect and analyze hard data on the state
of microfinance: its availability by region, client profiles,
and types and quantities of services offered. As part of the
Year’s activities, a Data Project will bring together
expert statisticians and researchers from the Bretton Woods
Institutions and the UN, in collaboration with governments and
the private sector, to address current data gaps, anticipate
future needs, and build agreement on the best way forward for
donors, private investors and practitioners
In addition, the “Blue Book” project
will seek to identify constraints and opportunities for the
promotion of inclusive financial sectors, culminating in recommendations
of concrete actions that countries can take to make microfinance
an integral part of national financial systems.
The UN General Assembly has designated the UN Capital Development
Fund (UNCDF) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UNDESA) as focal points to coordinate the activities of the
United Nations system for the International Year of Microcredit
2005.
For media information about the Year of Microcredit 2005, please
contact:
Emily Krasnor, tel: +1-212-906-6308, emily.krasnor@undp.org
Adam Rogers, tel: +1-212-906-6082, adam.rogers@uncdf.org
Oisika Chakrabarti, tel: +1-212-963-8264, mediainfo@un.org
www.yearofmicrocredit.org
Published by the UN Department of Public Information in cooperation
with the Year of Microcredit Secretariat DPI/2357A-455499-October
2004-31M
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