"A major means to improve the status of women is to open women's access to finance."

A woman's economic position directly affects her ability to purchase health, housing and education for herself and family, position in bargaining power in the family and community, and ability to act against violence in her home and world.

- UN Expert Group on Women and Finance

"For many years now, I have been impressed by the power of a simple, small loan to those for whom fate and circumstance have resulted in disadvantage. Maintaining peoples integrity and showing them trust, whilst facilitating a way for them to rebuild their own lives is such a meaningful way of alleviating poverty. By placing microfinance in the global spotlight, awareness of this most effective anti-poverty tool will undoubtedly, and thankfully, increase."

-Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah
of the Hashemite Kingdom of JordanEmissary

"Microcredit is about giving hope. When you're talking about making loans to women whose income is less than $1 a day, you can easily make the leap to see what a microloan can make possible. The women I've met in Uganda and Guatemala are so resourceful, and it's just amazing to see how, with their courage and diligence, they create small businesses with such tiny amounts of money. These women work so hard, and they manage to pay off their loans, and the first thing they do is educate and feed their kids. It's amazing that the world is not investing more in this resource."

-Natalie Portman
ActressSpokesperson for the International
Year of Microcredit 2005
FINCA International Ambassador of Hope

Microfinance Statistics

• An eight-year World Bank study in Bangladesh found that 48 per cent of the poorest households with access to microcredit loans rose above the poverty line.
  
• Opportunity International had loans out to over 675,000 poor clients at the end of 2004, and 98 per cent of all repayments in the year were made on time or within 30 days. It estimated that more than 1.2 million jobs were created or sustained from these loans, which were provided at market interest rates.
  
• In 2007, World Vision is reported as serving more than 445,000 clients in over 45 different countries impacting the lives of nearly 1,000,000 children and creating over 400,000 new jobs.
  
• Five (5) per cent of clients graduated out of poverty each year by participating in microfinance programmes, according to a study on Grameen Bank by Shahidur Khandker. More importantly, households were able to sustain these gains over time.
  
• Microfinance programmes from different regions report increasing decision-making roles of women clients, according to the research of Susy Cheston and Lisa Kuhn. For example, the Women's Empowerment Program in Nepal found that 68 per cent of its members were making decisions on buying and selling property, sending their daughters to school, negotiating their children's marriages, and planning their family.
  
• Becoming a microfinance client has led to increased self-confidence in women and improved status within the community, according to results of Freedom from Hunger studies in Bolivia and Ghana. Participants in Ghana played a more active role in community life and community ceremonies, while participants in Bolivia were actively involved in local government.