NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK UNVEILS SCHEME TO HELP LOW-INCOME FAMILIES

(Excerpt) The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has unveiled an initiative aimed at generating economic opportunities for low-income people in Latin America and the Caribbean. IADB President Luis Alberto Moreno told reporters Tuesday [6 June] that the "Building Opportunities for the Majority" initiative would seek innovative solutions to help low-income people develop their economic potential and accumulate assets. Moreno said that the benefits of economic growth had not trickled down to mo...

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BBC

UN boss urges business leaders to spread wealth to poor

(Abstract) In Nigeria, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan pressed business leaders to embrace practices that integrate the BOP into the global economy. Globalization, Annan remarked, has brought wealth and prosperity to many, but has also not addressed the needs of countless others....

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AFP (link opens in a new window)

By Moses Mackay (Excerpt) Five years ago Patrick Schofield and his partners set up a company with the sole purpose of creating jobs and reducing poverty. Today, Streetwires has grown beyond any of their expectations and continues to make a difference in people’s lives. At the time of our launch we were looking at ways of creating jobs and reducing poverty in the communities, said Schofield,...

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All Africa (link opens in a new window)

botswana: housing for poverty alleviation

By Onalenna Modikwa Selebi-Phikwe Phikwe Town Council has welcomed the pilot poverty alleviation and housing schemes by the Department of Housing. The programme was started in 1992 by government to facilitate economic empowerment of poor households who do not qualify for SHHA loans through employment creation, poverty alleviation and home ownership. The main objective of the programme by the government for low income housing was to integrate income generation ...

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All Africa (link opens in a new window)

NAPEP Unveils New Poverty Reduction Scheme

Abstract: Nigeria’s National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) has unveiled a new wealth creation initiative for the BOP, which revolves around micro-credit for small entrepreneurs.? Credit initiatives have so far received a 99% repayment rate....

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This Day (link opens in a new window)

IADB unveils expanded private-sector lending plan

By Gilbert Le Gras WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - The Inter-American Development Bank unveiled on Tuesday a six-point plan to alleviate poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean partly through expanded use of private-sector financing. The recent commodities boom has curbed Latin American needs for loans to cover budget shortfalls so one of the first things IADB President Luis Alberto Moreno said he did when he took office eight months ago was order a focus on helping key...

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Reuters (link opens in a new window)

IDB going after region’s poorest

Patrick Foster Wednesday, June 07, 2006 The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) yesterday announced a potential US$8 billion per year initiative, through which it seeks to promote economic opportunities for the 360 million people in the Latin American and Caribbean region, whom the bank says live on less than US$300 (J$19,500) per month. Called ’building opportunities for the majority’, the initiative will be launched at a conference in Washington DC on June 12 and...

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Jamaica Observer (link opens in a new window)

Dubai: European bank Credit Suisse says a micro-finance fund set up three years ago to lend to poor people in developing countries has been a star performer with a near-100 per cent payback record. Burkhard Varnholt, head of financial products and investment advisory at Credit Suisse, told Gulf News the $50 million fund which re-finances mirco-finance organisations in countries like Cambodia, Afghanistan and Mozambique has the best risk-return profile among some 150 money market funds...

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Gulf News (link opens in a new window)