Europe & Eurasia.

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  • A Decade of Microfinance and Improved Child Well-being in Kosovo

    Ten years after microfinance institution (MFI) KosInvest began work in Kosovo, its clients, staff and partners are celebrating improved child well-being thanks to loans for poor rural families and the peacebuilding work of World Vision in Kosovo. Since its inception, KosInvest has impacted the lives of 40,000 children through 12,000 loans totaling US$24 million and 16,000 jobs, which have been created or sustained through microfinance. KosInvest was established in 20...

    Source
    AlertNet (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    Europe & Eurasia
  • Microfinance Works – For the Rich

    VALLADOLID, Spain, Nov 18 (IPS) - Jesús Guerra, a volunteer at this week’s Fifth Global Microcredit Summit in this Spanish town, was nonplussed by the expensive gold watch sported by a banker from a developing country. "When I volunteered to help at the Summit I thought this was different," Guerra told IPS. "I believed that everybody who worked in microfinance wanted to end social injustices, but here I am listening to a lot of people saying that the goal i...

    Source
    International.to (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    Europe & Eurasia
  • ?Challenges and Solutions? on Day Two of the Global Microcredit Summit

    "What’s the one thing you know for sure about clients of microfinance?" This was the question with which the lead author of a new paper, Anton Simanowitz, began the plenary session on day two of the Global Microcredit Summit 2011. "The answer", he said, "is that at some point, they will suffer a shock beyond what they can cope with; and which is greater than their incomes". How MFIs understanding this fact, face up to it, plan for it, determines whether microfinance has ...

    Source
    Microfinance Focus (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    Europe & Eurasia
  • Proposed Seal of Excellence Dominates Day One of Global Microcredit Summit

    There are summits virtually every week nowadays. Networks, funds, and commercial banks - everyone seems to be inviting everyone along to come and discuss the future of the industry. For the most part, these conferences can be little more than distractions at best. At worst, they can be junkets: opportunities for a trip to a new place while the poor MFI, which is struggling anyway, foots the bill. The Global Microcredit Summit, one must admit, is different. For one thing, it happens ever...

    Source
    Microfinance Focus (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    Europe & Eurasia
  • Social Business is About Future of Humanity

    The third Global Social Business Summit began in Vienna yesterday to discuss the progress of global movement of the new business concept to find ways to tackle the most pressing needs of the world. Chancellor of Austria Werner Faymann inaugurated the summit at the Congress Centre of the Austrian capital. Dr Michael Haupl, mayor of Vienna, greeted more than 500 delegates from 56 countries. With the motto of "Pioneering for Results," the 2011 summit has brought together indivi...

    Source
    The Daily Star (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    Europe & Eurasia
  • Why We Prefer Social Enterprises and Co-ops as Business Partners

    At HCT Group, we believe that social enterprises and co-ops make natural business partners. When the time comes to find a new supplier, we will always ask if a social enterprise or a co-op can fit the bill. The recent publication from Social Enterprise UK, Fightback Britain showed that 29% of all social enterprises receive some work from other social enterprises. We would have hoped that that number...

    Source
    Guardian.co.uk (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    Europe & Eurasia
  • Afghanistan’s Vast Mineral Deposits Could Lift it Out of Poverty

    For all the column inches and hours of negotiations spent discussing Afghanistan ’s recent past, present and future, one of the most pressing parts of the puzzle remains largely overlooked and poorly understood. The country sits on top of vast mineral deposits, which, if properly managed, offer the best chance of lifting a generation out of poverty and weaning the country off internati...

    Source
    Guardian.co.uk (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    Europe & Eurasia
  • Social Enterprise: Summit Says that the Geography of the World’s Poverty Has Changed

    It is clear that our changing world needs new approaches, flexible thinking and more social enterprise. Recent global factors such as the financial collapse, the food and fuel price crisis, and the increasingly rapid burn of climate change has been a challenge for the current model of international development. To find innovative solutions, the largest gathering of its kind with over 800 specialists organised by the Development Studies Assoc...

    Source
    Justmeans (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    Europe & Eurasia
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