Grameen Foundation : Resource Center : Print Newsletter : Spring 2005 : UN Int'l Year of Microcredit 2005
Board Member Plays Key Role in UN's International Year of Microcredit 2005
Chowdhury championed resolution until it passed
In November last year, the United Nations launched the International Year of Microcredit 2005 — a critical step toward raising world understanding about the power and importance of microfinance as a strategy to help reduce poverty.
It is hoped that this UN resolution will help increase support for microfinance programs around the world and reconfirm its vital role in helping the world’s poorest escape poverty. Microfinance is an important element of the UN’s strategy to achieve its Millennium Development Goal of reducing world poverty by half by 2015.
Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is the visionary who introduced the draft resolution to declare the International Year of Microcredit while he served as Bangladesh's Permanent Ambassador to the UN. He has been a GFUSA board member since June 1998. In 1999, he became the UN Undersecretary General and High Representative for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Land-locked Countries, and Small Island Developing States and continued to champion the resolution until it passed.
"For the LDCs, microcredit is more thanjust a development tool,” the Ambassador explained to the UN General Assembly. “It is a vital means of income generation, social inclusion and empowerment. In short, it is an important means of our continuing and wideranging struggle against poverty in the LDCs and their teeming millions.”
The Ambassador’s passionate support of microcredit continued as he hosted a roundtable luncheon at the UN headquarters, where GFUSA President Alex Counts presented the keynote address to 50 UN delegates and Mrs. Nane Annan, wife of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Grameen Foundation : Resource Center : Print Newsletter : Spring 2005 : UN Int'l Year of Microcredit 2005
Grameen Foundation uses microfinance and innovative technology to fight global poverty and bring opportunities to the world's poorest people. With tiny loans and financial services, we help the poor, mostly women, start businesses and escape poverty. Our global network of 55 microfinance institution (MFI) partners including our Growth Guarantee partners has touched more than 34 million people in 24 countries. In addition, we introduced and now sustain technology initiatives (Mifos and Village Phone) in Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, bringing our total country outreach to 28.
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