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Kofi
Annan, UN Secretary General
"The great challenge before us is to address the constraints that exclude
people from full participation in the financial sector. The International Year
of Microcredit offers a pivotal opportunity for the international community to
engage in a shared commitment to meet this challenge. Together, we can and must
build inclusive financial sectors that help people improve their lives."
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Her Majesty
Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of the Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan
Emissary for the International Year of
Microcredit 2005
FINCA International Board Member
"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."
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Nane
Annan, lawyer, painter, and wife of the UN
Secretary General
"I have been inspired by the many women who have told me their stories with
a sense of pride and achievement. Despite being poor and women, somebody had
believed in them and offered them access to credit, often very small amounts.
I hope the International Year of Microcredit will give even more women access
to microfinance services, enabling them to fulfill their hopes and dreams for
themselves and their families."
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Her
Royal Highness Princess Mathilde of Belgium
Emissary for the International Year of
Microcredit 2005
"The Year of Microcredit will highlight how women's talents and innovation,
together with access to credit and savings can give them the power to make long
term investments in their families, communities, and their children's lives."
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Mark
Malloch Brown, Chef de Cabinet, Office of the Secretary General to the United Nations
Microfinance is much more than simply an income
generation tool. By directly empowering poor
people, particularly women, it has become one
of the key driving mechanisms towards meeting
the Millennium
Development Goals, specifically the overarching
target of halving extreme poverty and hunger
by 2015."
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Iftekhar
Ahmed Chowdhury, Ambassador and Permanent
Representative of Bangladesh to the United
Nations Chairman of the Second Committee
(Economic and Financial)
"Our experiences point that providing the poor with microcredit results
in asset creation, employment generation, economic security and empowerment of
the poor, particularly the women. We have reaped enormous benefits from microcredit
in improving our social sector indicators . . . The International Year of Microcredit
in 2005 will present us with an excellent opportunity to highlight the efficacy
of microcredit in combating poverty."
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Dominic
Sasia Malusi, supermarket owner - Kenya
"Since I was 11 years old, I have wanted to be an entrepreneur. With the
loans provided by K-Rep Bank I have been able to realize my business plans. Now
I run this supermarket."
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H.E.
Mr. Dirk Jan Van Den Berg Permanent Representative,
The Netherlands Mission to the United Nations
"Microcredit and microfinance will however reach the maximum number of poor
clients only when it is recognized as a national priority and integrated into
the financial sector. Our goal is far beyond extending more credit to more poor
people. Our goal is to figure out how to work together in partnership to build
financial sectors that work for everyone and in particular for those that are
trying desperately to climb the economic ladder to get out of poverty."
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Mr. Sultan
Al-Mahmoud, Permanent Mission of the State
of Qatar to the United Nations
"Member States, as well as, the United Nations, International Financial
Institutions, private sector, civil society all have a partnership role to play
in forwarding microfinance. The International Year of Microcredit will be a special
occasion for giving impetus to microcredit and microfinance programmes in all
countries, particularly in the developing world. The Year provides us with an
excellent opportunity to show-case best practices, share ideas on new and innovative
uses of microcredit and microfinance schemes in broadening the choices for the
poor."
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Stanley
Fischer, Governor, Bank of Israel, Chair,
Advisors Group for the International Year
of Microcredit 2005
"Estimates of the number of poor people in the world who use microfinance
range from 70 million to 750 million. One of the goals of the International Year
of Microcredit is to improve statistics on the nature and scale of the penetration
of microfinance. But the essential goal is to strengthen and spread the availability
of good financial services, which offer the possibility and the hope to many
poor people of improving their own situations through their own efforts."
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Marilou
van Golstein Brouwers, Senior Fund Manager,
Triodos Bank
Zeist, The Netherlands
Advisor for the International Year of
Microcredit 2005
“One of the most distressing consequences of globalization is the increase
in the wealth of a few while hundreds of millions of people still live in poverty.
However, microfinance is a powerful tool to begin to change that.”
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Clara
Hernández, grocery store owner-
Mexico
"Our earnings have gone up with the loans," smiles Clara. "Now
we are more independent."
Photo credit:
Rohanna Mertens for ACCION International
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Mbanda,
artisan - Mozambique
"I can work more, knowing that I am going to sell my product. My life has
improved because of the large international orders that I am receiving. I earn
a lot more money than I did selling in the local market!"
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Diana
Medman, Director, AO Bioprocess
Moscow, Russia
Advisor for the International Year of
Microcredit 2005
"Founding the Russian Women's Microfinance Network enabled me to pursue
gender equality and poverty eradication throughout Russia. As an Advisor to the
International Year of Microcredit 2005, I'm pleased to be a part of the overall
effort to provide microfinance to poor and low-income people, which gives women
everywhere the power to play more prominent roles in their communities."
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José Antonio
Ocampo, Under Secretary General for Economic
and Social Affairs
Co-Chair, Coordinating Committee for
the International Year of Microcredit 2005
"Efficient financial systems are vital for the prosperity of a community
and a nation as whole. To ensure that poor people are included in the benefits
of development, it is necessary that these vast numbers have consistent access
to financial services, access that can translate into a key element of economic
growth and poverty alleviation: options."
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Natalie
Portman, Actress
Spokesperson for the International Year
of Microcredit 2005
FINCA International Ambassador of Hope
"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."
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Raghuram
G. Rajan, Economic Counsellor and Director, Research
Department International Monetary Fund
Advisor for the International Year of Microcredit
2005
"People, poor and rich, need reliable financing so that their ideas can
be brought together with assets to generate long-run sustainable growth. The
two key ingredients to a well-functioning market economy are competition and
access, competition so that performance keeps improving and access so that everyone
has a chance to participate and nobody's talents are wasted. In the coming Year
of Microcredit, we will focus on access to finance, for after all, people, poor
and rich, need reliable financing so that their ideas can be brought together
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Ambassador Joël Wassi Adechi, Benin
"The provision of financial services to poor and low-income
people is of tremendous importance to the Least Developed Countries
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