GreenMicrofinancing

Join us as we seek to energize green microfinance.

Jul 28

2008

Opening Ceremony

Posted by Elizabeth Israel in Social impact, Microfinance, Food crisis, Energy, Earth

On the way to the opening ceremony, Dan and I had a discussion with several people from UDDIPAN . I had a chance to chat with Sawkat Ali Talukder, Deputy Director. UDDIPAN, in Bangladesh (based in Dhaka), reaches 300,000 clients, has nearly 3,000 employees, and was founded in 1986. Approximately 20% of the clients have no electricity. They plan on integrating a solar energy progam in the future, perhaps 1 or 2 years from now.

It was encouraging to hear during the opening ceremony several comments by dignitaries regarding the food and fuel crisis. Dr. Boediono, governor of Bank Indonesia, mentioned that food and energy prices on a global scale have escalated and we need to recalibrate our priorities in the microfinance field. Dr. Yunus also said:

"The climate condition and environmental degradation of the world makes it difficult to achieve the Millennium Development Goals"

How do we come up with solutions within the microcredit field to address this food and fuel crisis, and at the same time reduce poverty? Share your thoughts.

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2 Comments



Felicia Montgomery July 28, 2008 202.146.236.4 Votes: +0	This is an interesting question that you pose. It seems that Prof. Yunus laid out some promising and some would say obvious solutions; one example being microloans for agriculture. He reminded the delegates that microcredit for agriculture has been dysfunctional. It has not reached the millions of poor who could use it and that depend on sustenance farming. Agricultural microcredit can be the best safeguard for the very poor who currently bear the greatest setbacks with the food crisis and high oil prices. However, the fact that we haven’t developed agricultural microcredit to its full positional gives us hope. It also challenges us to take an effective development tool, renovate it to create a greater safety net for the world’s poorest report abuse vote down vote up


Elizabeth Israel July 28, 2008 121.52.70.148 Votes: +0	Thanks, Felicia, for your response. I welcome others to respond to Prof. Yunus' comments during the Opening Plenary or the issues surrounding food and fuel crisis and microfinance. We invite you and others to come to two sessions tomorrow during which we will further discuss the issues. Jakarta Room A 11:15 Microfinance, Their Clients, and Clean Energy 18:30 Financing Clean Energy: ESAF Case Study report abuse vote down vote up