This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English DevelopmentReport.
In many developing nations, more than fifty percent of workersare self-employed. They might move from temporary job to temporaryjob. Or they may own a small business. Many poor people would liketo start a business, but cannot get a bank loan.
One tool to fight poverty is the use of microcredit loans. Theseare small loans for poor people who want to turn self-employmentprojects into businesses. In some countries, the loans may start outas small as twenty dollars. People may also receive training tolearn how to operate a business.
In nineteen-ninety-seven, delegates from one-hundred-thirty-sevennations attended a conference in Washington, D.C. They agreed togive microcredit loans to one-hundred-million of the world’s poorestfamilies by two-thousand-five.
An organization in the United States called the ResultsEducational Fund supports the campaign. It says more thanforty-one-million families around the world have receivedmicrocredit so far. The Results Educational Fund says the nine-yearcampaign is well on the way to its goal.
The Microcredit Summit Campaignbrings together lenders, aid groups, educators, non-governmentalorganizations and others. The campaign has four main ideas. Thefirst is to reach the poorest families in each country. The WorldBank estimates that over one-thousand-million people live on lessthan one dollar a day.
The second goal is to reach out especially to women. Campaignofficials say experience shows that women are less likely than mento waste their earnings. They say women are more likely to investtheir profits in their families and businesses. So the campaignseeks to give women more power.
The third goal is to create loan organizations that arefinancially strong. And the fourth is to make sure the programs havea measurable effect on the lives of the families that receivemicrocredit.
There are more than two-thousand-five-hundred microcreditorganizations around the world. Campaign officials say most docharge interest, but often use their earnings to reach more people.They also say that some banks have seen the success of microcreditand recognized it as a good market.
The Web site for the campaign is microcreditsummit, all one word,dot o-r-g.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss. I’m Robert Cohen.