Did You know?

  • Microfinance services were first offered in Morocco in 1993-1994
  • 2005 was celebrated as an International year of Micro credit
  • The World Bank estimates at there are now over 7000 microfinance institutions, serving some 16 million poor people in developing countries. The total cash turnover of MFIs world-wide is estimated at US$2.5 billion
  • The Microcredit Summit estimates that US$21.6 billion is needed to provide microfinance to 100 million of the world's poorest families
  • Fewer than 2 percent of poor people have access to financial services (credit or savings) from sources other than money lenders
  • The world's seven richest men could wipe out global poverty. Their combined wealth is more than enough to provide the basic needs of the poorest quarter of the world's people
  • Fewer than 10 million of the 500 million people who run micro and small enterprises have access to financial support for their businesses
  • While most borrowers are women, studies indicate that many loans awarded to women and paid back by them are in fact used by men
  • In Africa, women account for more than 60 per cent of the rural labour force and contribute up to 80 per cent of food production, yet receive less than 10 per cent of credit provided to farmers
  • One in four of the world’s people still live in severe poverty. It’s worse for women than for men; and for black people than for white
  • According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die everyday due to poverty. That is equivalent to:
    • 1 child dying every 4 seconds
    • 15 children dying every minute
    • A 2010 Haiti earthquake occurring almost every 10 days
    • A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring almost every 10 days
    • An Iraq-scale death toll every 18–43 day
  • Child survival rates jump 40% if girls are educated for five years
  • In the past 50 years poverty has fallen more than in the previous 500. Since 1960 child-death rates have been halved and malnutrition has declined by a third
  • China accounts for nearly all the world’s reduction in poverty
  • China’s poverty rates fell from 85% to 15.9% or by over 600 million people
  • A mere 12% of the world’s population uses  85% of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World
  • For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 in spent on debt repayment
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