United Nations Capital Development Fund

International Year of Microcredit Brings Celebrities, Politicians, Economists and Microentrepreneurs Together for Culminating Event

Three-day forum and star-studded evening gala highlight the accomplishments of successful microentrepreneurs from around the world


Shakila Sarajulldin receives her award from Jennifer Lopez at the International Year of Microcredit Gala event on Tuesday evening. Photo by Jonathan Thurston.

9 November 2005 -- Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez, together with husband Marc Anthony, Tim Robbins, Roberta Flack, British entrepreneur Richard Branson, former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and broadcaster Walter Cronkite joined forces tuesday evening at the United Nations to highlight the culmination of the UNCDF-sponsored International Year of Microcredit. During the event, the celebrities honoured nine “unsung heroes of poverty eradication” who received Global Microentrepreneurship Awards for their remarkable achievements in starting and sustaining small businesses in the midst of dire circumstances. The nine poor and low-income winners came from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Liberia, South Africa, India, China, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Peru.

One of the winners was Mama Fatu, a 70-year-old widow from Sierra Leone, who took out a 25-dollar microcredit loan in 1998 to start grinding tobacco to produce snuff. She diversified into vegetable production, rice farming and brewing local gin. Shakila Sarajulldin, an Afghani woman who – despite having tried to kill herself by self-immolation because of marital abuse – supports her three children with a tailoring business in Kabul she began with a loan worth the equivalent of $100. These and other winners are highlighted on the Year’s website.

Walter Cronkite read a message from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, praising the winners and the International Year of Microcredit 2005. The Secretary-General was unable to attend, as urgent matters required him to be out of the country.

With access to small loans, people can move “beyond day-to-day survival,” earn and save more, “and protect themselves better against life's unexpected setbacks,” Annan said, reminding the audience that “these victories are too rare still in this complicated world of ours” and for microcredit to become a real success business must get involved on a large scale.

The evening gala was part of the three-day United Nations International Forum to Build Inclusive Financial Sectors, which has united diverse members of the microfinance community to celebrate the successes of the International Year of Microcredit 2005. More than 500 representatives from over 100 countries have gathered to discuss, debate and deliberate on how to dramatically increase the availability of financial services for poor and low-income people. The goal of the Forum is to adopt an action plan for building inclusive financial sectors, bringing the world one step closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goals of poverty eradication.


World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, together with José Antonio Ocampo, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. UN Photo.

At the forum, World Bank Director Paul Wolfowitz, UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş and UNCDF Executive Secretary Richard Weingarten joined other leaders in international development at United Nations Headquarters to call for inclusive finance services in developing countries to reduce poverty.

“Microfinance is a powerful tool for reducing poverty,” Mr. Wolfowitz said as he opened the three-day meeting on Monday. “It enables people to increase their incomes, to save and to manage risk. It reduces vulnerability and it allows poor households to move from everyday survival to plan for the future.”

He stressed the need for reliable, continuing access to financial services for the poor, rather than one-off loans, and for removing the myriad regulations and fees hindering small businesses to get started and grow.

Princess Maxima of the Netherlands, one of the advisers and a strong supporter of the International Year, said at the event that the commemoration was a huge step forward in providing the entrepreneurial poor with financial services, which were as vital to economic development as roads and electricity. “By enabling entrepreneurship and empowering people, microfinance gives people the opportunity to determine themselves what is best for them," she said. "People do not want handouts, they want opportunities.”

UNCDF Executive Secretary Richard Weingarten, commenting on the week's events, said the many activities of the Year of Microcredit have been encouraging and inspiring, "from the national committee that have been set up in more than 100 countries, to the microentrepreneurship awards to the work that had been done by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to collect data on the building of inclusive financial sectors.

"We are also pleased to see the private sector involved in sponsoring many of these activities, and hope that this collaboration among partners will continue into the future," he said.

UNCDF Chief Technical Advisor for the Year of Microcredit, Christina Barrineau, echoed Weingarten's sentiments. "The International Year of Microcredit has been a triumphant success," she said. "It brought together thousands of people from around the world -- from global leaders to microfinance clients to better understand why the poor need access to financial services, and how microfinance fits into the larger financial sector."

The week’s events wrap up today with a full-day seminar at the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York to explore the role of regulation and supervision in advancing the reach of Microfinance. The seminar also will seek to find out how can governments can help build a level playing field among diverse providers of financial services.