August 2005

Dear Friends,

We live in the midst of a global scandal in which 1.2 billion people live on less than USD $1 a day, more than 100 million children of primary school age are not in school, and some 29, 000 children under the age of five die each day from largely preventable malnutrition and disease.

In his foreword to Professor Jeffrey Sach's book, The End of Poverty, Irish rock star Bono writes about the thousands of deaths each day in Africa from “preventable, treatable diseases.”
 

”Future generations…will know whether we answered the key question…History will be our judge, but what’s written is up to us… We can’t say our generation didn’t know how to do it.  We can’t say our generation couldn’t afford to do it.  And we can’t say our generation didn’t have reason to do it.  It’s up to us.”

In response to this global crisis, more than 2900 delegates from over 137 countries gathered in Washington, D.C. in February 1997 for the first Microcredit Summit 1. There we launched a nine year campaign to reach 100 million of the world’s poorest families 2, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2005.

From November 12-15, 2006, 2,000 delegates from more than 100 countries will gather in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada for the Global Microcredit Summit, to assess progress toward the Summit’s goal of reaching 100 million poorest, and to launch the second phase of the Campaign with two new goals:

1. Working to ensure that 175 million of the world’s poorest families, especially the women of those families, are receiving credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2015.  (With an average of five in a family this would affect 875 million family members. )

2. Working to ensure that 100 million of the world’s poorest families move from below US$1 a day adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) to above US $1 a day adjusted for PPP, by the end of 2015.  (With an average of five per family this would mean that 500 million people would have risen above $1 a day nearly completing the Millennium Development Goal on halving absolute poverty.)

“Microcredit is a critical anti-poverty tool and a wise investment in human capital. Now that the nations of the world have committed themselves to reduce by half by the year 2015 the number of people living on less than $1 a day, we must look even more seriously at the pivotal role that sustainable microfinance can play and is playing in reaching this Millennium Development Goal.” 
- United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan

In February 1997, RESULTS Educational Fund convened the Microcredit Summit, launching a nine-year Campaign to reach 100 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2005.  This historic event, held in Washington, D.C., brought together over 2,900 delegates from 137 countries.  After the Summit, Margaret Catley-Carlson, the Chair of ICARDA and the Global Water Partnership and Past President of the Canadian International Development Agency said, “There just aren't enough words to describe how good I feel about the outcome of the Microcredit Summit and what a wonderful job you and your colleagues did in making it one of the most amazing events in which I ever participated.”

Continuing on the success of the 1997 Summit, a series of Global and Regional meetings have been successfully held and attended by more than 10,000 delegates from more than 140 countries.  From 1997 to the present, the Microcredit Summit Campaign has relentlessly pursued its goal, maintaining a steadfast commitment to the Summit's four core themes: 1) reaching the poorest, 2) reaching and empowering women, 3) building financially self-sufficient institutions, and 4) ensuring a positive, measurable impact on the lives of the clients and their families.  The Microcredit Summit Campaign is a global effort to put first those whom society has put last - to restore to people control over their own lives and destinies.

As of December 31, 2003, 2,931 microcredit institutions had reported reaching 81 million clients, 55 million of whom were among the poorest when they took their first loan.  Of these 55 million poorest clients, 82.5 percent are women.  Seven hundred seventy-nine institutions submitted a 2004 Institutional Action Plan outlining their progress.  Together these 779 institutions accounted for 90 percent of the poorest clients reported. Assuming five persons per family, the 55 million poorest clients reached by the end of 2003 affected some 274 million family members.

It takes the Campaign ten months to collect and verify the previous year's data.  End of 2005 data will be released at the Summit in Halifax.

In addition to marking the culmination of the first phase of the Campaign, the Global Microcredit Summit will also officially launch the Campaign's extension to 2015 with two new goals:

1. Working to ensure that 175 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of  those families, are receiving credit for self-employment and other financial and business  services by the end of 2015. 
2. Working to ensure that 100 million of the world's poorest families move from below US$1 a day adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) to above US$1 a day adjusted for PPP by the end of 2015.

“Access to financial services for the poor is a critical condition for the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.” 
- James D. Wolfensohn, Former President, The World Bank 
in a 2004 letter to 700 parliamentarians

More than 2,000 delegates from over 100 countries are expected to attend the Global Microcredit Summit 2006, including heads of state and government and other dignitaries.  This summit will offer the opportunity for microcredit practitioners, advocates, donors, and others committed to the Summit's goals to assess progress, discuss challenges to achieving the new goals for 2015, and identify strategies for overcoming those challenges.

The Global Microcredit Summit will include: 1) the release of the State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 2006, outlining progress towards our 100 million poorest goal, 2) five new commissioned papers discussed in plenary sessions, 3) 34 official workshop sessions at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, for both developing and industrialized countries, 4) 34 additional associated sessions organized by delegates, 5) ten day-long courses, 6) presentation of two Institutional Action Plans in plenary session and 14 more in seven breakout Council meetings, and 7) release of the most extensive directory of microcredit institutions ever assembled.

• Reaching the Poorest.
• Empowering Women.
• Financial Self-Sustainability.
• A Positive, Measurable Impact.