Moving out of poverty requires more than a greater income. Local entrepreneurs in Burkina Faso explain why.
microfinance
Microfinance Program Staff Journal Entry: Afro-Optimism
This journal entry was submitted by The Hunger Project's Senior Microfinance Program Officer, Sonia Rahal. In Cotonou, I believe once more in Africa. All around me, I felt an energy that I haven’t known for a long time. The lively THP meetings didn’t hold any of the...
Measuring Empowerment: The Columbia SIPA Team’s Experience in Mexico and Benin
In March 2013, a Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) team of six split into two and embarked on field visits to two country offices: Mexico and Benin. In addition to seeking a better understanding of The Hunger Project's (THP's) mission and...
10 Things You Need to Know About Hunger in 2013
How many hungry people are there in the world and is the number going down? What effect does hunger have on children and what can we do to help them? Here are 10 facts that go some way to explaining why hunger is the single biggest solvable problem facing the world...
The 2013 Human Development Report: The Rise of the Global South
The 2013 Human Development Report, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World was released on March 14 in Mexico by President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark. This year's report...
Top 10 Trends in Ending Hunger and Poverty During 2012
This year saw a continuation and expansion of many of the positive trends in last year’s list: civil society consultation, gender mainstreaming, transparency, small farmer empowerment. And it saw new initiatives to fill gaps in achieving the MDGs. Yet we also...
Financial Access Taken for Granted, No Less Crucial
In a recent article on financial access, Tilman Ehrbeck, the CEO of CGAP (an independent microfinance policy and research center housed at the World Bank) reminds us why it is so important. As he says: "Imagine life without access to formal financial services: without...
A Review of Road Map for the Microfinance Industry: Focusing on Responsible and Client-Centered Microfinance
Comprised of members representing eight different microfinance organizations, the Microfinance CEO Working Group meets once a month to discuss the challenges practitioners face within the industry and to develop collective responses. In their latest brief they...
The Great Microfinance Debate
In a recent article on The Guardian’s Poverty Matters Blog, Claire Provost addresses some of the history and criticisms of microfinance in a review of a new book by David Roodman called Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry Into Microfinance. What both Provost and...
World Wide Wrap-Up – February 3, 2012
Our world is on the brink of change – change for the better. New policies, new ideas and new technology bring us ever closer to the end of poverty, disease and hunger each day. But with these rapid changes comes a deluge of information. So, beginning in 2012, we at...
2012 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
"The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas." Follow along with tweets,...
Weekly World Wide Wrap-Up – January 17, 2012
Our world is on the brink of change – change for the better. New policies, new ideas and new technology bring us ever closer to the end of poverty, disease and hunger each day. But with these rapid changes comes a deluge of information. So, beginning in 2012, we at...
2011: A Year in Review
It’s been quite a year for us at The Hunger Project (THP) and for the development community as a whole. Global conversations are turning, en masse, towards the world’s invaluable smallholder farmers – most notably female farmers. Agriculture, gender equality and...
Microcredit: Meeting its Goals?
The Microcredit Summit Campaign, which brings together practitioners, advocates, donor agencies, and others to promote best practices in the field and stimulate the interchanging of knowledge, recently released its 2012 report. It primarily reflects upon two goals the...
The Importance of Microfinance in Africa
Microfinance programs provide small-scale financial services to low-income individuals. Loans are designed to foster sustainable economic empowerment and capacity building for people in developing regions. Unfortunately, microfinance and microcredit programs have come...
Meet Epifenia Cinpita from Malawi!
Epifenia Cinpita, a Hunger Project partner from Ligowe Epicenter in Malawi, reminds me how the Microfinance Program can help people improve their lives. Epifenia took her first loan in 2009 and used it to expand her petty trade business, through which she mostly buys...
Meet Lizeta Macanimgue from Mozambique!
I recently had the pleasure of meeting Lizeta Macanimgue, a Microfinance Program partner from Zuza Epicenter in Mozambique. Lizeta has an impressive home business, where she sells clothes she purchases in Maputo and food products she buys in local markets, such as...
Empowered Entrepreneurs in Burkina Faso
Moving out of poverty requires more than a greater income. Local entrepreneurs in Burkina Faso explain why.
Microfinance Program Staff Journal Entry: Afro-Optimism
This journal entry was submitted by The Hunger Project's Senior Microfinance Program Officer, Sonia Rahal. In Cotonou, I believe once more in Africa. All around me, I felt an energy that I haven’t known for a long time. The lively THP meetings didn’t hold any of the...
Measuring Empowerment: The Columbia SIPA Team’s Experience in Mexico and Benin
In March 2013, a Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) team of six split into two and embarked on field visits to two country offices: Mexico and Benin. In addition to seeking a better understanding of The Hunger Project's (THP's) mission and...
10 Things You Need to Know About Hunger in 2013
How many hungry people are there in the world and is the number going down? What effect does hunger have on children and what can we do to help them? Here are 10 facts that go some way to explaining why hunger is the single biggest solvable problem facing the world...
The 2013 Human Development Report: The Rise of the Global South
The 2013 Human Development Report, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World was released on March 14 in Mexico by President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark. This year's report...
Top 10 Trends in Ending Hunger and Poverty During 2012
This year saw a continuation and expansion of many of the positive trends in last year’s list: civil society consultation, gender mainstreaming, transparency, small farmer empowerment. And it saw new initiatives to fill gaps in achieving the MDGs. Yet we also...
Financial Access Taken for Granted, No Less Crucial
In a recent article on financial access, Tilman Ehrbeck, the CEO of CGAP (an independent microfinance policy and research center housed at the World Bank) reminds us why it is so important. As he says: "Imagine life without access to formal financial services: without...
A Review of Road Map for the Microfinance Industry: Focusing on Responsible and Client-Centered Microfinance
Comprised of members representing eight different microfinance organizations, the Microfinance CEO Working Group meets once a month to discuss the challenges practitioners face within the industry and to develop collective responses. In their latest brief they...
The Great Microfinance Debate
In a recent article on The Guardian’s Poverty Matters Blog, Claire Provost addresses some of the history and criticisms of microfinance in a review of a new book by David Roodman called Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry Into Microfinance. What both Provost and...