David Bussau with an Opportunity International client in Africa. PICTURE: Courtesy of Opportunity International Australia. “People living in poverty have as much drive and creativity to succeed as anyone else. What they need is a hand-up, not a hand-out. Micro-Enterprise Development achieves this and provides corporate Australia with a successful program to show they are serious about corporate social responsibility.” - David Bussau

1st December, 2004
DAVID ADAMS

It can be as little as $35. But it can provide the start-up spark for a business idea which can help people living in developing countries to pull themselves out of the grinding poverty that consumes their existence.

With the United Nations declaring next year the International Year of Microcredit, two Australian humanitarian agencies have come together to launch a new initiative they hope will provide a means for Australians to lend a helping hand.

Launched in Sydney last week, Opportunity International Australia and World Vision’s Micro-Enterprise Development project aims to provide loans to small businesses as well as training, mentoring and support to encourage “aspiring entrepreneurs” living in developing countries.

Studies have shown that for every micro-loan made up to 1.5 jobs are sustained and that up to 12 people benefit indirectly from every loan. With up to 80 per cent of people in the developing world not having access to the formal banking sector, the alternative for many living in the developing world is to turn to money lenders who can charge as much as 500 per cent a year in interest.

David Bussau, founder of Opportunity International and 2003 Australian Entrepreneur of the Year, told those at the launch the scheme was about giving people the chance to change their own lives.

“Economic empowerment positions people to make a choice,” he said. “If you are economically disempowered, you don’t have a chance.”

Calling on corporate Australia to back the scheme, Bussau said that micro-enterprise development provided a basic building block to lift people out of chronic poverty.

“People living in poverty have as much drive and creativity to succeed as anyone else,” he said.

“What they need is a hand-up, not a hand-out. Micro-Enterprise Development achieves this and provides corporate Australia with a successful program to show they are serious about corporate social responsibility.”

Tim Costello, World Vision chief executive, said that the “shamefully small amount” of $70 can lift an entire family from poverty.

“Through programs such as (micro-enterprise development) we can assist in the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by way of providing loans to those in need to start their own business and increasing their annual income,” he said.

“This in turn improves the standards of living and liberates individuals from the poverty cycle that is currently experienced in most of the poorest countries.”

Founded 30 years ago, in 2003 alone Opportunity International distributed more than $200 million in loans and created or sustained 922,000 jobs in 26 countries with a repayment rate of 97 per cent. Women account for a massive 87 per cent of loan clients.

Costello said some people are surprised to learn that World Vision has been providing micro-finance and business coaching for 10 years in countries as diverse as Cambodia, Ecuador, Brazil, India, Zimbabwe, Mongolia and the Philippines. In August, it administered it’s one millionth loan.

Three of its loan recipients were recently winners in the UN’s ‘Cambodia Awards for Global Microentrepreneurship’.

Costello said that one of the winners in particular - 24-year-old Theang Phally - stood out.

Separated from her husband with only a fourth grade education, Theang has seven dependants whom she supports by travelling each day after completing her work in the fields to buy products to sell from her home and boat.

“Two years ago Theang borrowed just $37.50 through World Vision and new has over $450 in capital and revolves almost $800 in cash each month,” he said.

“This is the difference between being one of the statistics who live in poverty, to someone who now has been given an opportunity to succeed as well as afford to basics to feed and look after her family.”

~ www.opportunity.org.au

~ www.worldvision.com.au

BASIC FACTS ABOUT GLOBAL POVERTY:

• Three billion people, half the world’s population, live on under $4 a day.

• Women do 67 per cent of the world’s work, earn 10 per cent of the world’s pay and only own one per cent of the world’s land.

• More than 840 million people are malnourished.

• Every day, around 25,000 people die of hunger - that’s one person every 3.5 seconds.

• 12 million people die each year from lack of water including three million children from waterborne disease.

• In 2003, the richest 20 per cent of the world’s population received 85 per cent of the total world income while the poorest 20 per cent received just 1.4 per cent of the global income.

• Only four per cent of the wealth of the world’s 225 richest people - equating to $40 billion - would be enough for basic healthcare, food, safe water, sanitation and education for all of the world’s people.

Sources: James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, 2001; UNESCO; United Nations; UNICEF; World Bank, UNDP Human Development Report.