Microfinance has been an important tool in halving the number of people living in poverty over the past 20 years but there are still some two billion people living on less than $US3.20 a day, according Meredith Scott, CEO of microfinance and development organisation Opportunity International.
In comments made to mark the start of Anti-Poverty Week in Australia, Scott said over the past 20 years microfinance has helped more than 200 million microentrepreneurs build income-generating businesses, generating sufficient income to provide a billion people with regular meals and millions of parents with the capacity to send their children to school.
“However, despite progress, there are still two billion people living on less than $US3.20 a day,” she said. “These people struggle to survive. They cannot afford life’s basic necessities like regular meals, clean water, sanitation, healthcare and education.”
Expressing the hope that Anti-Poverty Week will help to galvanise further action to address poverty, Scott said she realised the task was now “more difficult and complex than previously because many of the families we need to reach are the most marginalised”.
“They’ve slipped through the cracks and we don’t have a safety net to catch them,” she said. “They may be hard to reach because they live in remote rural locations; they might suffering illnesses and malnutrition and lack affordable healthcare and education services in their area; or there may be a domestic violence issue that prevents women from working.”
Opportunity is this month encouraging Australians to cook a curry and share it with friends as a fundraiser so families in developing nations can receive small loans to help them start or build a business. The Great Australian Curry event runs over October and November with a particular focus on Anti-Poverty Week. For more information, see https://au.opportunity.org/great-australian-curry-2018.
Anti-Poverty Week in Australia runs from 14th to 20th October.