World Bank Reports on Millennium Goal to End Extreme Poverty

Hear how you can participate and how microfinance is reaching the bottom billion to help eradicate extreme poverty. See below for the 7 actions you, personally, can take.

In 2000, The United Nations set 8 Millennium Goals, the first of which is to end extreme poverty by 2015, with the participation of 189 world leaders. The World Bank research group has been tracking progress since 1990. Their data shows that between 1990 and 2008, both the number of people and the percentage of population living in extreme poverty has significantly decreased from 1.9 billion to 1.29 billion and from 43% to 22.4%. This across-the-board reduction is a first since the Bank began monitoring extreme poverty 21 years ago.

The reduction is particularly important because it gives real evidence that eradication is indeed possible. Tom Coleman, CEO and Founder of the Bottom Billion Fund, explains the importance of microfinance institutions (MFI) that focus on reaching people living on less than $1.25 a day.

Micro finance often supports the “growing middle class of developing countries,” those people who have reached $2 a day but are still making less than $10,000 annually, the US poverty level. Although this, too, is good work, to truly eradicate extreme poverty requires reaching the “bottom billion.”

10 million people, or 1000 an hour, die unnecessarily each year. Poverty is the cause of more deaths than any disease or political conflict in history. You can help by educating yourself about the facts and about the many ways in which you can participate. Talk with others. The Bottom Billion Fund suggests the following in your investigations:

• Investigate micro finance organizations located in countries with large numbers of the bottom billion.
• Determine whether they are truly reaching the bottom billion and can document it, and if so, with what types of programs. Do they have programs or partnerships that help deliver more than money in the form of education and health services?
• Providers will take adequate care in all phases of their credit process to determine that clients have the capacity to repay without becoming over-indebted and have systems that foster credit risk management.
• The MFI provides complete transparency and communicates clearly, in the language of its clients, all terms and conditions.
• The MFI has responsible and fair pricing without discrimination and with safeguards to detect corruption.
• Client data is kept private.
• There are mechanisms for complaint resolution and product improvement.

The Bottom Billion Fund is dedicated to reaching those living on less than $1.25 and is actively partnering with well-known microfinance organizations to assure that extreme poverty is completely eradicated within our lives. You can help by donating to the Bottom Billion Fund as well.

As Nelson Mandela shared, “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.“