Feb 5, 2009 — One of the most interesting things about the appointment of Timothy Geithner as the head of the Treasury Department is that his entire life prepared him for the world we are living in today. Raised by a father, Peter Geithner, who ran the Microcredit program for Indonesia…(full article)
AsidesFeb 5, 2009 — Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for pioneering a micro-lending model for the world’s poorest to engage in business, said Thursday his formula can also help recession-racked American families escape poverty. “This is the right time to come here,” Yunus declared as he sought $2 million in seed money ...
AsidesKiva.org, the non-profit people-to-people microlending organization, is rolling out an open-source API platform for techies interested in building tools and new applications for the microfinance/microlending community. Kiva wants ‘build.kiva.org’ to become a hub for socially-minded developers who want to make a difference in the world (full article).
AsidesThe Global Microfinance Investment Conference, to be held May 19 and 20 in New York City, draws the heavy lifters in microfinance.
EventsA teacher in a government-run school in West Bengal, India, is the winner of the 2008 CGAP Microfinance Photography Contest. Somenath Mukhopadyay’s photo of a young girl preparing radishes to take to market in Tarapur village, West Bengal, won out over more than 700 entries from 40 countries in all regions of the world. The ...
AsidesThough certainly no expert on the interwebs, I have gleaned at least one nugget of wisdom: images convey information more efficiently than words.
News and CommentaryAverage Americans, struggling to survive in a disintegrating economy, might be forgiven for assuming that people and institutions who lend, manipulate and otherwise handle other people’s money are greedy, unprincipled wretches. But there’s a movement afoot that’s far from business as usual. In fact, it’s pretty much the antithesis of mainstream banking practices. It’s microlending ...
AsidesA new P2P microlending site has emerged with a specific focus on the Palestinian Territories.
News and CommentaryCompanies are racing to add poverty-reducing microcredit initiatives to their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Their hearts may be in the right place, but these well-intentioned efforts can backfire. (full article)
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