New Partnerships for Innovation in Microfinance_1

New Partnerships for Innovation in Microfinance Ingrid Matthäus-Maier J. D. von Pischke Editors New Partnerships for Innovation in Microfinance Ingrid Matthäus-Maier KfW Palmengartenstr. 5-9 60325 Frankfurt am Main Germany ingrid.matthaeus-maier@kfw.de Dr. J. D. von Pischke 2529 Trophy Lane Reston, VA 20191-2126 USA vonpischke@frontierfinance.com ISBN 978-3-540-76640-7 e-ISBN 978-3-540-76641-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008923356 © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permissions for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com FOREWORD: The Importance of New Partnerships Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development The fight for a dignified life and against extreme poverty is still the most important challenge for mankind. Four billion people in the world live in poverty. Despite recent improvements, around 980 million people – more than a sixth of the world’s population – have to survive on less than one dollar a day. Poverty is the reason that 77 million children do not receive any primary education. Women still have signi-ficantly fewer opportunities to pursue personal freedoms and live a self-determined life than men. The list of development deficiencies is long and needs not be elabo-rated any further here. To summarise: we have made some progress towards reach-ing the Millennium Development Goals, but there is still a long way to go. Financial sector development has proved to have a strong impact when it comes to achieving sustainable improvements in the living conditions of the poor. A strong and stable financial sector provides the foundations for economic stability and growth. These foundations promote development in other areas, including health, education, and social equality. That is why German development coopera-tion has consistently supported the deepening and broadening of financial systems in our partner countries. Building Sustainable Institutions from the Ground up Supporting microfinance institutions has long been a focus of German develop-ment cooperation. The Grameen Bank, which was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2006, represented by its founder Mohammad Yunus, received support from the German government during the 1980s and 90s. German development cooperation provided this microfinance institution with advisory services for capacity building and funding in order to enable it to expand its micro-lending. An impressive num-ber of microfinance institutions have been founded and supported with contribu-tions from German development cooperation. These include the municipal savings banks in Peru, the fast-growing ProCredit Group serving 3 million women and men in Africa, Latin America and South-East Europe, and microfinance institutions in difficult post-war situations where the population has suffered or is still suffering heavily, for example in Afghanistan, Mozambique or Congo. ... - tailieumienphi.vn