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Clinton Global Initiative 2006 Transcripts - click numbers on this page for full transcript . These numbers also index: CEOS: who are discovering
a human mission in life beyond just making the last quarter's numbers regardless of future conseqeunces: 97 &
83 Virgin's Branson; Googles' Page; Microsoft's Gates; Cisco's Chambers; Starbuck's Donald; Siemens'
Kleinfeld; Yahoo's Semel; Sony's Stringer;104 Grupo Carso's Slim;95 Infosys' Nilekani; 104 News International's
Murdoch; Reed Elsevier's Hommen;Standard Charters' Davies; Larfarge's Collomb; 103 TNT's Bakker; Best
Buy's Anderson; Swiss Re's Aigrain;104 Wall-Mart's Scott ; 101 Timberland Comany's Swartz; 78 Ethan
Allan's Kathwari 91 Financing Clean Energy : Executive Director from Fundacion Solar, Ivan Azurdia Bravo;
Chairman of Development Alternatives, Dr. Ashok Khosla; Founder, Green Belt Movement, Professor Wangari Maathai. And please
welcome back our moderator, John Podesta. Energy & Climate Change | Public Health | Poverty Alleviation | Mitigating Religious & Ethnic Conflict | Other 2005 Partnership Focus Areas:Climate Change | Governance | Poverty Alleviation | Religion | Other 105 Delegates & Speakers - includes: | Grassroots World Changers; Yunus (Nobel
Laureate 2006 Peace - Micro Entrepreneur Economics):Maathai (Nobel Laureate 2004 Peace- Biomass Economics): Abed, BRAC,World's
Largest Citizen Organisation- deepest franchises of health and education for & by the very poorest; Drayton Origin of
Social Entrepreneur Maps (2000 coordinates funded), and Changemakers.net peoples competitions: eg peace, health, buildings;
Ashok Khosla, Ivan Bravo | | Sustainability Venture Capitalists & Systemic Entreprenurial
Revolutionaries: Richard Branson (3 billion $ for Climate Crisis), Vinod Khosla | | Goodwill
ambassadors & Journalists for Humanity | | CEOs (Crisis Initiative Sponsor): Larry
Page (google & Climate), Rupert Murdoch(News International & Climate), Nandan Nilekani Infosys, | | National or Race Leaders (Past & Present): Bill Clinton, Laura Bush, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton |
97 special commitments: Branson, Yunus, Gore, Khosla et al 83 Chairman and Founder, Virgin Group Limited Sir Richard Branson. Partner, Khosla Venture,
Vinod Khosla. CEO and Co-founder, Rocky Mountain Institute, Amory Lovins. Presidential Chief of Staff, Government of Brazil,
Dilma Vanna Rousseff. And please welcome back the Honorable Carol Browner. 104 What Can Business Do? - William Jefferson Clinton;And panelists:
Chairman of the Board, Grupo Carso, Mr. Carlos Slim; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch;
General Colin L. Powell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wal-Mart, H. Lee Scott, Jr. &
moderator Tom Brokaw ... Rupert Murdoch (publishing) joins industry sectors committed to zero footprint futures: Industry sectors on zero
footprint goal: " Our
London office
is going to absolutely carbon neutral. And it’s a company employing thousands of people. We
think it does a lot for the reputation of the company. It improves its image. It makes it more valuable. That’s good
for the shareholders too. But it’s good for the society. This involves ttle incentives that all add up and they are
all a mess. Whether it’s changing from a taxi company to one that only uses non carbon fuels. We subsidize every employee
$2,000 who will buy a hybrid car. We are looking at everything we do, our suppliers, every thing they supply to us, boxes
or whatever. What fuels are they using, what are they doing. Then where we will fall short at the end, we
are committed to put in ¯ you know a wood farm or forest in certain parts of the world to make up the difference. We
are doing that and we are now examining whether we can do it across the world for our whole company in every country in which
we operate. .. That people want to feel proud of who they are working for or what company they are involved with and feel
proud of it. And they want to feel they are being good citizens and they can talk to other people about it. And I think that
we have learned a lot today. I think we have seen how far things have progressed in the last few years. You know it’s
the market system somebody said working very well because people see this is good business" Global Health Working Session: Healthy Workers and Productive Businesses: Ensuring
Home and Workplace Wellness 103- Peter Bakker, Carol Jacobs, Jonathan Oppenheimer and Michael White. moderaor: Michelle Norris. 102 Susan Arnold, President Jakaya Kikwete, and Richard Stearns. moderator: Michele Norris. Mitigating Religious and Ethnic Conflict: Preventing and Resolving Deadly Conflict 101 Don Cheadle, actor and activist, John Prendergast, senior advisor of the international crisis group,
and Jeffrey Swartz, President and CEO of The Timberland Company. 100 Hanan Ashwari, The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialog and Democracy, MIFTAH; Eival
Gilady, Portland Trust, Tel Aviv; Ghassan Salame, CNRS CERI. r moderator: George Mitchell, DLA Piper. Poverty Alleviation Working Session: Financing Ideas, Initiatives and Innovations 98 : Majora Cater, executive director, Sustainable South Bronx. Andrew Natsios, professor diplomacy,
Georgetown University and Dr. Ngozi Okanojo-Iweala, former finance minister of Nigeria. Our moderator is James Wolfensohn,
chairman, Wolfensohn and Co. LLC. 95 Cities of the Future Jamie Lerner, former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil; Ken Livingston, mayor of London;
William McDonough, Nandan Nilekani, chief executive officer Infosys Technologies Limited; our moderator,
Judy Woodruff 84 WorldHeatlh: Dr. Peter Hotez, the president of Sabine Vaccine Institute and the chair of the Global
Network for neglected tropical disease control at George Washington University. Dr. Sam Zaramba the director general of Health
Services in Uganda .Jimmy Carter 39th President of USA and founder of the Carter Center who has been focusing the attention
of the world on problem of neglected diseases. eg. The president’s efforts on Guinea worm have eliminated this
disease in 99.7-percent of the world. Moderator George Stephanopoulos 85 Worldhealth: Moderator George Stephanopoulos ;Lance Armstrong, Valentine Fuster (president of the World Health Foundation, and a professor of cardiology at Mount
Sinai) ; Srinath Reddy (one of the first to warn of an impending epidemic of cardiovascular
disease and diabetes in India, and has been one of the world’s most proactive leaders in stemming the spread of chronic
diseases. He is president of the Public Health Foundation of India,) ;, and Nizal Sarraf Zadegan (She
is director of the Cardiovascular Research Center in Isfahan, Iran. ) 79: Mitigating conflicts: Alastair Crooke of the Conflicts Forum; Mark Drewell of Barloworld International;
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Former President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. our moderator, President
Mary Robinson. 78 Mitigating Conflicts: John Battle, member of Parliament, United Kingdom; Farooq Kathwari,
Chairman, President and CEO of the Ethan Allan Interiors, Inc., Dominque Strauss-Kahn, member of Parliament and former Minister,
France. our moderator, Mary Robinson, of Realizing Rights, the Ethical Globalization Initiative.
92: Summing up with video link to Nelson Mandela; and by Bill Clinton and Initiative rapporteurs. Nelson Mandela " [Via
video feed]: I am delighted to speak with you today on such a wonderful and important occasion as the closing session of the Clinton Global Initiative.
The mission of this gathering and the problems you have all planned to fight compel
me to join you here today in support of your efforts. I first want to applaud my friend
Bill Clinton, and his vision and determination to convene this audience and mobilize
a new force to address the greatest challenges the world faces at the start of the
21st century. I commend you for accepting President Clinton’s call to action.
The Clinton Global Initiative is a tremendously unique and critical gathering of human
beings committed to the move from rhetoric to action -- action on an unprecedented
scale. This Initiative is a global movement where every word spoken, every partnership
discovered, and every promise made can have a direct impact on the lives of millions
of people across our planet for generations to come. We must ask ourselves a question:
What can I do as a global citizen? Your commitments can become a powerful tool in shaping
a better world. And the results they achieve hold much promise and hope for us all.
I thank you most sincerely for your commitment. Let us combine our efforts to ensure
a peaceful future for our children.:
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HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Miland Revere
board chair of Vital Voices Global Partnership and her partners are Maria Eitel, president of the Nike Foundation; Ray Ferguson,
CEO of the American Standard Chartered Bank; Sandra Taylor, vice president Corporate Social Responsibility for Starbucks Coffee
Company and Exxon Mobil. They have committed to holding a conference in January of 2007, making a commitment of $1 million
to convene a Pan African Women’s Leadership Summit, the purpose of which is to connect more than 200 African women ... Dr. Zeda Rosenberg, CEO of the International Partnership for Microbicides, known as IPM. IPM
and its partner Harvard University and Partners in Health will commit $3 million over the next three years to support access
to microbicides for the prevention of HIV transmission, and to help develop a broader framework to bring innovative global
public health goods to low resource settings. ...Ajay Banga, chairman and CEO of Citigroup’s Global Consumer Group International.
Citigroup will be expanding its programs to support sustainable microfinance institutions by $100 million over five years.
...Dr. Allan Rosenfield. Those of us in public health work, or who have supported
the soldiers on the frontlines of public health, know this name very well. Dr. Rosenfield is the dean of the Mailman School
of Public Health at Columbia University. The Mailman School will be making a five-year $75 million commitment to help
improve women’s health, decrease maternal death and disability, provide prevention, care and treatment for women infected
with HIV/AIDS and decrease the incidence of violence against women in conflict areas. PANEL:Reema Nanavaty is the director
of the Economic and Rural Development of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India. ; Ann Veneman assumed
the leadership of UNICEF on May 1, 2005, ; Ajay Banga is chairman and
chief executive officer of Citigroup’s Global Consumer Group International Businesses. Dr Gayle, president and CEO of
CARE. She is the first woman and first person of color to lead this premier humanitarian organization in its 60-year history. 81 Mitigating conflicts: Salman Ahmad, Musician and UN AIDS Goodwill Ambassador. Susan Marks of Search for Common Ground. Jeff
Skoll, The Skoll Foundation and Participant Productions. our moderator, Zain Verjee. 80 Mitigating conflicts: His Highness Shaikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalif, Crown Prince and Commander-in-Chief of the
Bahrain Defense Force; Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals; Vartan Gregorian of the Carnegie Corporation
or New York. our moderator, Zain Verjee 88 Diversity in a globalised world: Queen of the Royal Hashmeite Kingdom of Jordan, Queen
Rania Al-Abdullah, President Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu, moderator,
Editor of Newsweek International Fareed Zakaria. 87 Poverty Alleviation Nick Moon of Kickstart International [applause], Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund
[applause], and the honorable Ernesto Zedillo of the Yale Center for Globalization, the former President of Mexico, moderator
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, 86 CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: KRISTIN PETERSON: Inveneo; PREMAL SHAH: Kiva.org Judith McHale, the CEO of the Discovery Communications and the Discovery Channel:Discovery Global Education Partnership;
partnership’s a key word, which I’ll get to in a moment, which now operates in ten countries. We have close to
200 educational sites. We reached 500,000 kids; and our goal is to reach a million kids by 2010. To date we’ve trained
over 7000 teachers to – in the way that they can use video in the classroom. 90 Clean Energy Investment Boom. Managing director Goldman Sachs, Abby Joseph Cohen. Partner in Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and
Byers, John Doerr; Executive Vice President, Ecoenergy Mexico, John Paul Moscarella and our moderator, president and CEO Center
for American Progress, John Podesta. 82 Climate: renewable electric power: Vice President Johnson and Johnson Corporate, Dr. Brenda S. Davis, CEO Solar Century Jeremy
Leggett, Chairman and Managing Director, Suzlan Energy, Tulsi R. Tanti, and our moderator Principal, the Albright Group, the
Honorable Carol Browner.
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Skoll 2007 award winners discussions 1 -
please mail info@worldcitizen.tv with news of other discussion areas Details of Skoll's top 10
menu of 2007 from your bookmark- would love to hear from people who already love one of these- what more can they tell us
about why this is a current best replicator of its sort? Also would you say that what Skoll is doing in colaborating with
other SE networks like ashoka is sifting out franchises ready to fly worldwide? The 2007 Skoll Awardees 1 http://www.volvamos.org/controller.php?action=idioma&lenguaje=english&url_page=/ Escuela Nueva Foundation – est 1987, has strengthened and promoted the Escuela Nueva (New School)
model in Colombia and abroad, demonstrating that with the right educational approach, any child can achieve high academic
standards and permanently escape poverty. The Escuela Nueva model now reaches more than 5 million children in 14 Latin American
countries, Uganda and the Philippines and the World Bank has recognized Escuela Nueva as one of the most innovative educational
programs in the developing world. Social Entrepreneur:
Vicky Colbert Headquarters: Bogota, Colombia Grant Objective: To support the Escuela Nueva Foundation’s
Smart Scaling Campaign to reach an additional 1.5 million children by 2010 through current program expansion in Latin America
and Uganda and by launching new programs in India, Peru, Costa Rica and Bolivia. 2
http://www.freethechildren.com/ Free The Children – Free The Children , N America, recognizes the potential of young people to create positive
social change. More than 500,000 students have joined the organization’s Youth in Action groups in 1,000 schools across
the U.S. and Canada. They have shipped $11 million in essential medical supplies and have provided health care projects benefiting
more than 505,000 people. Social Entrepreneurs:
Craig and Marc Kielburger Headquarters: Toronto Grant Objective: To expand in the U.S. and establish 800 new
Youth in Action groups that raise an additional $1.5 million each year. 3 http://www.friends-international.org/ Friends-International – Since 1994, Friends-International has been running projects worldwide for and with street
children, attempting to reintegrate these children into society and providing positive alternatives to those who unwittingly
or out of economic necessity enable this phenomenon, such as taxis, Internet cafes, restaurants, hotels and tourists. Each
year 85,000 children benefit from programs operated by Friends-International and partner organizations in Cambodia, Laos,
Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Honduras, France, Switzerland, the United States and Germany. Social Entrepreneur: Sebastien Marot Headquarters: Phnom Penh, Cambodia Grant
Objective: To build a financially sustainable global network of partners capable of helping 500,000 street children each year. 4 http://www.footprintnetwork.org/ Global Footprint Network – To combat humanity’s consumption of ecological resources beyond sustainable
limits, Global Footprint Network developed the Ecological Footprint. The Ecological Footprint is used by Wales, Switzerland
and Japan, and by hundreds of other cities, counties, businesses, intergovernmental bodies and educational institutions. Social Entrepreneurs: Mathis Wackernagel and Susan Burns Headquarters: Oakland, California Grant Objective: To add 15 national and/or international government agencies
using the Ecological Footprint to the partner network by 2010. 5 http://www.gramvikas.org/ Gram Vikas – Gram Vikas (Village Development) has developed a holistic approach to rural development in India
that involves entire communities, with water and sanitation as the starting point. The program has been
implemented in 289 villages, reaching 22,347 households and has successfully proven that the rural poor can and will pay for
better sanitation and water facilities. Social
Entrepreneur: Joe Madiath Headquarters:
Orissa, Ganjam, India Grant Objective: To
bring water and sanitation to 100,000 families by 2010. 6 http://www.kashf.org/ Kashf Foundation – Kashf is a microfinance institution that offers women below the poverty line in Pakistan a
way out through access to financial services. est 1996 now assists 150,000 clients:delivers collateral-free microloans, savings
and life insurance products through branches that become sustainable within 10 months. Thirty-five percent of its clients
move out of poverty within three years. Social Entrepreneur:
Roshaneh Zafar Headquarters: Lahore, Pakistan Grant Objective: To expand operations to 600,000 clients by 2010
in Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces. 7 http://www.manchesterbidwell.org Manchester Bidwell Corporation est 1984; raising graduation and college enrollment rates; reducingemployment for thousands
of young people each year in impoverished urban environments across the U.S. ; operates art and recording studios, computer
classrooms and industrial kitchens, among other facilities, demonstrating that an inspiring space and state-of-the-art equipment
lead to more motivated and engaged students. Social
Entrepreneur: William Strickland Headquarters: Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania Grant Objective: Support replication
programs in six cities that will serve 1,800 additional youths by 2009. 8 http://www.msc.org Marine Stewardship Council - To combat declining levels of wild fish stock, ;500 MSC-labeled products from 22 certified
fisheries are sold in 26 countries. Major companies such as Whole Foods in the U.S. and Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury in
the U.K. have stocked MSC seafood, and in 2006 Wal-Mart announced that it would begin to source all its fish from MSC-certified
suppliers. Social Entrepreneur: Rupert Howes Headquarters: London Grant Objective: To increase market penetration in Europe, strengthen its U.S. presence,
expand into the Asia/Pacific arena and certify at least eight more fisheries by 2010. 9
http://www.verite.org/ Verité – Engaging workers in a solutions-driven, participatory model, Verité partners with hundreds
of multinational brands, sector leaders, factories, nongovernmental organizations, institutional investors and governments
to improve social and environmental performance of global supply chains. Verité currently operates in more than 60
countries in electronics, apparel, footwear, food and beverage, and agriculture industries, among others, with a growing network
of staff and partners. By bringing practical auditing, training, capability building and research solutions to stakeholders
of the global workplace, Verité improves the lives of global factory workers, Social Entrepreneur: Dan Viederman Headquarters: Amherst, Massachusetts Grant
Objective: To strengthen partnerships in dozens of countries and train 1,500 practitioners to replicate its model by 2010,
with the potential to reach hundreds of thousands more workers worldwide. 10 http://www.youthbuild.org/ YouthBuild USA – To create a positive future for low-income young people who left high school without a diploma,
YouthBuild re-enrolls them in an alternativeschool where they complete high school and build affordable homes for their neighbors,
while transforming their own lives and becoming responsible citizens and good parents with well-paying jobs. Annually engagse
8,000 youths in 42 states and produces affordable housing for 1,000 low-income or homeless families. Social Entrepreneur: Dorothy Stoneman Headquarters: Somerville, Massachusetts Grant Objective: To build a critical mass of role models and have 500 YouthBuild students communicate their experience
to audiences of millions, expand the program and fund a re-entry program for adjudicated youths in three states.
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OUT OF THE BOX
NAVIGATOR please mail info@changeworld.net to nominate competitions being hosted to change world for all peoples' sakes, and sustainability list of known competitions includes: ted.com prizes 2007 War photographer, James Nachtwey, one of the world's most prominent scientists, E.O. Wilson, and President William J. Clinton : 2006 (Truth Being Wishes : Brilliant Ms Noujaim Sinclair ) 2005 ( Bono Burtynsky Fischell) Dec06 FastComapny Awards List Annual laureates of CA's Tech Museum Nobel, annual: peace ... deep reporting networks 2006 include grameen.tvMacarthur Foundation - annual individual fellows awards to Americans with exceptionally focused creative talents changemakers.net, about quarterly by rotating priority compasses of social entrepreneurs ... ongoing reporting at worldentrepreneur.net Barefoot College Wins 2006 Alcan Prize for Sustainability The
winner of the 2006 Alcan Prize for Sustainability is Barefoot College, led by Bunker Roy. The $1 million award annually recognizes one nongovernmental organization, not-for-profit
or civil society organization working to build a sustainable society. The prize is managed independently by the International
Business Leaders Forum. Since 1972, Barefoot College has improved the lives of some of India’s poorest people by training
them to become health workers, teachers and engineers. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 2007 Social Capitalist Awards Named Eleven current Skoll Foundation partners
and awardees have been named winners of the 2007 Fast Company Monitor Group Social Capitalist Award, which honors social entrepreneurs who combine creativity and ingenuity with business solutions to address social
problems. The organizations and their social entrepreneurs, where applicable, are Calvert Social Investment Foundation; Ceres, Inc. (Mindy Lubber); Citizen Schools (Eric Schwarz); Civic Ventures (Marc Freedman); College Summit (J.B. Schramm); Ecologic Finance (William Foote); KickStart (Martin Fisher and Nick Moon); Room to Read (John Wood); Teach for America (Wendy Kopp); TransFair USA (Paul Rice); and WITNESS (Gillian Caldwell).
Riders for Health, led by Andrea and Barry Coleman, was honored at the national finals of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur
of the Year awards. Competing against top entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom, the organization was named “Social Entrepreneur
of the Year” at a gala ceremony in London. Riders has developed vehicle maintenance and training systems to ensure that
African health workers can reach remote communities on a regular basis.
Ciudad Saludable, founded by Albina Ruiz, is one of 12 winners of the 2006 Dubai International Award for Best Practices
to Improve the Living Environment.
The awardees were all deemed to have made outstanding contributions toward improving
the quality of life in cities and communities. They were chosen from 690 submissions. Each will receive a trophy, a commemorative
certificate and a check for $30,000 at the awards ceremony in Dubai in early 2007. Ciudad Saludable generates employment and
facilitates cleaner cities in Peru by creating local enterprises to collect and process garbage. CAMFED
Director Wins Creativity Award The Women’s World Summit Foundation in Switzerland
has awarded Angeline Mugwendere of the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) the prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life. CAMFED founder Ann Cotton tells us that Angeline was one of
the first young women in Africa that her organization helped stay in school. Angeline is now the director of CAMFED Zimbabwe.
She will receive $3,000 to invest in her work with girls and young women. Jefferson Award Goes to
Roots of Peace Heidi Kühn, founder of Roots of Peace, has won a San Francisco Bay Area Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Services, a national foundation
that honors individuals who perform community service. In addition to being profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle,
she was featured on the CBS5-TV and KCBS-AM radio. Roots of Peace converts minefields to vineyards, agricultural fields and
safe migration corridors for wildlife.
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As journalists who have written
up more biographies 1 2 on entrepreneurs for humanity than most, we are disgusted by how little economics has changed its
high priests in the last 22 years in spite of the very clear map we made in 1984 of the ever increasing system chnages economics would need to undergo - one of a series of work that built up to my father's vaedictory reviews after a lifetime of work
at The Economist. So we absolutely celebrate the 2006 Nobel Prize for peace but likethis Indian arcticle wonder when economics prizes will be freed from the voting of academic peer group cliques who are usually
funded by vested interests in big and macro, and not micro and sustainability Development as a Nobel cause JAYATI GHOSH | Economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh win the Nobel
Peace Prize for 2006. |
THERE are many reasons to celebrate
the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 jointly to Muhammad Yunus, the recognised creator of the "microcredit"
model of finance for the poor that has swept across the developing world, and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh that he founded
three decades ago. These reasons go well beyond appreciation of the valuable human qualities of the man himself, such as his
creativity, persistence, charisma and passionate advocacy in promoting this model widely and extending it in various ways.
One important reason is that awards such as this rescue the Nobel Peace Prize both from the controversial
dogfights that have accompanied some of the political choices of the past, and from being mired in a very restrictive notion
of the concept of peace. This award, along with the earlier award to the African environmentalist Wangari Maathai, shows the
Nobel Committee's recognition that peace is not really possible without more equitable development. The
citation says as much, claiming that this prize is being given to Yunus and the Grameen Bank "for their efforts to create
economic and social development from below. Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which
to break out of poverty." But while this is clearly a much-deserved prize, it also exposes other
weaknesses about the Nobel Prizes in general. It is in some ways a safe, even predictable, choice. Rumours about this award
have been in wide circulation for some time, given the now almost universal espousal of microcredit by the World Bank and
international development agencies in general, as well as by many developing country governments. The United Nations declared
2005 to be "the international year of microcredit", and there has been enthusiastic promotion of the concept in
international circles by former American President Bill Clinton and others. What is worth noting is
that Yunus, who is an economist, received the Nobel Prize for Peace, rather than Economics. Yet his contribution has really
been in the field of economics, since his model stood conventional economic theory on its head and effectively created a new
paradigm, which has since spawned an international industry of theoretical models to explain its success. This tells us something
about how relatively limited in vision the awards of the Economics Nobel Prize have been. They have focussed much more on
narrow academic peer recognition than on addressing real world development issues or processes that actually transform economies.
Promoting Microcredit What
exactly was this innovation called microcredit? To understand its significance, it is important to begin with understanding
how formal financial institutions operate. Since giving credit is always associated with some risk of default - that is, the
borrower not returning the loan amount or paying interest - bankers of all types usually require some form of surety (collateral)
against which they can lend. Formal banking institutions therefore require the borrower to have assets such as land or a house,
or a secure job, or a certified credit history, or some such assurance against which they will proffer funds. This
obviously eliminates the poor, who are by definition without significant assets and usually also lack secure streams of income
through regular employment. So the poor get automatically excluded from formal financial institutions, and are forced to go
to private moneylenders who charge very high rates of interest. These traditional moneylenders are able to function in such
circumstances because they can somehow ensure that the loan and interest are repaid through extra-economic means, or can extract
other forms of payment such a labour services. It was therefore accepted that the poor were not "bankable"
for formal financial institutions, or able to access other financial services such as insurance. Economic theory had also
devised many complicated models to explain the necessary persistence of traditional money-lending and high interest rates
among the poor. The significance of the Grameen Bank and other microcredit experiments was that they
countered this axiomatic belief by showing that even formal financial institutions could provide loans exclusively to the
poor and still be assured of repayment. This is because they are based on the principle of "group lending" whereby
loans are made to a group (of between 5 and 20 people) and therefore peer pressure acts as an effective mode of ensuring repayment.
Muhammad Yunus may not be the pioneer of microcredit - there were cases of similar experiments in the
early 1970s in Colombia and Brazil, for example. But he was the first to make this a viable model capable of being copied
and scaled up. He also became a tireless propagator of the cause of microcredit worldwide. It all began
in 1974, during a famine in Bangladesh, when Yunus was teaching economics at the Chittagong University after receiving a doctorate
in the United States. In his efforts to do something to help the famine-ravaged people in the district, he was visiting nearby
villages when he was persuaded to make his first loan in the village of Jobra. He offered around 7,000
Bangladeshi taka from his own funds to a group of 42 bamboo craftspeople in desperate need. They had no collateral to offer,
and no contract was signed. Nevertheless, the loan was repaid in full, after the borrowers used the money to buy bamboo, sell
their crafts and repay both Yunus and the traditional moneylenders to whom they were indebted. Yunus
drew from this the lesson that the poor can indeed be viable and creditworthy borrowers. But his efforts to persuade banks
to lend to them independently were fruitless, as the banks all continued to insist on his personal surety for any loans taken
by those without collateral. In any case, traditional banks were simply not interested in making tiny loans at high transaction
costs to those with no credit history. The Grameen Bank was founded in 1976 by Muhammad Yunus as a
result of such experience. It was dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor, based on Yunus' vision that even such
very poor people were viable credit risks and could make productive use of small loans to enhance their earning capacity.
Women as target group The
Grameen bank model that emerged had some important features, apart from its concentration on the poor as clients. It involved
lending in groups (originally of five members) who were jointly responsible for the loan. It required repayment in small periodic
instalments, over a relatively short period. It lent not only to farmers but also to rural labourers, petty traders, and most
importantly to women. While at first male borrowers outnumbered their female counterparts, this was consciously altered so
that by the mid-1980s, women accounted for more than 96 per cent of the loans disbursed. This aspect
of lending to women has emerged as one of the more transformatory features of the Grameen model. Women turned out to be much
more reliable borrowers, whose loans were used for the well-being of the family. But this also became an important instrument
of social change in the conservative patriarchal context of Bangladeshi society. Not only did the access to microfinance improve
women's bargaining power within their households, but the fact of meeting together and being part of groups led to other
ways of thinking in a collective mode that proved to be quite empowering. These features have been
emulated not only by the Bangladesh Rural Action Committee (BRAC) and Proshikha, the two other large microcredit non-governmental
organisations in Bangladesh, but across the world, as the focus on microcredit has been an important part of the agenda of
multilateral development banks and even of governments. And the focus on women borrowers has proved to be one of the more
successful results of the model wherever it has been transplanted. The spread of this essentially simple idea has been quite
remarkable in the past two decades. According to the "State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report", 2005, at
the end of 2004 there were 3,200 microcredit institutions that reported reaching more than 92 million clients across the world.
In India too, governments at the Central and State levels have been actively promoting microcredit,
particularly to women, through the institution of Self-Help Groups , which engage in both savings and loan activities. In
States such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, such organisations have been present for some time now, through the efforts of
NGOs such as Mahila Samakhya and Co-operative Development Foundation. A further innovation has been
to form them into federations and link them with formal lending institutions. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development has a scheme whereby it finances more than 500 nationalised banks for lending on to SHGs that have managed their
funds well. The amounts involved are relatively small and the interest rates are quite high (usually around 12 per cent).
But the scheme involves very large numbers - around 1.4 millions SHGs comprising nearly 20 million women, making this Indian
scheme therefore the largest bank-microcredit linkage in the world. No
panacea Despite this spread, and some clear areas of success, it is a mistake to view
microcredit as the universal development panacea that it seems to have become for the international development industry.
It can at best be a part of a wider process that also includes working towards reducing asset inequalities, better and more
egalitarian access to health and education services, and more productive employment opportunities. The
amounts of money distributed through microcredit are small and the periods for repayment so short that they cannot really
lead to effective asset-building. Some argue that microcredit at best acts as a consumption stabiliser, reducing the adverse
effects of shocks such as natural calamities or seasonal fluctuations, and provides means for taking advantage of small business
opportunities. In the absence of other measures or more dynamic growth processes, this can amount to no more than a redistribution
of incomes among the relatively poor, rather than an overall increase in incomes of the poor. It can also be associated with
microcredit dependency, involving continued reliance on loans for consumption rather than productive use. Similarly,
the group lending that delivers high repayment rates can also become an instrument of stratification, especially when there
are linkages with banks providing some additional institutional finance to the groups. There have been cases of women from
the most destitute or socially deprived groups being excluded from membership of groups containing better-off members, because
of fears that their inability to repay will damage the prospects of other members. In some States, peer pressure has forced
women borrowers to take expensive loans from moneylenders to repay the loans from the SHG. Criticisms
do not detract from the importance of the microcredit model, but they do emphasise that this in itself cannot be seen as the
magic bullet to end rural poverty. To their credit, both Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank themselves appear to be aware
of this rather obvious truth, since their interventions over the past decades have been characterised by continuous innovation
and experimentation. In addition to other forms of microfinance such as insurance, Grameen has experimented with housing loans,
loans for fisheries and other small enterprises, venture capital, solar energy projects, a commercial telecom project with
a Norwegian partner to deliver cheap rural phones, and now even health care services. It is this approach
of constantly listening to the actual needs of the poor, of being flexible in terms of continuously looking for new solutions
and enlarging possibilities from below, which is the most engaging aspect of Muhammad Yunus' contribution. Even more than
microcredit alone, it may turn out to be his most positive influence
inquiries chris macrae info @worldcitizen.tv us tel 301 881 1655 ; us office 5801 nicholson lane suite 404, North Bethesda,
MD 20852 USA - uk 80 queens road, suite 30, wimbledon, london sw19 8lb
Mapping is a process of discovery. It explores how to make the invisible principles and practices of
real wealth creation visible, and therefore useable. Our planet needs case studies underline the search for new win-wins that
build ‘system integrity’
Trust-flow is the unseen wealth to invest sustainability in. Tranpsaremtly
mapped it develops a goodwill gravity tyhat invites with roleplayer in a community to multiply goodwill while sustaining
their own cashflow.. Trust is not some vague, mushy, abstract warm-hearted sentiment. It is an economic powerhouse –
probably just as economically and socially important as oil.
The point is, there are specific things you need to do
to get trust flowing, just as there are specific things you need to do to get oil flowing. And like oil trust has a dark side.
Right now, the world is awash with the carbon emissions which threaten the stability and sustainability of its ecosystems.
Right now, the world is also awash with the ‘carbon emission’ of trust – mistrust. Indeed it may well be
that our ability to tackle the one issue – the threat of environmental catastrophe – depends on our ability to
tackle the other issue: how to generate, deepen, extend and sustain trust.>br>But what is the best way of doing this?
One thing is for sure. You don’t build and sustain trust via some sentimental exercise of goodwill to all and sundry.
There are three very simple principles at the heart of effective trust generation.
First, trust is generated via
win-win relationships. It’s virtually impossible to generate or sustain trust without mutual benefit for those involved.
But beneficial outcomes are not enough in themselves. For trust to be built and sustained, both sides need to signal a demonstrable
commitment to finding win-win ways forward. Such a commitment may require real changes to what we say and
do. Second, real ‘win-wins’ are hardly ever purely financial or material. You don’t build trust simply by
walking away with more cash in your pocket. Trust works at all the dimensions and levels of human exchange. Yes, it’s
about financial and material rewards. But it’s also about purpose (what people want to achieve). It’s about politics
with a small ‘p’: the use and abuse of power, the crafting and application of rules of fair play. And it’s
about emotions: the sometimes overwhelmingly strong emotions, both positive and negative, that are generated when people deal
with other peopleWhat’s constitutes a ‘win’ – a sense of real improvement – is therefore highly
specific. It depends absolutely on the details of who the parties are, what they are trying to achieve, in what context. Building
trus, therefore involves discovering these specifics. Just as oil doesn’t flow out of the ground, get refined and pump
its way into motor vehicles automatically and without effort, so identifying and doing what is necessary to get trust flowing
requires dedicated, skilled effort. It requires a disciplined, structured process, not a vague sentiment.
3) Third,
even if we do steps 1) and 2) there’s still a good chance it won’t succeed. Why? Because it ignores an invisible
third factor. In the real world, purely two way bilateral relationships don’t exist. There is always a third party whose
interests or outcomes are affected by what the other two parties do but who is not a party to the contract. The environment
is a case in point. Producers and consumers may both benefit from buying and selling to each other – but what happens
if, in doing so, they destroy the environment they both depend on?
This raises a hugely important question. When
two parties pursue win-wins and build mutual trust, are they doing so in a way which creates a win and builds trust for the
third party at the same time? Or are they simply pushing the problems – and the mistrust – further down the line
on to this third party? Building vigorous, healthy networks of trust is a different kettle of fish to ‘you
scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ win-win conspiracies. It requires a Map of all the key relationships plus
careful consideration of knock-on consequences. It requires a different perspective.
These three simple, basic
steps do not happen automatically. They need to be worked at. The territory needs to be deliberately Mapped and explored.
What’s more, there are obstacles in our way – mental and practical obstacles that need to be cleared. Prevailing
economic theories about ‘rational economic man’ for example, deny the need to commit to win-win outcomes. Instead,
they promote supposedly ‘rational’ (i.e. narrowly selfish behaviours) which actively undermine trust The same
theories insist that the only valid measure of human benefit is money, thereby excluding from consideration many of the biggest
opportunities for improvement. Meanwhile many vested interests do not want to extend the circle of trust to third parties
and complete networks because their positions of power depend on their ability to take advantage of the weaknesses of these
third parties. That’s another job for Mapping: helping to identify and mount such obstacles.
The potential benefits
of doing so are unthinkably huge. They start with a simple negative: the relief that comes from when you stop banging your
head against a brick wall. Mistrust breeds wasteful, wealth destroying conflict that tends to feed on itself. Anger and hatred
engender anger and hatred. Simply easing or stopping the terrible waste of mistrust would transform prospects for many millions
of people. We desperately need to find ways of doing this. Then there are the positive benefits. Understanding the real nature
of human wealth – all those dimensions of purpose, ‘politics’ and emotion as well as money and material
comfort – means we can start being human again; human in the way we think, and act. What’s more, many of these
intangible benefits won’t cost a penny. They’re there for the taking, if only we puts our minds to it.
But
there’s more, because trust is also an economic superpower in its own right. In the pages that follow we will show conclusively
that material and financial riches are also dependent on trust. In fact, we will argue the case for going one step further.
We will say that material and financial riches are a by-product of trust: the visible fruits of invisible, intangible human
exchange. Once you understand that sustainable cash flows are a by-product of sustainable trust flows, your understanding
of what makes a successful business is transformed.
Separately, each of these three fruits – reducing the waste
of conflict, unleashing the potential intrinsic benefits of human exchange, and energising the sustainable creation of material
wealth – are massive in their own right. Put them together and they represent a vast new continent of opportunity.
As we said, this book is addressed to entrepreneurs and system innovation revolutionaries. Wherever you happen to
be, whatever the change you want to make is, the principles explored in this book apply. The wish to change and the will to
change are not the same as being able to change successfully. For that you need to understand your territory. You will need new
Maps. 
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