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Professor Yunus with PM Gordon Brown |
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Professor Yunus discusses global food prices with PM Gordon Brown
London, April 21, 2008
During a meeting at 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus highlighted the extreme difficulties created on the poor by the global rise in prices of essential food items. Professor Yunus proposed a global initiative to redress the immediate pressure. Professor Yunus requested PM Gordon Brown to take leadership role within the European community and the G-8 to initiate concerted efforts to address this issue. He pointed out that a powerful breakthrough is needed in agri-technology to raise the production level in the shortest possible time.
Gordon Brown met with Nobel prize-winner Muhammad Yunus , father of
microcredit and founder of the Grameen Bank, and announced that the
UK Government will work with the Grameen Group, and other partners to
give access to and unlock the power of financial services for Africa's
poor. The Grameen Bank, which gives small loans to families for
undertaking income-generating activities, has shown how effective
microcredit can be in bringing about economic and social development,
with millions of people lifted out of poverty in villages across
Bangladesh and beyond. The Prime Minister and Professor Yunus discussed
how the public and private sectors can work together to help unlock the
power of microcredit to improve the lives of millions, particularly in
Africa, where the world's development emergency hits hardest and nearly
300m people still live on less that $1 a day.
With foreign investment into microcredit across the globe tripling to
$4 billion between 2004 and 2006, and through the work of organisations
like the Grameen Trust which reaches over 4.7 million families through
141 partner organizations in 38 countries, the impact of microcredit is
being felt all over the world. There is an urgent need to improve
business and management skills in the microfinance industry in Africa
to make sure this money is used to help people from the world's poorest
communities. As a first step the UK Government will provide £500,000,
towards bridging the skills gap in the microcredit industry in Africa,
which will be more than matched by the private sector. The initiative
will bring together civil society organisations, and the private sector
to contribute the funding, knowledge and skills required to bring
microfinance to those who need it most.
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