[Canmore AB 06-23-10] In September of 2000, the United Nations addressed the issue of global poverty by adopting the Millennium Declaration. The declaration pledged the members to accomplish measurable goals to eradicate global poverty by the year 2015. The Millennium Development Goals focus on eight areas of concern, including poverty and hunger, universal education, maternal health, and HIV/AIDS prevention, among others.

With the deadline now only five years away, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has called upon world leaders to attend a summit this September to assess and accelerate the progress towards reaching these goals. From un.org: “Coming amid mixed progress and new crises that threaten the global effort to halve extreme poverty, [Mr. Ban says,] ‘The summit will be a crucially important opportunity to redouble our efforts to meet the goals,’ […] by the 2015 deadline.”

With such mixed progress, how will the goals be met? Microfinance can contribute to many of these goals, making it an important tool in reaching these targets in the developing world. Although not specifically stated in the Millennium Development Goals, microfinance has proven to be a strong mechanism for achieving its mission. Addressing nearly every target, microfinance breaks through the many elements of poverty inherent in the eight goals.

“Microfinance is much more than simply an income generation tool,” says Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). “By directly empowering poor people, particularly women, it has become one of the key driving mechanisms towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals, specifically the overreaching target of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.”