Microfinance conference in dublin.

national | worker & community struggles and protests | event notice Monday February 14, 2005 12:31 by iosaf

"learn about microfinance"

Microfinance is about giving small loans (generally upto 5000€) with as little interest as possible (ought to be none) to poor people so they can set up commercial or agricultural concerns.
It's very important for 3rd world agriculture and has played a pivotal role in conflict resolutions in the Balkans and Africa.
It's not quite "anti-capitalism", rather it is one of the tools of the system as it exists which can be better used to alleviate in the short term the suffering and under-development of the majority of humanity.

We all to often talk about and think about 3rd world debt and debt cancellation and poverty in terms of national debts alone.
Poverty is compounded by national debts, which stop national state structures from developing schools hospitals and providing vaccines etcetera...

But Poverty is not only to be alleviated by the national state.

The elimination of poverty relies on the elimination of trans-national exploitation and criminal networks which work hand in hand with corruption.

The elimination of poverty by nationalisation of national resources by the nation state does not readily lend itself to the dismantling of corruption of trans-national criminal networks, because sadly all to often the very same people in the nation state structure who profit from corruption are those who manage nationalisation...

Micro-credit, allows for "poor people" to get the cash they need to start a business or buy farming equipment. The credit scoring system has been altered in the last few years, and the international finance sector appears to be warming to the idea of supporting microfinance to the extent that the Swiss have just declared 2005 as "year of microfinance".
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=5532740

This is not going to end poverty, make no mistake, but it is going to help ordinary people take steps to create local conditions which support development. So go along to the conference if you can, and learn about microfinance and microcredit and explore the "pros" and "cons" of this type of acitivity. As we all know, with a little cash you can (if you want) start a business, and the majority of people in South america and Africa do express the wish to do just that. So as well as figuring out how to end their national debts, as well as figuring out how to end their corruption and crime, how to stop our corporations exploitating them for services and products _we buy_, we ought explore all ways of giving them DINERO GRATIS.
That means figuring out a way to take the profit margin out of microfinance and lending.

The historians amongst you might be interested in the role played by microfinance in Ireland throughout the early nineteenth century, and maybe learn lessons from that the majority of rate payers who qualified for O Connell's empancipation Act recieved micro finance from the plethora of financial institutions which sprung up in Ireland at the time. The increased "freedom" of "easy money" with low interest rates did however cause other problems later on. So no magical solutions.

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THE EVENT-

Microfinance in the Global Strategy for Meeting the Millennium Development Goals

Organization by Concern Worldwide

This one day international conference aims to examine the role of microfinance in eradicating extreme poverty, the contribution of community managed finance and issues relating to microfinance in disaster affected areas. The conference is aimed at donors and policy makers in order to impress on them the contribution microfinance is making and the need for more coordinated support to the sector.

Topics and speakers include:

* 'Self Help Groups: Women’s Role in Poverty Eradication and Financial Sector Development': Aloysius Fernandez, Executive Director of Myrada, India
* 'Eliminating Extreme Poverty - from Welfare to Development' : Rabeya Yasmin, Regional Coordinator of BRAC’s ‘Eradicating Extreme Poverty through Welfare, Income Generation & Microfinance' (also known as the IVGVD program) in Bangladesh
* 'Effective Microfinance in Disaster Affected Environments': Dr. Geetha Nagarajan, Chemonics, a US based sectoral leader on the subject of microfinance in conflict and disaster affected environments
* 'Community Managed Finance for Rural Poverty Alleviation': Jeffrey Ashe, Director of Community Finance for Oxfam US

Conference Venue: Carolan Room, National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland
Contact Details: Lea O'Neill at lea.oneill@concern.net
Registration: Please contact Lea to confirm attendance with:

1. your full name
2. job title
3. the organisation you work for or are studying with and
4. reason(s) for attending the workshop.

They will need your registration by February the 11th for planning purposes.
Cost: €20 payable on the morning of the conference. €5 for students and the unwaged.

For any other queries, please contact Lea at the e-mail provided above or phone her at +353-1-4177795.