« This crisis is a chance! ». The Nobel Prize of peace 2006 bets on more solidarity in economy.
The inventor of microcredit is working on promoting solidarity, on reconciling business and social, through the microcredit. The current crisis (food, social, climatic, financial…) is symptomatic of the economic system failure, a system which is obsessed by profit and based on selfishness. The whole system needs to be reconsidered.
Human and social dimension have to be integrated in economy to build a system based on altruism.
This fundamental change can’t come from politics; their speech for a moral capitalism is often « vain wishes ». The injection of enormous sum of money can’t resolve problems. Only citizens can initiate the change and impose it.
The aim is to help the poorest by opening access to financial services, to business and ultimately create sustainable jobs. Social and business are reconcilable. Governments must invest in social business and renounce social aid as the only mean of action, because it creates dependence and prevents real change.
« They must be given a chance to change their lives, to forge ahead. Enterprises must be created to change their lives. » Microcredit is not the perfect solution to come out of poverty, interest rates are sometimes excessive, but it offers a possibility to take a « better way ». « Microcredit is here to help people to come out of poverty, not to permit rich people to make money at the expense of the poor ».
The success of microcredit, born in Southern countries, is extending to the whole world, as in the USA where a program has been started in New York, in France, in Germany, in Bahrain…The majority of the loan beneficiaries are women and their activities are diverse.
« It is part of the responsibility of a society to give everyone access to financial services. Politics must encourage this and society must drive politics this way ».
The Nobel Prize of peace 2006 ends his pleading in favor of the microcredit with an appeal to the youth in order to build a world where responsibility and solidarity go hand in hand.
Currently, microcredit accounts for 12 billion USD worldwide. The Grameen Bank was founded by Mohammad Yunus in 1976 in Bangladesh: 1, 5 billion USD loan portfolio, 30,000 employees and volunteers and 2,600 branches.
FIG contributes to developing microcredit in rural areas of the poorest countries, mobilizing local resources through bank guarantee.
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[French] Télécharger l'article du journal Libération du Jeudi 4 février 2010 ( ~3.31 meg )