Gates Foundation to put money into Microfinancing

From Seattlepi.com (2nd August 2006):

Seattle reaching out with loans. Gates Foundation puts new energy in microfinancing

Microfinance or microcredit refers to the practice of granting very small loans to poor people (usually in developing countries) for business projects aimed at helping them escape poverty. The approach, born of necessity in poor nations, has been around since the 1970s, largely because of the efforts of Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus.

Perhaps the biggest thing going on now with microfinance is that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is exploring getting into it in a big way.

...

"There are 550 million households that live on less than $2 a day," said Dr. Raj Shah, the Gates Foundation's point man on the microfinance front. The philanthropy, which met Tuesday with Daley-Harris, has made a few small donations in this area but plans to get much more involved in the near future.

Women in poor communities have been the focus of most microfinance programs, Shah said, and for good reason.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation