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Editorial: Dynamic Duo

By Lene Mikkelsen

 

The first task of this opening letter is to celebrate the new leadership on this magazine and on the event that it represents, the annual Microenterprise Forum. The Multilateral Investment Fund, known among friends as MIF, has vast experience in promoting access to finance, including microfinance, and in supporting micro and small business development, and resulting from the Inter-American Development Bank realignment, the MIF is now at the helm of the continued work of the Bank in this sector. 

“First, there is the moral aspect …; second, there is a business logic.” This dynamic duo sums up the powerful idea of combining a commitment to helping the poor help themselves with a realization that low-income people can be profitable consumers and producers of goods and services. The duo also constitute the backbone of MicroEnterprise Americas’ Special Section, which this year focuses on Opportunities for the Majority, an initiative launched by the Inter-American Development Bank to expand Latin Americans’ access to tools that can help them accumulate assets and improve their living conditions, from microfinance to basic public services.

At a special plenary of the IX Inter-American Forum on in Ecuador in 2006, three pioneers of microfinance, social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility, Michael Chu, Manuel José Carvajal, and Roberto Salas, presented their thoughts on how to best provide opportunities for the majority. MicroEnterprise Americas is pleased to recap their presentations. The special section also offers stories on how businesses and non-profits can work with the poor even in the most difficult settings. A shining example is Ecuador’s Hogar de Cristo, a winner of last year’s IDB Awards for Excellence in Microenterprise Development, which excels at providing housing to the extremely poor at costs that can be borne by its clients.  

This year’s edition also includes a number of features on subjects such as an emerging agricultural microfinance model, highlighting some of the new solutions being tried in this particularly challenging sector. Another article takes a new look at remittances: As Latin American expatriates send more money home, there are growing concerns about the effects of these funds in local communities. A third feature examines the role of networks in microfinance and the impact they have had in their respective environments. How are networks reacting to the tendency in an increasing number of Latin American countries toward direct government intervention in microfinance? MicroEnterprise Americas, which has often discussed the issue of state involvement in banking, once again addresses this controversial topic.

We are also proud to present the Championship League ranking of microfinance institutions, which we have chosen to limit to 100 even though the MIX list has grown to 160 institutions. What this means is that MFIs are no longer guaranteed a spot on the list by reporting to the MIX; they will have to compete for the first 100 places. If past is precedent, this will become increasingly harder to achieve. As a new feature, the list will add a category that ranks MFIs by microenterprise lending exclusively, and separate from consumer lending. As always, MicroEnterprise Americas strives to present stories that are relevant and interesting, whether we are revisiting topics or looking at emerging ones.

Welcome to the seventh edition of MicroEnterprise Americas. We hope you enjoy it.

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