Microfinance and the Millennium Development Goals

Today, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the agreed framework for international development cooperation. Achieving these goals, and meeting their targets and timetables, has now become a central thrust for many governments, donors and development organizations worldwide.

Although not the panacea for poverty reduction, providing financial services to poor people is clearly an important means to help reach the MDGs. Studies have shown that people with access to financial services are able to improve their standard of living and are more likely to send their children to school and keep them there longer. In addition to financial services, some microfinance institutions provide other useful services to their clients, such as offering health insurance, and promoting health insurance.

More than 75 per cent of the world’s poorest people live in remote, rural areas. Ensuring that rural poor people have access to the tools they need to build better lives for themselves and their children is a crucial first step towards the target of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015.