International Women's Day - Microfinance Event - House of Lords

Speech by Annette Brooke MP delivered to HRH The Princess Royal on Wed 8th Mar 2006

Annette Brooke MP, Baroness Whitaker, HRH Princess Royal

Your Royal Highness, Baroness Whittaker, distinguished ladies, I'm delighted to be here today, it is a great privilege to welcome so many special women here to the House of Lords. As chair of The All Party Parliamentary group for Microfinance, I have worked very closely with Opportunity international - Opportunity's director David Coates spoke at our inaugural meeting way back in 2002. I also travelled to Ghana with Opportunity, to see the impact of its work on the ground.

We know how successful micro finance projects can be, particularly for women. We also know that micro finance is a sustainable form of development - 'giving people a hand up not a hand out'.

The All Party Group has aimed to increase awareness and understanding of the benefits of MF and was one of the founding members of the UK National Committee established to promote the United Nations' International Year of Microcredit. During that time a microfinance club has been established in the City of London.

Opportunity International was key to organising the launch of the UN Year of Microcredit last year at the London Stock Exchange.

I will never forget meeting Alice Jere - a chicken farmer from Zambia - who had been especially invited to open the Stock exchange on that special Day.

Alice is a remarkable woman. On the back of a £20 loan in 2001, she put her five children through school and college, and now supports members of her extended family and provides a home and education for local HIV/Aids orphans - there has been a multiplier effect. This outcome is typical of many successful business women in the developing world.

Seeing Alice, who started her business with a £20 loan, standing side by side with the chairman of London's Stock Exchange was a truly memorable experience.

It was not so long ago that the highest court in England made quite clear that lending to women was a bad idea, stating:

'No loans to any woman whatsoever' By the gracious ordinance of the Honourable Lords of The Royal Courts of Justice, London, 1871.

So, we have come a very long way since then. It is important to appreciate that microfinance is good for women and women are good for microfinance.

In this respect I would like to highlight just how powerful Microfinance can be in helping to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed at the United Nations Millennium summit in September 2000 and nearly 190 countries have subsequently signed up to them. They were introduced in an attempt to encourage the international community to stop just talking about making a difference in the developing world and join forces to start doing something about it. Microfinance is particularly relevant to achieving the first 4 goals.

By being one of the most powerful tools we can use in the fight against poverty, micro-credit provides a fast track to the first MDG, which is to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day. 70% of the world's poor are women.

The ability to borrow a small amount of money to take advantage of a business opportunity, to pay for school fees, or to bridge a cash-flow gap can be a first step in breaking the cycle of poverty. There are just so many examples of this, and I love them because they remind me of the colour and activity that I have seen when visiting projects.

Millennium development goal No. 2 deals with education, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, should be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

All over the world, one of the first things that poor people do with new income from micro-enterprise is invest in their children's education. It is just such a high priority for women to educate their children. Studies show that children of microcredit clients are more likely to go to school and to stay there longer than other children - children drop out rates are much lower in micro credit households.

Goal 3 relates to the impact on gender equality and female empowerment - Microcredit programs have generally targeted women as clients because women's performance on repayment often proves to be better than men's. They are also more likely to invest increased income in the household and the family's well-being.

Most important, microcredit can empower women to become more assertive, which I think is a good thing. Women are then more likely to participate in family and community decisions that have traditionally been made by husbands.

Millennium development goal No. 4 relates to the impact on child health and mortality rates. Microcredit clients' households appear to have better nutrition, health practices and health outcomes than non-client households. Increased earnings allow clients to treat health problems promptly, rather than wait for conditions to deteriorate.

It is unlikely that the goals will be met by 2015 across the developing world but we know that micro finance can make an enormous contribution and therefore our work needs to focus on its expansion and effectiveness and recognise its enormous impact for women. As Kofi Annan said in March 2005, there is no tool for development more effective for development that the empowerment of women.

We are grateful to Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal for all her support for the work of Opportunity international since she became patron of the charity in 1998 we are delighted Your Royal Highness to welcome you here tonight.

Around the world, over 2000 opportunity international Loan officers, people Like Lydia, are helping poor people transform their own lives. She was a loan officer at Sinapi Aba Trust, Opportunity's partner in Ghana and focused on understanding the needs and obstacles to women's business growth and empowerment in Ghana.

Lydia's parents took out a small loan and were able to educate her and her siblings. Currently, Lydia is pursuing a Masters degree program in International development at the University of Bath funded by a University of Bath/DIFD Shared Scholarship scheme and ultimately would like to continue to work on strategies aim at promoting gender and social equity, particularly in Africa.