James Surowiecki

Making loans and fighting poverty are normally two of the least glamorous pursuits around, but put the two together and you have an economic innovation that has become not just popular but downright chic. The innovation - microfinance - involves making small loans to poor entrepreneurs, usually in developing countries.

American Journalist

Nicholas Kristof

She may hide it, but Clinton is a policy nerd. Ask about microfinance, and she'll talk your ear off. Mention early childhood interventions, and she will gush about obscure details of a home visitation experiment in Elmira, N.Y., that dramatically improved child outcomes.

Joyce Banda

In 1989, I started the National Association of Business Women. We incorporated microfinance and different job training for women. We did a survey, with USAID, that found women lacked training, credit and information.

Politician

Pierre Omidyar

A well-functioning microfinance bank can actually be a profitable business as well. So it became a perfect proof point that, through business, you can provide an experience that leads to individual self-empowerment.

French Businessman

Rohini Nilekani

Addressing governance issues are important because whichever silo you work in, be it education, microfinance, sanitation, food or health, you would eventually hit governance deficit.

Indian Writer

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Microfinance does not require previous experience or loans to the same extent as a small-business loan, so it's easier for women to enter the micro sector.

Public Servant

Ananya Birla

What attracted me towards microfinance is it's a very sustainable business, which has an impact on people's lives yet it can be very profitable.

Indian Musician

Diana Taylor

There are ways to abuse the microfinance system, just like there are ways to abuse the mortgage system. The solution is not to ban mortgages.

American Public Servant

Because microfinance is so manageable in terms of the size of the loan, people have made it the cornerstone to lifting women out of poverty.

Muhammad Yunus

The moment you say microfinance everybody wants to help you.

Economist

Microfinance is often associated with positive change and development in communities.

Development Focus

It's a form of financial support but expects repayment, unlike charity.

Not Charity

Microfinance aims to empower people financially to initiate self-sufficiency.

Economic Empowerment

Microfinance offers more than loans; it includes savings, insurance, and more.

Financial Services

Though focused on businesses, microfinance can also cover personal financial needs.

Beyond Business

It specifically targets individuals in rural or underserved areas.

Rural Outreach

 for his work pioneering modern microfinance. When I heard him speak, it was three years before that. But basically, microfinance -- if this is new to you as well -- think of that as financial services for the poor. Think of all the things you get at your bank and imagine those products and services tailored to the needs of someone living on a few dollars a day.

Jessica Jackley:...

 microfinance but she still lacks the upfront cash that she needs for big expenses that can really help her get ahead and so how can she prove her capacity to repay without a credit score right now she can potentially go to a moneylender she can bribe someone within the bank to get connected to a loan

Creating an alternative...

 church and school which serves as a meeting place for her self-help group also called Aleppo which works in which teaches microfinance training and basic economy economics it's women like this who are critical in rural and rural African communities as they create space

Images of strength and...

 on the foundations of self-help group-based microfinance. I guess we seem to be doing at least a few things right. Because diligent investors and venture funds have committed over 7.5 million dollars in funding. With the significance being these funds have come in

Shaffi Mather: A new way...

 they loved nooks and crannies and they also loved bicycles. They saw an opportunity to merge their passions, interests, and worlds, when in a dorm room they launched an organization called Bicycles Against Poverty. This organization uses a microfinance model

Travelers of the Year...

 can but most important is Africa cannot waves you produce or you perish therefore you must balance the three piece and the culture by four in local is bad we must get away with it microfinance I'm talking with a number of friends here seems to be too

Innovative and cost...

 selling insurance directly to farmers, with very high marketing cost and very limited success. Then we realized that there were many organizations working with seed companies, microfinance institutions, mobile phone companies, government agencies.

Rose Goslinga: Crop...

 is to be visible to each other. And the reason these young guys told me that they're doing these TEDx's is because they were sick and tired of the only workshops coming to the slums being those workshops focused on HIV, or at best, microfinance.

Jacqueline Novogratz:...

 when it comes to women microfinance is an incredibly powerful tool that leads to self-sufficiency and self-respect but we must move beyond micro hopes and micro ambitions for women because they have so much greater hopes for

Women entrepreneurs,...

 to automatically file women under micro. The biases, whether intentional or otherwise, are pervasive, and so are the misleading mental images. If you see the word "microfinance," what comes to mind?