Microcredit Summit Campaign, The

The Microcredit Summit Campaign is a project of the RESULTS Educational Fund, a U.S.-based grassroots advocacy organization committed to ending hunger and poverty. The Campaign brings together microcredit practitioners, advocates, educational institutions, donor agencies, international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and others involved with microcredit to promote best practices in the field, to stimulate the interchanging of knowledge, and to work towards reaching bold measurable goals.

Our Goals: The Campaign is working to ensure that 1) 175 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families, are receiving credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2015; and 2) 100 million families rise above the US$1 a day threshold adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), between 1990 and 2015.

The Campaign is currently undertaking 4 programs:

1. State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report: The 2012 edition was launched on November 10, 2011 in Valladolid, Spain; in it, we announced our progress toward Goal 1 (137 m of the world's poorest families were receiving credit) and proposed a 7-step framework for reaching Goal 2.
2. Global and regional summits: The latest global summit was held in Valladolid, Spain November 14 to 17, 2011; the last regional summit was held in Nairobi, Kenya in April of 2010.
3. Financing Healthier Lives: Providing health education to the poor is a critical avenue of learning that can reduce vulnerabilities and alleviate poverty. So in partnership with Freedom from Hunger, the Campaign works with MFIs in India to integrate health education curricula with microfinance community groups.
4. Seal of Excellence for Poverty Outreach and Transformation in Microfinance: The Seal is a global initiative currently under development that will recognize those institutions doing the most to help families lift themselves out of poverty.