Poverty-fighting pioneering societies, organizations and Muhammad Ynuus meet in Kenya

AGFUND presents its experiment in social works and microfinance banks to the Africans in the World Summit on the Pro-Poor The Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations “AGFUND” shall participate in the Africa-Middle East Regional Microcredit Summit which shall be held from 7 to 10 April in Nairobi and it is to be inaugurated by the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki. AGFUND shall present to the Summit the brief of its project to fight poverty and the chains of the banks for the poor led in the Arab world and Africa by Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz, the President of AGFUND. AGFUND shall talk in the same language of the Africans participating in this conference with the confidence of the experimenter, as it has its current project in Sierra Leone (West Africa) to found a bank adopting the microcredit mechanism. The project is steadily progressing and as per developmental observers, AGFUND Bank in Sierra Leone shall be a model to be followed in sub Sahara Africa. Armed with prolonged experience and experiments, AGFUND shall also participate in the Nairobi Summit on the Pro-Poor. AGFUND’s experience stems from dealing closely with the poverty phenomenon and its repercussions in the developing countries and its punctual participation in international credit summits since Amman Summit in 2004, Halifax Summit in Canada and Indonesia Summit. Professor Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank for the Poor in Bangladesh, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and AGFUND’s strategic partner, shall participate along with some world figures interested in development and fighting poverty. The Conference shall be co-organized by the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Kenya (AMFI) and the Microcredit Summit Campaign. The Executive Manager of AGFUND, Nasser Al-Qahtani, shall present a paper in the Conference which shall be discussed in a special work session. This paper is titled “A Comprehensive Approach to Microcredit Banks”. He shall also hold a meeting with Professor Yunus to discuss the horizons of AGFUND-Grameen partnership and the utilization of the “social works” concept in the programs of both organizations in order to fight poverty. This concept has proved its feasibility in assisting the needy and weak segments and promoting the socio-economic development at the lowest cost. In addition, it is a business mechanism to achieve the millennium target represented in minimizing poverty by 50% by the advent of 2015. The millennium targets reflect the ambitions of the peoples of the world towards a better life. The Millennium Summit adopted eight primary targets which have been unanimously approved and which represent the most pressing needs of man everywhere. Fighting poverty comes on top of the millennium agenda. AGFUND has gone too far in supporting the millennium targets and fulfilling their requirements through founding the banks for the poor, supporting national societies and microcredit institutions in the developing countries, financing regional conferences on micro finance and participating in preparing for such conferences in Africa and the Arab world. The axes of Nairobi Conference which research the activation of micro credit are basic cornerstones in AGFUND poverty-fighting project. One of AGFUND mechanisms is to found banks which allow the poor full access to the financial services including micro credit, saving and insurance. It is worthy to mention that the strong relation between AGFUND and Professor Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank which is the first micro credit bank in the world, led to a strategic partnership between both parties materialized in the initiative launched by Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz on 1997. Through this initiative, the partnership adopted the foundation of banks for the poor in the Arab world. One of the fruits of this partnership was AGFUND’s success in launching organizations for the poor such as Al-Amal Microfinance in Egypt, the National Bank for Small Enterprises in Jordon, Al-Amal Microfinance Bank in Yemen, and Creativity Bank in Bahrain. AGFUND has plans to launch banks for the poor in Sierra Leone, Sudan, Mauritania, Lebanon and Syria.