Steve Rickard's Report on the Micro Credit Conference

The Calgary Microcredit Conference concluded Saturday 11 Sept 2010 with a powerful presentation by a prime Matt Flannery cofounder of the KIVA Foundation. Matt calmly, even modestly declared that 2010 will see $80 million being donated to KIVA through his unique form of internet entrepreneurship investing.

Moreover KIVA expects to reach One Billion Dollars in donations by 2015. All this came from a person with a tenacity to see a change in the world and a vision that has no limits. Matt said the secret, aside from the stick-to-itiveness and creativity required was having preparedness meet opportunity.

The internet and microcredit came together in his focus!

Another crowd-pleasing presentation by Joyce Brotherton-Lehman from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reinforced the foundation's core belief that everyone is of equal value.

Joyce shared the facts and figures used by the foundation to determine the most practical financial tools needed to allow those without financial tools to lift themselves out of poverty. Savings-led organizations are a prime area of growth used by the Gates Foundation. Joyce pointed out that segmenting the 2.5 billion people living on less than $2 per day allows for the detection of what is most needed.

The majority of people without financial tools lack access to banking for tiny amounts that seem insignificant ($1.00) by the standards of the developed world. A buck to make a buck savings are not only essential, when on deposit, they provide a local resource pool for individual loans and larger scale projects. Gates is at work supporting organizations that find economical ways to bring banking services to the huge numbers of economically marginalized entrepreneurs.

Amanda Lindhout was interviewed by journalist and author Susan McLelland. When Amanda spoke there was a stilled hush in the room. After 15 months of captivity in Somalia, Amanda has committed her resources to speaking and supporting the Somali Society that gave rise to her captivity. Amanda said her goal is to avoid future incidents by empowering the Somaliland women.

Her story of a near-escape to a mosque and the single female voice that stood up for her as she was dragged back to captivity stirred everyone listening. While much was left unsaid about abusive treatment Amanda said she emerged more or less intact thanks to a deep faith, practicing forgiveness, and compassion for her captors. Which the standing ovation Amanda received says a lot about her courage and determination.

A unique session was a panel of five couples. These husband and wife teams had on average 30 plus years of working together through careers, children and personal traumas in their contribution to making the world a better place. Probative questions by a skilled moderator team kept the audience stimulated through the use of artful questions.

The panel was interviewed by Jennifer Dundas and Dr. Bob Dickson. Panelists were:

• Michael and Judy Bopp from Four Worlds,
• Richard Marney and Lynne Exton from Opportunity International Network,
• Bev and Paul Carrick from CAUSE Canada,
• Bob and Marlene Wiens from the Canadian Association for Participatory Development,
• Steve and Marie Rickard representing the Rotarian Action Group for Microcredit.

Everyday technical details were brought out by speakers like Keith Weaver of MicroEnsure. The fourfold hazard of death, sickness, disability and crop failures visit the poor with the most traumatic impact.

Developing an insurance benefits delivery system that is accurate and timely with appropriate micro amounts has been their challenge. Having reached more than one million clients MicroEnsure can be proclaimed to be impacting positively the lives of people without financial tools but the challenge to reach more people is the challenge MicroEnsure is currently undertaking.

MEDIC Canada, Foundation For Women - Liberia, UEnd:Poverty, CAUSE Canada, and Opportunity International were among the lead conference sponsorships.

UEnd:Poverty is a web based donation system that can be used to support a number of poverty alleviation scenarios including microcredit. Donations can be made at www.uend.org

The Foundation For Women - Liberia will be the recipient of the surplus proceeds of the Calgary Microcredit Conference. Donations can be made to FFW-L through www.foundationforwomen.org

In total more than 15 presenters shared their beliefs and indeed their passion that Microcredit and financial services for people without financial tools is giving rise to the single largest anti-poverty tool known to mankind. In pursuit of educating and involving the attendees in this world transforming technology the Calgary Microcredit Conference could only be declared an outstanding success.