Achieving Millennium Development Goals: The Promise of Microfinance

This paper discusses the role of microfinance in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the role played by the International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions (INAFI) in addressing poverty through microfinance.

Microfinance helps reach the MDGs by providing financial services to the poor, and mitigating risks of poverty and social exclusion, and organizing the poor and addressing issues of health, education, gender and environment. The MDGs consist of eight specific goals to:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
• Ensure all boys and girls complete primary education;
• Promote gender equality;
• Improve the health of mothers and children;
• Reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS;
• Protect the environment;
• Create a global partnership for development.

INAFI works in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It has more than 300 member institutions and works to enhance capacity in areas related to microfinance services, including:

• Design of microfinance programs and management;
• Poverty reduction programs and policy advocacy for pro-poor policies;
• Increasing access to microfinance for the poor and disadvantaged population;
• Appropriate pricing, demand-driven products and enabling regulatory framework.