Teaching tools:videos, hands-on opportunities

November, 2006: We are pleased to announce the launch of the RISE Social Entrepreneur CEO Directory. Use this searchable database to find contact, mission and biographical information for over 200 for-profit CEOs and managers surveyed in the RISE / Investors’ Circle / Social Venture Network For-Profit Social Entrepreneur Report.

Synopsis:

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to poor households that do not have access to formal financial institutions. The range of services includes loans, savings facilities, insurance, transfer payments and micro-pensions. Evidence from the millions of microfinance clients around the world demonstrates that access to financial services enables poor people to increase their household incomes, build assets and reduce vulnerability to the everyday crises that they face. For this reason, microfinance has come into the spotlight as a key tool to combat poverty and improve the lives of the poor. This technical note aims to describe the microfinance sector, the different types of methodologies and microfinance institutions that currently exist and the trends that are affecting the industry.

Synopsis:

In 1987, the need for a more sustainable form of development and growth was proposed by Gro Harlem Brundtland in her landmark report titled "Our Common Future" prepared for the United Nation's World Commission on Environment and Development. The term "Sustainable Development" has since then permeated public policy to address social, environmental and economic development in ways that "meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Various institutions are engaged in addressing sustainability-related issues and have taken different approaches towards them. In this technical note we focus on how social entrepreneurs and corporation through their initiatives help address the issues surrounding sustainable development. We highlight the impact they have had in the social, economic and environmental dimensions and draw out commonalities from the examples given.