GLOBAL POVERTY
Women are usually the primary or sole family caretakers in many developing countries. Helping them gain additional daily income improves the condition of their entire household. Putting extra income in women’s hands is often the most efficient way to affect an entire family, as women typically put their children’s needs before their own. Children are more likely to complete their education and escape the poverty trap than their parents are. Giving women access to microcredit loans therefore generates a multiplier effect that increases the impact of a microfinance institution’s activities, benefiting multiple generations. I
Poverty and hunger:
- Each year, more than 8 million people around the world die because they are too poor to stay alive. II
- Over 1 billion people – 1 in 6 people around the world – live in extreme poverty; defined as living on less than $1 a day. III
- Over half of the world's population – 3 billion people – lives on less than $2 U.S. per day. IV
- More than 800 million go hungry each day. V
- Every year, 6 million children die from malnutrition before their 5th birthday. VI
- Over 11 million children die each year from preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia. VII
- Every 3.6 seconds another person dies of starvation, and the large majority are children under the age of 5. VIII
- Over 100 million primary school-age children cannot go to school. IX
Women and poverty:
- Of the 550 million working poor, an estimated 330 million are women. X
- 70% of the people suffering from hunger in the world are women and children. XI
- Women work 67% of the world’s working hours and produce 50% of the world's food, yet they earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property. XII
- More than 40% of women in Africa do not have access to basic education. XIII
- Every minute, a woman somewhere dies in pregnancy or childbirth. This adds up to 1,400 women each day—an estimated 529,000 each year—from pregnancy-related causes. XIV
- AIDS spreads twice as quickly among uneducated girls than among girls that have even some schooling. XV
- Two-thirds of illiterate adults are women. XVI
Women and microfinance:
- As of December 2005, more than 113 million people were benefiting from microfinance worldwide. XVII
- 81.9 million, or about 85%, of these microfinance clients are women. (Women represent 94% of all borrowers for Unitus’s MFI partners). XVIII
- Microfinance programs from different regions report increasing decision-making roles of women clients. XIX
- Microfinance loans are repaid at rates averaging 97%. XX
I NetAid
II Net Aid
III UN Millennium Project
IV NetAid
V NetAid
VI NetAid
VII UN Millennium Project
VIII NetAid
IX International Labour Office: Global Employment Trends for Women 2004
X Shukor Rahman, World Food Programme, quoted in Women & the Economy
XI United Nations Association of the United States of America
XII UN Millennium Project
XIII UN Millennium Project
XIV UN Millennium Project
XV World Economic Forum-Women's Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap
XVII Microcredit Summit
XVIII Microcredit Summit
XIX United Nations Capital Development Fund
XX United Nations Capital Development Fund
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