Hosted by Nusa Dua in July, the annual Asia-Pacific Regional Microcredit Summit was the twelfth in a series of global and regional summits organised by the Microcredit Summit Campaign.

In February 1997, the first Microcredit Summit launched a nine-year campaign to reach 100 million of the world’s poorest families – especially the women of those families – with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2005.

Since 1997 microcredit has grown from reaching 7.6 million of the world’s poorest families that year to nearly 100 million in 2005. After accomplishing the summit’s initial goal, two new goals were set. These were: 1. Working to ensure that 175 million of the world’s poorest families, especially the women of those families, are receiving credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2015. With an average of five people per family, achieving this goal would affect 875 million people. 2. Working to ensure that 100 million of the world’s poorest families move from below $US1 a day adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) to above $US1 a day adjusted for PPP, by the end of 2015. With an average of five people per family this would mean that 500 million people would have risen above $US1 a day – nearly completing the Millennium Development Goal on halving absolute poverty.

One of the keynote speakers at the 2008 Microcredit Summit was Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank. Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 ‘for efforts to create economic and social development from below’. Micro credits - the extension of small loans – are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans.

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A recent development is the increased focus by many aid agencies as well as nongovernment organisations on renewable energy and the role of microfinance in getting clean energy for the poor who are living in rural and remote areas, such as in the Pacific region.

The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) attended the Asia-Pacific Regional Microcredit Summit to share its experiences with micro-finance projects in the region.

REEEP is a global public-private partnership that facilitates the development of appropriate market conditions for increased uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Part of REEEP’s work is focussing on innovative financing mechanisms, such as microfinance.

With over 900 delegates from 50 countries attending the Asia-Pacific Regional Microcredit Summit, it was an excellent opportunity for REEEP to foster existing and forge new partnerships to help improve access to reliable, clean and affordable energy sources across South East Asia and the Pacific.