"I would, on behalf of the African region, like to say that we, the Africans, are very conscious of the steps of gargantuan proportions that we must take in order to make a dent on our problem of poverty. When we look at the figures, we discover that the population of our poor is almost the size of the population of the United States of America! We therefore know that we must work hard. We are, however, also conscious of the fact that we are the least likely to have the kind of resources that will help us make that jump from poverty to prosperity. If the African group has had a lot of hot discussion and has distinguished itself for that, it is precisely because we are trying hard to find some solutions. Our approach therefore has been a little different from how the other regions have handled these issues.

On the question of numbers of the poor to be reached by the continent, in contribution to the 100 million very poor people to be reached by the global microcredit campaign by the year 2005, the African group has decided that the issue needs greater discussion in order to come out with realistic figures. We can however, gauge from the one good example we have, of an African sub-region that has already come out with an estimate. You will be interested to know that the Southern Africa Region decided at its Microcredit Summit that it must try to reach 12 million very poor families with credit by the year 2005.

Now, in the discussion of this issue, we have been realistic enough to identify the number of problems that confront us. Due to constraints of time, I will just mention a few important ones, and these are: lack of financial resources, human resources, institutional capacity building and support, networks both national and regional, gender focused microcredit policy, and last but not least, inadequate definition of the poor. Where the latter is concerned, although the programs state that the poor are those living below 50 percent of the poverty line, some of our countries haven’t even got a poverty line.

The fundamental question, therefore, becomes how is Africa going to approach the Microcredit campaign? I am glad to report that we already have a consensus which needs to be polished up. The long discussions have therefore been
worthwhile, and as you have heard, we are going to continue discussions in order to work out how we operationalize this approach. As of now, the consensus that has emerged is, first, that Africa should try and set up networks at national levels. Second, that it should similarly set up networks at national levels. Third, that there should be established a regional network, i.e., a continental microcredit network. The initiative for action at national and sub-regional levels is to be left to stakeholders in those appropriate constituencies. Where the continental effort is concerned, the African group has taken cognizance of all the various initiatives that are taking place on the continent. The consensus is that the way forward is to take up the offer of mounting the African Microcredit Summit in Harare, which will be held March 20-24, 2000.

This is, in short, what the African continent is going to go for." For more information e-mail:opcenter@zamnet.zm or fax: 260 1238 402.

Fmal Report of the 1999 Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils, June 24, 26, Abidjan, cote d’Ivire.