Professor Yunus discusses global food prices with PM Gordon Brown

• Miscellaneous
• 21st April 2008
• YC

During a meeting at 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus  highlighted the extreme difficulties created on the poor by the global rise in prices of  essential food items.

During a meeting at 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus  highlighted the extreme difficulties created on the poor by the global rise in prices of  essential food items. Professor Yunus  proposed a global initiative to redress the immediate pressure. Professor Yunus requested PM Gordon Brown to take leadership role  within the European community and the G-8 to initiate concerted efforts to address this issue.  He pointed out that a powerful  breakthrough is needed in  agri-technology to raise the production level in the shortest possible time.

Gordon Brown met with Nobel prize-winner Muhammad Yunus , father of microcredit and founder of the Grameen  Bank,  and announced that the UK Government will work with the Grameen Group, and other partners to give access to and unlock the power of financial services for Africa's poor. The Grameen Bank, which gives small loans to families for undertaking  income-generating activities, has shown how effective microcredit can be in bringing about economic and social development, with  millions of people lifted out of poverty in villages across Bangladesh and beyond. The Prime Minister and Professor Yunus discussed how the public and private sectors can work together to help unlock the power of microcredit  to improve the lives of millions, particularly in Africa, where the world's development emergency hits hardest and nearly 300m people still live on less that $1 a day.

With foreign investment into microcredit across the globe tripling to $4 billion between 2004 and 2006, and through the work of organisations like the Grameen Trust  which reaches over 4.7 million families through 141 partner organizations in 38 countries, the impact of microcredit is being felt all over the world. There is an urgent need to improve business and management skills in the microfinance industry in Africa to make sure this money is used to help people from the world's poorest communities.  As a first step the UK Government will provide £500,000,
towards bridging the skills gap in the microcredit industry in Africa, which will be more than matched by the private sector. The initiative will bring together civil society organisations, and the private sector to contribute the funding, knowledge and skills required to bring microfinance to those who need it most.