International Labour Organization Official Joins the Microcredit Summit Campaign Executive Committee
Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) July 30, 2013 -- The Microcredit Summit Campaign, a Project of RESULTS Educational Fund, is pleased to announce the addition of International Labour Organization (ILO) Assistant Director General for Policy, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, as co-chair of the Council of Funders & Investors. He also joins the Executive Committee to help guide the Campaign’s mission to promote the kind of microfinance that helps poor families lift themselves out of severe poverty.
The ILO champions "decent work" wherein men and women are assured a fair income, workplace security, and social protection for families, among other fundamental aspirations that all working people have. Microfinance is one strategy that illustrates this concept well because it provides essential savings, credit, and insurance products to the financially excluded.
The ILO champions the values of ethical organizations to promote social justice, employment, and broader social and economic advancement. "Organizations that work to strengthen individuals, their families, and communities," said Mr. Salazar-Xirinachs, “like the best socially oriented microfinance institutions do—this is what the ILO wants to promote. I am delighted to serve as co-chair of the Council of Funders & Investors for the Microcredit Summit Campaign."
Co-chairs represent institutions that have demonstrated their commitment to these two goals and provide guidance to the Campaign and other Council members, whose work will be showcased at the 2013 Microcredit Summit: Partnerships against Poverty this October 9 – 11 in the Philippines. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. have confirmed they will also attend the event. The ILO and the Microcredit Summit Campaign will present a paper at the 2013 Summit to report findings from a number of impact assessments performed by the ILO and others to identify what approaches or combination of approaches show promise for addressing the range of binding constraints people face in moving out of severe poverty.
As Campaign Council co-chair and member of the Executive Committee, Mr. Salazar-Xirinachs will help communicate to other industry leaders and to the media of the vital importance of appropriate microfinance services in the fight to end the worst aspects of poverty. Mr. Salazar-Xirinachs replaces former ILO Director-General Juan Somavia as co-chair, who served as a Council co-chair for more than a decade.
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The Microcredit Summit Campaign (the “Campaign”), a project of RESULTS Educational Fund, is the largest global network of institutions and individuals involved in microfinance and is committed to two important goals: 1) reaching 175 million of the world’s poorest families with microfinance and 2) helping 100 million families lift themselves out of severe poverty. The Campaign convenes a broad array of actors involved with microfinance to promote best practices in the field, to stimulate the exchange of knowledge and to work towards alleviating world poverty through microfinance.
In partnership with the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI), the Campaign is organizing the 2013 Partnerships against Poverty Summit October 9 – 11, 2013, in the Philippines.
Sabina Rogers, Microcredit Summit Campaign, http://partnershipsagainstpoverty.org/, +(1) 202-637-9600, [email protected]
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