What happens when you travel to Argentina to learn how to play Polo? You start a sustainable and socially conscious shoe company. Of course... Well, that is exactly what happened to Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS shoes.

IEEE, the world's largest technical professional association and its members, are collaborating with organizations from around the world to educate and address key issues surrounding sustainability ranging from energy and resources both natural and man-made, to the technologies that are needed to overcome many of today's most pressing sustainability problems. IEEE is commemorating its 125th anniversary in 2009 by "Celebrating 125 Years of Engineering the Future" around the globe.

In today’s microfinance industry, there is still some debate about whether and when long-term subsidies might be justified in order to reach particularly challenging groups of clients. But there is now widespread agreement, within the industry at least, that in most situations MFIs ought to pursue financial sustainability by being as efficient as they can and by charging interest rates and fees high enough to cover the costs of their lending and other services...

U.S. President Barack Obama gave a spirited defense of his economic strategy on Tuesday, saying there were signs of progress in battling the recession, but "by no means are we out of the woods just yet." In his most comprehensive speech on the U.S. economic downturn, now in its 16 month, Obama offered no new policies but gave a detailed review of the steps he has taken to rescue the economy and rebuffed critics who say he is spending with "reckless abandon."

Report from CGAP finds that MFIs are well-positioned to contribute to energy efficiency in developing countries, but recommends shift in priorities from loans to financial services that include savings.

Two years after being launched as the first poverty-focused social business in the Arab world, Grameen-Jameel Pan-Arab Microfinance Limited (Grameen-Jameel) is celebrating significant milestones that are helping to transform microfinance’s impact across the Arab World.

JP Laurel Rural Bank is being transformed into a rural bank focused on microfinance

Unitus is deepening its commitment to East Africa by opening the Africa Microfinance Growth Centre, the first leadership development programme of its kind for early-stage microfinance providers in East Africa. The programme, developed in partnership with Financial Sector Deepening (FSD), will graduate CEOs and senior managers with improved strategy, leadership, and execution ability needed to rapidly grow their organizations and expand financial services to families living on less than $2 a day.

The global micro-credit industry has been hurt by the financial crisis but loan defaults by the world's poor remain low and private equity money will still fuel growth, a micro-finance group said. But Women's World Banking, billed as the world's biggest network of micro-finance institutions, said micro-financiers were struggling to raise funds to loan to the poor because of soaring borrowing costs and predicted growth would slow sharply.

Many of the world’s life-changing conveniences wouldn’t be possible without utilities. Utilities provide water for drinking, cooking, and washing; and electricity to power everything from light bulbs to vacuum cleaners. But there is another service whose convenience also transforms lives by enabling economic livelihoods and supporting social relationships, but that does not enjoy the benefit of a utility’s delivery infrastructure: electronic cash payments. The notion of the payments utility may be a rather utopian view of how retail payments in developing countries could enable universal access to finance. Despite the attention, and even hype, that branchless banking has been getting in industry circles and in the media, there are still fundamental challenges – like understanding what drives customers, making the economics work for agents, providing accounts for all, and building workable business models. But it’s never too soon to start thinking big.

According to a report in the Financial Times and an article from the Microfinance Gateway, fledgling microfinance projects are helping to revive the Iraqi economy after years of public sector dominance, a decade of sanctions, and six years of violence. The US, and specifically its military, is actively involved in these microfinance schemes as part of its war on terrorism. The projects typically involve loans of a few thousand dollars given to people with between one and three employees. By the end of January 2009, the US had made 41,728 loans, totaling USD 59.7 million.

Dave Valle, a former Major League Baseball player for the Seattle Mariners, is the founder of microcredit agency Esperanza, whose mission is to help the poor in the Dominican Republic and Haiti start their own businesses. In addition to making loans, Esperanza has become active in community development: creating a school, computer training centers, a member-funded health care plan, a water treatment system, and a home improvement initiative. The organization has also spearheaded the construction of five baseball fields.

Informal employment is at record levels worldwide with severe consequences for poverty in poor countries, according to “Is Informal Normal?”, a new report by the OECD Development Centre.

The world’s largest manufacturer of mobile telephones – Nokia is now preparing to enter into the developing rural market in India, seeing that the urban market is getting increasingly concentrated with mobile technology. Anticipating a strong business potential in rural market, Nokia is teaming up with some micro finance institutions to get into the rural arenas.

The Government of Uganda is to set up a body to license and regulate the work of the Savings and Credit Co-operative Organizations (SACCOs) of Uganda, according to a press release on the Ugandan newspaper Monitor.

Aqush.jp has launched Aqush Tomo, a p2p lending service to facilitate loans between friends and family members. Aqush is a service of Exchange Corporation K.K., which states it’s mission as @to leverage innovation and international best practices to pioneer ‘Social’ financial services in Asia. @

Consultancy Gartner predicts that “By 2010, social-banking platforms will have captured 10% of the available market for retail lending and financial planning.”

Newton Microfinance Institution is the leading private financial institution in Lao PDR. Their vision is to make sure that every Lao resident not only has access to but also benefits from the financial blessings globally enjoyed.

Sites like Prosper and Lending Club must adjust to SEC oversight. For some people, the communities of small borrowers and lenders extend a credit lifeline. Just when it might have proved most useful, peer-to-peer lending has been severely hamstrung by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission's efforts to get a regulatory handle on the fledgling industry. With the credit crisis making it harder and harder for cash-strapped households and small businesses to get bank loans, the opportunity for creditworthy applicants to borrow up to $25,000 from strangers at slightly higher interest rates was seen as something of a godsend.

Russia will ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to carry out a study on the potential for a new international reserve currency, Kremlin aide Arkady Dvorkovich said on Tuesday. China and Russia, the world's No.1 and No.3 reserve holders, have been pushing for a discussion on making greater use of the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights basket.

Time Magazine’s annual issue last month listed 10 ideas that are changing the world right now. While they provide interesting information on how the “global economy is being made before our eyes.” Dr Florangel Rosario Braid selected two that are more relevant to Manilla own local economy as we face the threat of economic recession and climate change.

CGAP, a microfinance group based at the World Bank, is supporting WIZZIT Bank to deliver banking services to poor people in South Africa's small towns and rural areas. WIZZIT is a division of the South African Bank of Athens Limited.

Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd. (FINO), a Mumbai-based biometric-enabled smartcard solutions provider, engaged in providing financial, non-financial products and services to the unbanked rural masses has enrolled 5 million customers to avail them basic banking and insurance services.

MicroPlace (www.microplace.com), a website that enables everyday people to invest in the world's working poor, announced today the launch of the first microfinance investment opportunity that offers a 6 percent annual return for everyday investors.

A few years ago, Ahmet Bubalku of the Kosovar village of Zabel i Ultë borrowed 3,400 euros, to build up a small farm. The microfinance institution START, established and funded by Islamic Relief, lent him the money. It enabled Ahmet to buy seeds to grow potatoes, tomatoes and onions and rear chickens and a cow. Ahmet says without this loan he wouldn't be able to feed his three children.

Elmo? SpongeBob? A children's book by Wellesley's Katie Smith Milway is all about microfinance. And it's a hit.

The man who helped Thailand survive the Asian financial crisis says reforms a decade ago have made the region's banks better able to weather the global economic downturn. Former Finance Minister Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda also gave his endorsement to banking-reform programs planned by the United States and G-20 nations.

Jamie Bedson, lead coordinator at the Banking With The Poor Network Secretariat, in Singapore, told Connect Asia's Sen Lam that about 91 microfinance funds lend out money across Asia.

Those most in need of new renewable technologies are often least able to raise the finance necessary to fund such development. Now, a new commodities exchange scheme is bringing renewables to the South Pacific using a novel rural payment method. Binu Parthan explains how the scheme works.

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute and economics professor at Columbia University reacts to the decisions made at this week's G20 summit and answers questions on the plight of poor countries in the midst of the global economic crisis: "There is considerable work to do still to put the urgent concerns of the poor countries on the world's agenda." "There is a real possibility of rising political instability in many countries, including street violence, coups, assassinations, or political paralysis."

Cloud-computing technology has come along way. For example a single server can host several virtual servers on one machine. That is a simple example of cloud-computing. Cloud-computing is when any virtualised resources are provided as a service. This is expected to become a huge industry. And this is now concerning the Microfinance Institutions.

We recently learned that Denmark plans on building the world’s largest wind farm. With a net installed capacity of 209 MW, Horns Rev 2 (companion to Horns Rev 1) will provide power to 200,000 homes. The North Sea offshore wind farm is scheduled for completion later this year.

President Barack Obama wrapped up his first international summit by declaring the event “historic” and a “turning point” toward recovery from a worldwide recession. Obama, who used personal diplomacy to help push through an agreement on regulations and emergency aid, said he and his counterparts at the Group of 20 summit are taking “unprecedented steps” to prevent another financial crisis.

G20 media reaction is a mixture of cautious optimism and scepticism.

Parliament adopted a legislative report on a proposal to support the growth of microcredit institutions in the EU. The report drafted by Zsolt Laszlo Becsey (EPP-ED, HU) was approved by 574 votes in favour, 23 against and 12 abstentions.

While the industry has grown at a healthy 30% in recent years, the future of microfinance rests on modern approaches to scaling the industry and leveraging the entrepreneurial energy employed in Silicon Valley.

Since the advent of the global economic downturn in mid-2007, there has been much discussion regarding what impact, if any, the financial crisis will have on the microfinance sector. Yana Watson of Dalberg Global Development Advisors provides a diagnosis of different impacts on MFIs depending on their capital structure and geography. She contends that while the impact of the crisis can be anticipated, its outcome is not a foregone conclusion. For microfinance to survive and thrive, she shares recommendations for action on the part of microfinance network and institution leaders, as well as public and private investors.

Cambodian microfinance institutions say economic crisis is taking its toll on the MFI sector and increasing the number of nonperforming loans to more than 1 percent. Microfinance lenders say the economic crisis is leading to higher rates of nonperforming loans in 2009. Last year, bad loans were just 0.67 percent of total lending.

Planet Finance President, Jacques Attali, on Monday, March 30, 2009, in Tunis, Tunisia, said that micro-finance could seriously help cushion the impact of the global financial crisis on Africa. Mr. Attali made the statement during a presentation chaired by the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group President, Donald Kaberuka.

This week's G-20 summit is essentially an echo chamber for the world's wealthy to talk macrofinance. The world economy might rebound more quickly if they listen to what the poor have to say about microfinance.

The problems associated with borrowing from microfinance banks (MFBs) by individuals and the cost of operations of the banks will soon be a thing of the past with the coming on board of credit bureaux in the Nigerian financial institutions. Since MFBs grant loan to financially active poor without collateral, it is possible for individuals who consider themselves smart to take loan from different banks with different information.

New York based Women's World Banking (WWB) has signed on UBA Microfinance Bank as its only network partner in Nigeria. With the admittance of the microfinance subsidiary of United Bank for Africa Plc as a network partner of the WWB, UBA Microfinance Bank has joined the global network of partner microfinance institutions and banks including ASA, the number 1, and other top 9 Microfinance Finance Banks in the world.

In the face of major client protection failures in the mainstream financial sector, leaders of the microfinance industry came together this month seeking means to ensure that microfinance providers worldwide remain committed to serving their clients' best interests.

The combined effects of the financial crisis, increased protectionist policies, continued rich country subsidies, and climate-induced changes in patterns of agricultural production are likely to hit developing countries hardest. Thanks to the confluence of these factors, a long-term solution to the global food crisis has not been reached, experts agreed at two recent summits on agriculture. But producers in some poor countries that lack strong links to the international market may not yet be feeling the full effects of that price drop. In some cases, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, prices remain high for key staples.

As G20 leaders gather in London on 2 April, the focus of their agenda will be on working together to promote effective, coordinated responses to the global economic crisis and to the state of global trade. In the context of the crisis, the immediate priority of many governments and trade experts is rightly to create and implement a strategy that will offset declining trade and investment, particularly in developing countries where the crisis threatens to impede economic growth and development progress made in recent years. In an effort to address these pressing issues and provide suggestions for G20 leaders’ deliberations, ICTSD partnered with the Global Economic Governance Programme (GEG) to gather short essays from a broad range of scholars and experts around the world.

Billionaire investor Gorge Soros has said the G20 summit will be a "make or break" event for the world's economy. He said the G20 meeting had to come up with concrete solutions to help the developing world in particular, which had been been worst hit.

Royal Exchange plc, has been granted approval-in-principle by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate a microfinance bank in the country, a move that is expected to deepen access to financial services by the informal and under-banked segments of the economy.

WaterPartners projects are funded through grants, loans, or a combination of grants and loans. Our loan program is called WaterCredit, and is the first of its kind. The idea of building community-based water supply projects through a combination of grants and loans is new to the water sector. Until now, almost all water projects facilitated by other organizations have been funded entirely by grants, even when the individuals served by the project have the means to share costs.

Grameen Foundation has received Shs7 billion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support agricultural technology, healthcare, and also improve access of information services by rural farmers in Uganda and Ghana.

Gramalaya, in association with WaterPartners International, USA, WaterAid, UK, and Arghyam, Bangalore, organized World Water Day 2009, which is held at its National Institute of Water and Sanitation (NIWAS) Training Centre in Tamil Nadu.