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Thursday, April 30, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Credible Future - Can Micro Loans Make a Macro Difference?
ENERGY: Not So Small, And Beautiful
While the big debate continues about oil prices, the alternatives to oil and the development of biofuels, scattered groups are finding new successes in generating all the energy they need, doing it cleanly - and now doing it on an impressive scale.DEVELOPMENT: Norway Launches Microfinance Project
A new microfinance initiative has been launched in Norway.LATIN AMERICA: Big Debates Over Small and Medium Enterprises
Microbusinesses and small and medium enterprises in Latin America remain a valid path for maintaining and improving economic growth and fighting poverty, while the spotlight in the region shines on summits, conflicts and major political problems such as integration or energy security.SPAIN: Heading the List of Remittance Senders
Migrants living in Spain sent nearly 13 billion dollars in remittances back to their home countries in 2007, 19.5 percent more than in 2006, says a new report by the Banco de España, Spain’s Central Bank. That makes this country the third largest remittance sender in the world in absolute terms, after the United States and Saudi Arabia, and the top sender in relative terms.
GUATEMALA: Waking Up to a Better Coffee
"Before, we didn't know how to market the coffee, or who would buy it in other countries, all we knew about was planting and harvesting," says Guatemalan coffee grower Pablo Pérez.LATIN AMERICA: Rural Women Forge Their Own Path in Microenterprise
Rural women from five Andean countries presented their successful microenterprises as part of a regional competition for female crafts and food producers, which also served as an opportunity for sharing the life stories of these leaders in the struggle against poverty.
DEVELOPMENT: Aid "Dismally Slow" in Reaching Poorest
Aid strategies must be retooled and bigotry stamped out if a rising tide of global wealth is to reach the poorest of the poor, says a new report.
Q&A: 'We Need Partners, Not Masters'
Bolivian President Evo Morales visited Italy this week to receive a special award for his government's commitment to social and health issues. He has made these issues a "political priority."Q&A: “It Was Not Your Typical ‘Complaining’ Environment”
The second IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) heads of state summit took place Wednesday in the South African capital, Pretoria, with the aim of deepening South-South co-operation. But, the gathering hasn't only been about talks between country leaders.DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Remittances for Development
Civil society organisations suggest that a plan be designed so that the money sent home by Dominicans abroad, known as remittances, will be used to foment development instead of simply going towards daily expenses.FINANCE: Immigrants Target Money-Transfer Industry
U.S. immigrant groups are ratcheting up a boycott of Western Union Co. in hopes of forcing the global money-transfer industry to do good for its customers' families, not just do well for itself.ECONOMY: Thinking Big, Russia Misses Microfinance
In the big expansion plans for the economy, financial institutions are neglecting the microfinance that small and medium business enterprises need, experts say.TRADE-CAMEROON: New Study to Bridge Finance Gap of Small Business
Caught in a limbo between larger firms with access to traditional banking-sector finance and micro-credit initiatives designed to help the small enterprises of the very poor, African businesses in the middle have historically been on the wrong side of both extremes when it comes to accessing finance.
Q&A: “I Have Ideas for Things That Need To Be Done in All Social Sectors”
It's a long way from the north of France to West Africa - and from studying mathematics at the University of Lille to becoming a mayor in central Cameroon. But Marie-Hélène Ngoa has successfully undertaken both these journeys.
Q&A: "In Sierra Leone They Just Cut You, And There's Not Much Problem With That"
Certain comments resonate long after they are made, and Shirley Yeama Gbujama's reported threat to "sew up the mouths of those preaching against Bondo" is certainly one of them.
Q&A: Nicaragua Is Not Likely to Meet the MDGs
Managua Mayor Dionisio Marenco does not believe that Nicaragua can meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which he describes as a wish list rather than an action plan, and underlines that his country is in need of enormous foreign investment in order to overcome its high levels of poverty.
ENVIRONMENT-MEXICO: Emigration a Blessing for Biosphere Reserve
Pressure on natural resources and biodiversity in Mexico's Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve has been reduced as a result of the emigration of half its human inhabitants - some 50,000 people - to the United States.DEVELOPMENT-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Leaving the Country to Earn a Living
‘‘We have lost a young woman in South Africa. We have raised R3,500 (500 US dollars) but we need R5,000 (714 dollars). We want to transport the body home to her relatives in Zimbabwe. But it is difficult,'' Joyce Dube, director of the Southern African Women's Institute for Migration Affairs (SAWIMA), told a gathering.
G8: Sailing Against Ecological Debt
As leaders of the world's eight richest countries prepare to meet in Germany's Baltic resort of Heiligendamm next week, a Fair Trade ship has left the shores of Finland and is on the high seas heading towards the summit venue.PARAGUAY: Solidarity Lending Bolsters Community Development
Esperanza Santos Aranda, who lives in a poor neighbourhood in the Paraguayan capital, used to sell vegetables at a precarious market stall. But thanks to a 60-dollar loan, she was able to open up her own small clothes-selling business.FINANCE-AFRICA: Mobile Phones Revolutionise Banking
Mobile phone banking is expanding across the region from South Africa to Kenya and is putting the poor directly in control of their own finances like never before.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Thousands of microfinance institutions serve tens of millions of the world's poor, through massive operations in rural South Asia to fledgling enterprises in West African towns. This small-scale loan movement aimed at alleviating poverty can offer life-changing potential for people who would otherwise find it difficult to obtain loans from the traditional banking sector. But microcredit is not a miracle solution to ending global poverty. If high interest rates prevail, putting recipients at risk of repeat borrowing and cycles of debt, microfinance can also have unintended consequences. IPS tracks the spread of microcredit and its impact across the global South.
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IPS gratefully acknowledges the support of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID) and the Microcredit Summit Campaign
