Publication: Address to the Closing Plenary Session of the Microcredit Summit
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1997-02-04
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1997-02-04
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James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, noted that the Bank endorsed the effort to bring about microcredit to 100 million families. Microcredit is a very important answer to poverty. Helping the world's poor has to be a partnership between people who are linked by various things including economic opportunity and trade. A far more real reason for committing to this goal is social justice. In the next 30 years we will be one world of the same sort of people. It is the strength and dignity of the people that we are working with. The human spirit is the same: a desire for a better life, a desire for opportunity, not a desire for charity, a desire to grow, a desire to feel something in oneself, a desire to create something in the family. Central to this is the role of women, and central in responsibility is the role of education of children, particularly girl children, because it is through them that all families, be they from rich countries or poor countries, emerge. Let us work together as partners in trying to reach the 100 million goal, and in trying to leave the world a more peaceful and safer place for children.
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“Wolfensohn, James D.. 1997. Address to the Closing Plenary Session of the Microcredit Summit. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26014 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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