Microfinance Summit highlights social businesses as solution makers

In a plenary entitled “Social Businesses: Creating Solutions for Social Problems,” during the Microcredit Summit 2013: Partnerships against Poverty at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) on October 9-11, 2013, prominent figures on social business discussed how social problems can turn into opportunities to provide creative solutions for stakeholders.  Two of the speakers were Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in microcredit and Dr. Jaime Aristotle B. Alip, Founder and Managing Director of CARD MRI which is the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Public Service.

More than 1,000 microfinance and social development practitioners from all over the world were all ears as Yunus and Alip shared best practices on social businesses.   Yunus, who is also the Founder of the Grameen Bank – Bangladesh and is considered the Father of Microfinance, noted in his speech that those who engage in social businesses should let go of the conventional idea that businesses should only make profit. He shared that the success of social businesses can be attributed to selflessness based on his experiences with the Yunus Social Business (YSB). YSB helps build and nurture social businesses around the world through advisory services. It is currently assisting companies, governments, foundations, and non-government organizations in Haiti, Albania, Colombia, Tunisia, Uganda, Brazil, and India.

Meanwhile, Alip discussed the core of social businesses: innovation of suitable programs and transformation of people’s lives. Starting from a twenty-peso bill and a typewriter, the non-government organization he started in 1986 has now grown to 12 different institutions that help uplift the lives of poor women and their families.  These institutions provide social development services like microcredit, micro insurance, health protection, disaster relief, educational support, marketing and livelihood development.

Also a panelist in the plenary is Nasser Al-Kahtani, the Executive Director of the Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFund). Secretary Imelda M. Nicolas, the Chairperson of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, moderated the plenary.

The summit was organized by the Microcredit Summit Campaign in partnership with the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc.