There is life after Origin, a week after.
The Wednesday 14th of July meeting of the 17 Group will be addressed by a speaker who, with other excellent credentials, has also spent time conferring with Mohammed Yunus, Dr Ingrid Burkett on the topic “Microfinance: Just Debt?”.
As usual the meeting will take place in unit 6 at 20 Drury St, West End, at 7pm.
Here is a short summary of the talk and a short biographical note on the speaker:
Microfinance: Just Debt?
The Nobel winning Professor Mohammed Yunus is the most famous proponent of microfinance delivered through the bank that he founded – the Grameen Bank.
It is a bank that is owned by women and that primarily lends to women in Bangladesh. The finance is ‘micro’ as the name implies – small loans that help women to establish small enterprises which in turn help them to earn enough money to create a pathway out of poverty for their families. There are now millions of dollars being invested into microfinance around the world. It is a new ‘anti-poverty revolution’ and it seems to have had some spectacular results.
Microfinance has also appeared in Australia as a response to help the growing number of people who cannot access mainstream loans from banks and other financial institutions, and are often forced to use ‘fringe’ lenders. What is this phenomenon of microfinance all about? Does it really work? Will it mean the end of poverty? This talk outlines the global and the local realities of microfinance and explores why it is so necessary to understand ‘finance’ in order to address poverty.
Dr. Ingrid Burkett is the Social Innovations Manager for Foresters Community Finance, a community development finance institution based in Brisbane. She has practiced, taught, researched and written about community economic development for over 15 years, both locally and internationally.
She has worked across government, community and corporate sectors. Ingrid is also the Acting President of the International Association for Community Development and is recognised as one of Australia’s experts in the fields of community and micro finance. She is also a practicing artist and president of Upatree Arts Co-operative Ltd, a community enterprise based in Mt Nebo, Queensland.
Leon is hard at work on the books, investigating what, had it been brought up, its relation to Vladimir’s NEP might have been, whether now it could be a transitional demand and what its role might be in a dual power situation.
He’s interested and non-dogmatic about this, but still may just send a rep instead of turning up.
But don’t be as scrupulous yourself.
Don’t deny yourself and your mum and friends a stimulating night out with plenty to eat and drink and discuss and argue about. All welcome.