In the last fifteen years, many African economies have begun to experience higher growth rates and increases in per capita income. High commodity prices, large-scale reduction in debt, Asian investment in the continent, and economic expansion of some of the non-oil exporting countries has helped drive this growth. However, there is still an alarming number of people living below the poverty line. Bringing financial services to this part of the population could break the poverty cycle. Sarita Gupta, Vice President, Communication of Women’s World Banking describes the current microfinance landscape on the continent. Read entire article on PDF

Ela Bhatt, former WWB Board Chair and founder of WWB network member Self-Employed Women’s Association, addressed the opening session of the United Nations High-Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals.

WWB president Mary Ellen Iskenderian will be a featured blogger on Skoll Foundation's website Social Edge. Launched in 2003, Social Edge is a "global online community where social entrepreneurs and other practitioners of the social benefit sector connect to network, learn, inspire and share resources." Ms. Iskenderian's blog is part of a weekly program of discussions led by experts in the field of social entrepreneurship; drawing on the experiences of the WWB network of institutions, her blog will focus on the benefits and challenges of a network approach to solving global problems. Join the discussion: "Network Practices"

Equity bank has been named the best Micro Finance Bank in Africa. The bank emerged the top microfinance bank of the year, beating three other entries from the continent in the category during the annual African Bankers Awards ceremony held in Washington DC, USA.

We are very happy to welcome Ujjivan as the newest member of the WWB network. Ujjivan is a rapidly growing microfinance organization based in the city of Bangalore, in the Indian state of Karnataka, located in the southwest region of the country.