Josh Goldstein, the principal senior director of ACCION, an international lender with a focus in Latin America, and Hanover resident Greg Fallon, a member of ACCION's advisory board, emphasized the positive impacts of microfinance -- a system in which financial organizations provide loans to low-income entrepreneurs and support their business development. Fallon said that his support for this approach was cemented during a trip to Peru last summer.
"When I started with ACCION, my perspective was pretty much 'getting money to people who need it -- yeah, that's great,' but I've realized that microfinance is so much more complicated," Fuller said. "It took a trip to Peru, visiting ACCION's local partners, to really see that."
In Peru, Fallon said, he saw firsthand how a successful microfinance organization utilizes local resources and adopts to local norms in its operations.
Seeking to dispel worries about the logic of giving loans to poverty-stricken people, Goldstein said the average repayment rate for all microlenders is about 98 percent.
Dana Dakin, another of the panelists, is the founder of Women's Trust Inc., a microfinance and general development organization run out of Wilmot, N.H. and connected directly to a small, 500-family village in Ghana.
"I've seen that when you bring microfinance into a village as a base, and you make that your base, you get to know the villagers, and they get to know you, and you build trust, and then if you ask enough and are committed enough, you can see change," Dakin said.
While Dakin's organization and ACCION differ in scope, both utilize a grassroots, individual-based strategy, which Goldstein contrasted to the more traditional top-down approach to international development practiced by groups like the World Bank, which distributes funds to organizations for use in large-scale projects.
Panelist Jan Maes, an independent microenterprise development consultant, similarly supported this individualized approach.
"A lot of nonprofits, microfinance and similar organizations, are beginning to incorporate business models into their work," he said. "That means teaching people good business skills, as their only option is to work for themselves."
Panel organizer Liya Shuster '10, a member of Women in Business, said that she hoped the event would broaden students' perceptions of the opportunities available after graduation. The event was part of Women in Business' year-long series on ethics and social responsibility in the corporate world.
"I believe strongly in the potential for corporate social responsibility," Shuster said. "I want to make microfinance and other facets of the business and philanthropic world more tangible for students."
Several of the questions posed by students following the event focused on potential job and internship opportunities in the fields of microfinance and international development.
All four panelists commented on the event's high turnout, stressing the possibilities present in the field, and broadening the scope of their comments to include thoughts on poverty and international development in general.
"Eliminating poverty is a multigenerational task," said Goldstein, adding that the widening gap between rich and poor makes sustainable solutions to poverty a moral imperative. "But if you enter the field it's very satisfying work."
