Rep. Peter Roskam (center) meets with senior members of Opportunity's staff. (From left: Simona Haiduc, Dennis Ripley, Bill Morgenstern and Ruth-Anne Renaud)

In the meeting among Roskam and our senior leadership, they discussed a number of important issues, and Roskam, who visited Opportunity’s microfinance operations in Accra during his March 2011 bipartisan fact-finding trip to Ghana, got to ask more questions about the structure and the impact of our work around the world. As Bill Morgenstern told Roskam, “We see ourselves as a next-generation solutions provider in the microfinance arena, with three key areas of focus: loans, savings, and insurance. But what separates Opportunity from others is the holistic training that we also provide.” The group went on to discuss the structure and impact of Trust Groups, and the need for building community and accountability in such a high-touch support business. To help put it in perspective–it is truly a collaborative process, side-by-side, as loan officers work with their clients. Opportunity serves almost 1.5 million Trust Group clients through a staff of over 12,000, the majority of whom are local loan officers who are managing portfolios of 200-350 clients.

“Meeting the dedicated Oak Brook staff who help end the cycle of poverty in underdeveloped countries all over the world was an honor and I look forward to seeing the great progress they’ll continue to make in the years to come.” -Rep. Roskam Rep. Roskam showed interest in learning more about Opportunity’s agricultural finance initiatives, which we offer in Ghana, Malawi and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. As Morgenstern told him, “It takes an organization with the breadth and expertise of Opportunity to work with farmers at every stage of the process.”

After Roskam’s visit to our US offices, he reflected on his time in Ghana. He said, “I saw firsthand in March how the microfinance services of Opportunity International is empowering families and businesses within Ghana. Meeting the dedicated Oak Brook staff who help end the cycle of poverty in underdeveloped countries all over the world was an honor and I look forward to seeing the great progress they’ll continue to make in the years to come.”

For more on Roskam’s recent visit to Ghana, click here. For more on Opportunity’s work in that country, including our education finance initiatives and our work with the IDP Rising Schools Program, our agriculture finance program, our partnership with the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), and more, read the Opportunity Blog.

Amb. Marantis and ONE interviewer Malaka Gharib (All photos courtesy of ONE Blog)

I had the huge honor of interviewing Ambassador Demetrios Marantis for our Trade = Development blog series. He plays a leading role in enforcing the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a US legislation to help assist the economies of sub-Saharan Africa, and his passion for his work is infectious. Read our conversation to find out how trade affects President Obama’s development strategy, why ONE members should care about trade and what’s next for AGOA.

So, I need to start off with a dumb question. What is AGOA and why do you think it is an important tool for development?
Here’s why AGOA rocks. It rocks because it provides trade to enhance development. And what’s so interesting is that it helps real people create jobs for real people. It opens the US market basically entirely for African exports of essentially everything that Africa produces. And it allows men and women who otherwise wouldn’t have a job to make a product and send it to the US.

Why should anti-poverty activists like our ONE members care about global trade?
Because you can see that creating opportunities to export creates jobs and therefore creates economic opportunities. You see the benefits in the US, Africa and throughout developing world, the real interrelationship between trade, exports and job creation.

How does international trade fit with President Obama’s overall development strategy?
This [photo at right] will explain everything:

This T-shirt was produced by women in Liberia who were subject to brutal conditions during the civil war. Because they’re making this T-shirt and selling it to the US, they are able to send their children to school, put a roof over their head. It’s a direct link that the opportunity we provide through AGOA that allows for women to produce this high-end organic cotton for yoga companies.

Why do African producers need AGOA? Can’t they just export under a regular trade policy?
What AGOA does is that it basically opens the door in the sense that it lowers tariffs on products that would otherwise face tariffs. It gives African exports a competitive advantage versus competitors in other regions in the world.

But opening the door isn’t enough. We have to help Africa take advantage of the opportunitiess it provides, and that’s why we engage in technical assistance, providing exporters the help they need to market their products, so what they export actually makes sense to our market.

For example, this jar of marmalade [see photo at left] was made by more than 90 HIV-positive women in Swaziland. They went through a technical training to market this lime marmalade. They hired a designer to create a logo that would appeal to people at let’s say, Whole Foods. They could make delicious lime marmalade, but if it doesn’t have good marketing and it’s placed in the wrong stores, it won’t sell. This is an integral part of the process.

What’s next for AGOA?
One major thing coming to a theater near you -– in 2012, there’s a provision of AGOA that expires -– that’s the provision that helps African apparel makers use fabric used in a third country and have that qualify for AGOA preferences. The administration is pushing to renew that provision for 2015, which is when the program expires. That’s a major priority of ours. And add South Sudan to our list of potentially eligible countries once it achieves its independence.

Tomorrow, you and several other African and American leaders are meeting in Lusaka, Zambia for the AGOA forum. What do you hope the outcome will be?
First, we need to work together to take our trade and investment to the next phase. This conference provides an opportunity to lay the groundwork. Second, we need to continue a really honest conversation about what works in AGOA and what doesn’t. As we look toward renewal, we’re sure we’ve learned from success and failure. Lastly, we want to provide the opportunity to meet bilaterally with governments and a variety of stakeholders and business leaders who all care about the same thing on how to promote trade assistance with the US and sub-Saharan Africa.

An increase in funding to improve the institutional and human capacity of microfinance will help people, like these African women, have an opportunity to achieve a better life for themselves and their families.

Let’s celebrate the increase in appropriations for microfinance and microenterprise development for FY2010. It grew from $245 million to $265 million—terrific in a tight budget year. (This is pending a final vote but reflects the conference report from the House and Senate and is likely to pass.)

Also, we are thrilled that Congress has put language in the appropriations report that directs USAID to:
• increase funding for microfinance in Africa
• focus 25% of funding on funding to build the institutional and human capacity of microfinance institutions
• direct at least 50% of funds to not-for-profits (such as Opportunity International) instead of for-profit consulting firms
• increase outreach to women, the poor and very poor, who currently lack access to financial services

Opportunity International co-chairs the Microenterprise Coalition, which works with Congress to ensure microfinance policies that truly benefit the poor and reflect the most strategic, cost-effective use of government funds. We were pleased to have the opportunity to meet with Senate Appropriations Committee staffers to inform them about microfinance and to recommend these key strategies for the committee report. The committee is also keenly interested in the role of private donations and private investment capital in growing microfinance, and how public funds can best work in partnership with private efforts.

This is great news for millions of people in the developing world who desperately need microfinance services to work their way out of poverty.