1. Steven Levy
   Senior writer at Wired; Author of In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
   Steven Levy: “The most prominent leaders in the technology world today believe that the first step in doing the impossible is freeing yourself from the constraint that something can’t be done. What if we thought of ending poverty in that way? When I wrote In the Plex, I really saw how technology has the power to change the world. [...] The thing I learned from Google is take on big, hairy, audacious goals.”
2. Kevin Compton
   Co-founder of Radar Partners; Co-chair of the Banking on Africa Campaign Executive Task Force
   Kevin Compton: “Astounding technological innovations that have impacted the world were the calculator[...], the personal computer[...] and Facebook[...]. But the innovation that changed me forever is the Trust Group. The Trust Group has more accounting than a calculator, more productivity than a personal computer, more communication than a fiber optics link, more relevant information than the Web, and more socialization than social media. [...To reach our goal to end poverty in Africa] it will be more than technical innovation, it will be the Trust Group.”
3. Aleksandr-Alain Kalanda
   CEO of Opportunity International Malawi; Conceptualized and rolled out Opportunity Malawi’s innovative mobile branch services
   Aleksandr-Alain Kalanda: “Our research revealed a lot of reasons why [people in poverty] were not using banks, such as expensive identity documentation, cumbersome processes, high fees, products which did not make sense, branches which are very far from where people live and work, and so on. Our [technological] solutions to these problems have made [Opportunity Malawi] an innovative and ‘pro-poor’ bank. [...] In the next two years, we hope to be serving one million clients.”

Coffee farmer Teddy Namagembe

Opportunity’s approach is to help farmers move from subsistence growing to cash crop production with agriculture-specific loans, savings accounts, crop insurance, effective fertilizers, drought-resistant seeds and technical assistance. Agricultural loan officers guide farmers through the distribution process, providing linkages to agricultural markets.

By achieving their potential, farmers will be able to feed their families and become major food suppliers to the growing global population.

Teddy Namagembe (pictured right) works on her coffee farm from 7 a.m. to sunset each day to support her four children. She used to sell her coffee beans before they were ripe to make ends meet. As an agricultural finance and savings client with Opportunity Uganda, she can now wait for the beans to ripen fully and sell them at a greater profit.

Want to delve deeper into Opportunity’s agricultural finance programs? John Magnay, senior agricultural advisor in Africa, led a breakout session at Opportunity’s annual conference two weeks ago. Read about that session, in which Magnay details the tools, strategies and goals of the program that is making great strides towards improving the lives of smallholder farmers in Africa. Watch Magnay’s breakout session presentation in the video below.

Today, October 17, is the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP) and this year’s theme is “From Poverty to Sustainability: People at the Centre of Inclusive Development.” First commemorated in 1987, the IDEP is “an annual opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of people living in poverty and to have their voices heard, recognizing that poor people are at the forefront of the fight against poverty and are critical partners for achieving sustainable development.” Opportunity International is in complete alignment with the objective of the IDEP–our core belief is that small-scale entrepreneurs can be big change agents in breaking the cycle of global poverty.

Opportunity staff and supporters just returned from our annual conference where we heard from poverty eradication experts and thought leaders in fields related to food security, global hunger and environmental sustainability. Among them were Dr. Julie Howard of USAID’s Feed the Future initiative; Ambassador Tony Hall of the Alliance to End Hunger; John Magnay, Opportunity’s agricultural advisor in Africa; and Richard Leftley, CEO of MicroEnsure, a purveyor of weather index crop insurance.

The experts shared that the most vulnerable people on the planet need not only short-term strategies to combat crop shortages, unpredictable weather and natural disaster, but they need long-term, sustainable solutions that they can implement for themselves to battle the effects of uncertain futures due to climate change and rising food prices. Agricultural finance products like market linkages and microloans, as well as weather index crop insurance, are sustainable, long-term solutions to these issues.

At Feed the Future, we’re working on long-term research to combat climate change and drought, as well as increase productivity of essential cereal crops and legumes.
-Dr. Julie Howard

World leaders have said to me, ‘Your aid is helpful, but when are you going to help our people get back on their feet?’ And they’re right. That’s what microfinance can do.
-Ambassador Tony Hall

There are one billion people in Africa, 75% of whom are involved in agriculture, yet the continent is not capable of feeding 100% of the people. [...] It’s most important that we finance agricultural production because that’s where we can most impact hunger in Africa. -John Magnay

MicroEnsure’s simple product and process design for microinsurance services, including weather index crop insurance, has created cost-effective access to risk protection for communities living in poverty. -Richard Leftley

Rosalinda Omega

Rosalinda Omega and her husband Topper sell flowers and garden plants in the market of Silangan, in Cebu City, the Philippines. Blessed with three kids, she and her husband work tirelessly but fear that they will not be able to save enough money to send her children to college. The couple rely mostly on the volume of harvested plants that are delivered to them by their supplier.

They know that environmental factors, seasonal celebrations, and the dwindling economy in this type of industry are just a few of the factors that could affect their income. Some days, the couple goes home with barely enough money to purchase even meager portions of food for their family.

Support Rosalinda and her family by contributing to her loan at opportunity.org/fundaloan »

For more on the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, click here.

This breakout session highlighted just a few of the innovative solutions to fighting poverty that have been implemented in Nicaragua, Colombia, and Ghana.

David Allman began the session talking about the program he has been a part of as chairman of Opportunity Nicaragua. At the agricultural level, the program in Nicaragua involves granting loans for farming, as well as training farmers to become local leaders and influence improvements in their communities’ infrastructure. They have also brought in a low-technology processing plant to help them add value to their crops. For instance, he showed us a yucca plant, and explained that, with the help of the low-tech processing, they were able to introduce to the farmers ways of increasing their crop yields and new usages for different product types.

In Nicaragua, they also try to promote community initiatives to build local leaders who are both competent and aspirational. They help these communities identify their own needs and find ways to implement solutions. Since then, they have created their own roofing and road repair projects, and have felt empowered enough to visit their city government and demand necessary changes. Allman finished by talking about the impact this has had on the communities, and how the citizens are so motivated by their accomplishments that they are excited to ask, “What can we do next?!”

Craig DeRoy, founder and CEO of Medeem, talked about his company’s service of bringing land rights to those who live in poverty. They work to formalize the land rights process for those who are unable to do so on their own. He explained that most countries have land records, but that they’re unused and inaccessible for the poor. Medeem has created a self-sustaining local enterprise called ParcelCert to allow for a cost-effective and accessible solution for individuals to own land and feel empowered. They have primarily been working in Ghana, and are working on a model that will be scalable for other communities.

The last presentation was by Jim Frantz. He talked about their program, “A Roof and a Floor for My Home.” Couldn’t get more direct of a title than that! The objectives of this pilot program were to 1) improve the quality of life, 2) provide access to technical expertise, 3) take advantage of lower costs of materials, labor, etc. and 4) strengthen family relations within the community. This pilot program has been successful so far, and he mentions specific cases of women who have built solid homes for their families. “There’s just something about a mother being able to provide security for her kids,” Frantz says. He also talked about a woman named Astrid Suarez who has been providing her technical expertise to the program, and unfortunately was unable to make it to the conference to share her on-the-ground local experience.

This was an interesting breakout session to learn about different partnerships Opportunity has been building in order to provide services to people in poverty. I look forward to following up on their activities and seeing the impact they continue to make.

This post was written by Barbie Lucio. Barbie is a member of the San Francisco chapter of YAO and works with philanthropists to create change and impact.

Who’d have thought that getting up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning to listen to someone speak about microinsurance would have been so interesting? In this session, Richard Leftley talked about how providing insurance for those living in poverty has created an impact on individuals and has proven to be a powerful safety net.

Richard Leftley leads the conference breakout session on microinsurance.

Leftley has worked with Opportunity International for the last 10 years on getting insurance into poverty stricken areas. He started thinking of ways to provide insurance products while working in Zambia. A woman approached him and explained that she was frustrated because he didn’t understand her life. “My life is like this Chutes & Ladders board [game],” Leftley narrated. “The loans Opportunity gives me are like ladders, they give me growth. But where are you when disaster strikes? When someone in my family dies?” This is when Leftley understood that his role was to provide this community with a safety net.

For microinsurance to work, there are three key roles that need to be performed: Risk Carrier, Front Office, and Back Office. MicroEnsure works primarily in the Back Office, designing products and processes, training sales staff and clients, collecting/storing/reporting data, and handling administrative duties. “Paying claims quickly is the most important thing for the poor,” and MicroEnsure works to create the structure that makes this possible.

One of the innovative ways that they are now selling insurance products is through mobile phone companies. There are two main approaches they have taken in Africa. MicroEnsure’s partnership with Tigo has been their most successful one. In Africa, mobile phones are all prepaid. Tigo introduced insurance as part of a loyalty program: the more money you spend on your phone, the more credits you get for insurance. Users would receive a text message saying: “Thank you for using Tigo. Based on your Tigo usage in December, your free life insurance is XXX credits for January. Use more Tigo, get more insurance!” With this program, they have been able to double their clients.

The other way that they have been selling insurance is by putting an insurance menu directly on the mobile phone. The menu is simple, easy to use, and allows individuals to buy different levels of coverage for themselves and members of their family, and the payment comes right out of their mobile phone credit.

MicroEnsure’s products include coverage for life, property, weather, livestock, and health. They search for trusted sources such as churches, microfinance providers, and recognized brands to introduce the idea and benefits of insurance to potential customers. Their simple product and process design has created cost-effective access to risk protection for communities living in poverty.

This post was written by Barbie Lucio. Barbie is a member of the San Francisco chapter of YAO and works with philanthropists to create change and impact.

Banking on Education panel (from left): Char Caldwell, Geoffrey Thige, Liesel Pritzker, and Steve Nelson.

While Ghana, Malawi and Uganda do offer government-funded public schools, financial constraints force classrooms designed for 40 students to swell to accommodate nearly 120. With a stark student-teacher ratio, there’s no opportunity for students to receive personalized education, and thus, individual learning and comprehension suffers.

Not only are public facilities limited in populous areas, but many remote villages and towns are often deprived entirely of any public education. Without government-run programs, many towns have turned to private education run by entrepreneurs. Though by definition ‘private,’ these schools don’t match the lush American view of private schools, and are often as limited in resources as the public schools.

Because these private facilities do not fall within the parameters set by USAID, these programs often go without outside aid and support–even though they are sometimes the only school within a community. That’s where Opportunity International steps in. Opportunity works with these schools to develop loans and offer business training to help schools maximize efficiency, turn a profit, and then invest that knowledge and capital back into the schools to improve the quality of education.

In addition to providing support for schools, Opportunity also offers loans to offset tuition costs for families. Families making less than $2 a day struggle to afford a $51 per year annual tuition, and sometimes are forced to enroll students intermittently for a semester at a time. Interruptions in schooling compromise a student’s learning and potential for success, so Opportunity offers microloans to help parents cover tuition and provide continuous education for their children.

Opportunity has a presence in nearly 500 schools effectively touching over 120,000 students. Char Caldwell, VP of resource development, closed the session by saying, “We truly believe that every child deserves an education.” And through microfinance, Opportunity is making that mission a reality.

This post was written by Allison Altdoerffer. Allison is a public relations professional and a member of the YAO – San Francisco chapter.

Dick Leathers, member of the Board of Governors, shared how he educates church members in Houston, where frequently the reaction is “Wow, I didn’t know about that. That’s pretty cool.” Leathers said that he describes Opportunity to friends and family as a “hand up, not a hand out.”

Breakout session panel (from left): Dick Leathers, Monica Perez, Betsy Perdue, Amelia Gingold and Sonya Perez-Lauterbach.

Monica Perez, Denver chapter co-chair, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity, shared the story of the YAO Denver grew from two passionate leaders to a network of nearly 120 volunteers. Perez noted that the chapter doesn’t limit its time together to just planning meetings, but they also plan happy hours and weekend retreats to bond and create fun memories.

Betsy Perdue, board member, Women’s Opportunity Network (WON), emphasizes the feasible and tangible ways to make an impact. She shared her own outreach, as well as how her young daughter created a party and fundraising plan to benefit Opportunity, and how a group of 80 second-graders collected pennies into homemade piggy banks to fund three microloans.

Amelia Gingold, communication relations for Sunshine Sachs & Associates, closed the panel with advice on how to share your passion with others. Gingold noted that contributing to Opportunity isn’t limited to fundraising, but can be as small as taking a few minutes during dinner or a book club to share your passion, and show pictures from your Opportunity Insight Trips. She advised the audience to “think about what makes your heart happy, and put that into a sentence,” and to use that as the foundation to mold your volunteer and outreach initiatives.

Overall, the panel reiterated that getting involved and volunteering should be fun, and shaped by the interests and talents of the individual. There’s no limit in how to make an impact through Opportunity International. As Sonya Perez-Lauterbach, the manager of Young Ambassadors for Opportunity, said at the beginning of the session, “If it ain’t fun, it’s hard to get done.”

This post was written by Allison Altdoerffer. Allison is a public relations professional and a member of the YAO – San Francisco chapter.

Highlights from Geoff Thige

Geoffrey Thige, COO of Opportunity Kenya, speaks from the mainstage about the work of Opportunity Kenya and what the future holds for Kenyan clients..

In Kenya, we have 39 million people, yet only 4 million people have bank accounts. There would need to be 500,000 jobs created to accommdate all the young people, yet the informal sector only produces 10,000 jobs. And most of the job training is for white collar jobs, which do not exist. So you can imagine there is a lot of joblessness.

At Opportunity, we are working to implement financial services, including savings, and especially financial training. I’ll tell you a story. A few weeks before I left Kenya, we had a financial literacy training session and a woman named Francisca was there and she was asking a lot of questions. So I engaged her and asked about her story. She had been selling tomatoes, but her business was failiing so she came to the training to find out why. There was a lot of competition in the marketplace. Her customer service was not good. Her prices had stayed the same so her margins continued to shrink. And as I was talking to her, I realized we could help her and clients like her find the solutions to creating sustainable solutions and grow their businesses. When Francisca left, she knew how to build her business, and protect against competition. She was hopeful and excited about the future of her business.

We also sell insurance for natural disasters like floods and fire, such as the recent petrol fire that ravaged the Nairobi slums. The solution to poverty is insurance, as Richard Leftley shared today in a conference breakout session. However, this is necessary to protect against the effects of not only natural disasters, but also political crises, such as the post-election riots in 2008. At that time, we lost 80% of our client portfolio. But our clients who were displaced by the political violence came back, and with our help, many have been able to grow their businesses back to their previous levels.

Seventy-five percent of the population in Kenya are under 25. We have to be able to educate them. All the schools that Opportunity Kenya funds are in the slums. Many of the students have HIV/AIDS. We also fund school fee loans so that parents can afford to send their children to school.

In Kenya, cell phones are not a luxury item, they are a crucial part of the infrastructure and daily life. Clients can transfer loan repayments and pay their bills via cell phones. This is not just a convenience, but a critical way for clients to save the time and money of visiting a physical bank. It’s also much less risky and it can also be a way for clients to save, although that not the intended use of the service. This is a great opportunity for them.

What’s next for Opportunity Kenya? In the next two years, Kenya intends to be a regulated, deposit-taking financial institution to allow clients a place to save and offer them access to formal banking services.

We are revolutionizing the way that clients are able to support their families and their communities. I wish to thank Opportunity’s Kenya Champion Team and the supporters that make the Banking on Africa initiative possible. Together, we will be able to give all Kenyans the chance at a better life. Thank you.

A bit about Geoff Thige

Geoffrey Thige is Opportunity Kenya’s COO, a role in which he oversees transformation, IT, risk/compliance and special projects. Prior to joining Opportunity, Geoffrey worked at Microenterprise Development Services Ltd, a Kenyan microfinance company where he was the finance manager as well as head of human resources and administration. He has over 15 years experience in the financial accounting, microfinance and entrepreneurship sectors working for PRIDE Africa (an international NGO) and most recently with Sunlink Microenterprise Development Services Ltd. Geoffrey holds a B.A. in economics and government from the University of Nairobi with a CPA and ACCA qualifications, and an MBA in finance. Prior to his recent promotion at Opportunity, Geoffrey served as transformation and impact manager.

Highlights from Connie Nielsen’s Presentation

I was in a film called Lost in Africa. The premise of the film was that my adopted Kenyan son was lost without his cell phone and without his family, and so his isolation put him in danger. There are lot of children like this in Kibera, Kenya. This community of people founded our Human Needs Project. I was introduced to the way of life in these slums, a group of people who had no access to infrastructure. But this does not even begin to cover it. There is no running water, there is nothing. There are high mortality rates and low productivity rates. It becomes a prison. Human Needs Project operates from understanding that poverty is a prison but it is a prison that we can break out of.

William, my guide in Kibera, said that I could build a well. But the truth is, I realized that we could invest in putting in a well but within a few years, it would not be working anymore, and it’s the same with many businesses in the informal sector. Why is that? It’s because they are simply not set up to be sustainable. So we had to change our tack.

I imagine that acting involves empathy. That is what I do when I create a character. I have empathy for them, I try to understand their lives. And that same approach can be taken to community development. I met the people in Kibera, and I realized that we all have a lot in common.

When we’re talking about finding solutions to the problems the people face, we’re talking about infrastructure. We at HNP have seen a lot of organizations that come in to donate money. But what the Kiberans need is to own these projects. They are consumers and they want to pay for the services they use, if the services are good enough.

We have summoned innovative technologies and clean technologies to create clean water and a waste treatment system, because Kiberan systems are not hooked up to Nairobi’s services, which are themselves spotty and unreliable at times.

HNP has also implemented educational and training services. We believe that all these services will be the tipping point to enable a woman to change her life. We believe that this will be the method by which women will not only survive but be hopeful about their futures. This is why we call our work development not aid.

We asked the women what they would like to do with their lives. We got a lot of answers and we’ve incorporated them into our work. We’ve created a group of clean technology marketplace entrepreneurs and clean technology upgrades for homes at bottom-of-the-pyramid prices. We are implementing these changes with the community, and in the end, they know that it’s for the community.

A bit about Connie Nielsen

Connie Nielsen was born and raised in Denmark, and is best known for her portrayal of Princess Lucilla opposite Russell Crowe’s Maximus in the Academy Award-winning “Gladiator” (2000). Connie serves as a founding member of the Human Needs Project and Road to Freedom Scholarships in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya. As a board member of the Corporate Social Responsibility Fund in Denmark, she was a presenter at the “CSR Awards Show 2011” in September, interviewing Al Gore. In addition to being an accomplished actress, Nielsen is a trained singer, dancer and is fluent in English, German, Danish, Swedish, French and Italian.

Highlights from Jeffrey Spector’s Presentation

Innovations are not only happening in labs or on computers. I’ll give two examples:

A few years ago, I was tasked with scaling up Gates’s organizations. We made an assumption: informal services are harmful to people in poverty. But in fact, people in poverty lead fantastically complicated financial lives. They value these services. For instance, ROSCAs, or informal savings groups, are the precursors to microfinance. They encourage self-discipline, their group structure encourages repayment on time, and they require no collateral.

Fast forward to several years later, when I was headed to Uttar Pradesh, an Indian state that has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, and astounding levels of poverty and suffering. I was there to help improve the health and childcare of newborns. I brought my father, an obstetrician, with me for both clinical advice and support. The doctor at the local clinic observed unhygienic conditions during childbirth that was having detrimental effects on the health of children. But the local clinician realized he needed to work within the existing framework–as he said, “Their cup is not empty.”

People in poverty have access to unexpected resources and social networks. These social networks can be the difference between life and death. People in poverty are not resistant to change. They seek out technologies that make their lives better, like mobile phones. There’s a reason thatt Africa is one of the leading markets for mobile phones. We need to approach the problems actually facing the poor and not just take on the easiest or quickest problems.

The first microfinance practitioners did not invent a financial solution to poverty, they merely employed existing solutions already used by the poor. They saw the ROSCAs and said, “We can build a better mousetrap.”

A bit about Jeffrey Spector

Jeffrey Spector serves as chief of staff to Melinda Gates at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He provides strategic and analytical support to Melinda and program teams on the full range of the Foundation’s work, which cuts across health, education, and poverty issues domestically and around the world. Jeffrey joined the foundation as a program analyst on the Financial Services for the Poor team. Earlier in his career, he helped to start Linktone (NDAQ: LTON), a Shanghai-based mobile services provider, overseeing the company’s international business development and later market research efforts. Jeffrey also served as a consultant to the U.S. government, conducting research and analysis for the HELP Commission which reviews all U.S. foreign assistance to improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

This session was streamed live at opportunity.org/live. Visit opportunity.org/live throughout the conference to watch the sessions live.