Our Commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Our Commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

March 29, 2017

Today, there are 836 million people living in extreme poverty, and while a great amount of work has already been done to decrease that number, a lot still must be done. In 2015, under the direction of the United Nations (UN), world leaders developed a set of seventeen global goals, called the Sustainable Development Goals.  These goals cover the next 15 years and include goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.  Wisconsin Microfinance is doing its part in achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The role for Wisconsin Microfinance is reflected in several of the goals, but specifically in the first goal of ending “poverty in all its forms everywhere.” A few of the targets for this goal are to:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day

2. Ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance

Wisconsin Microfinance’s work translates these bold and ambitious goals to on-the-ground transformation of communities  in Haiti and the Philippines.  Specifically, we design and fund programs to reach those in extreme poverty, targeting women. Women are disproportionately exposed to poverty compared to their male counterparts because of the inequality in access to education, paid work, and property. By targeting 80% of our loans to women, we lift individuals, their families and their entire communities out of poverty.

By receiving a first time loan, recipients develop a small business and create a sustainable income. For many this leads to starting a savings account for the first time, giving their child an education, getting access to previously unaffordable medical help, or fixing the infrastructure of their home. Each microloan is unique, but all result in a more sustainable world.

To learn more about the Sustainable Development goals, check out:  http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

To learn more about and support the work of Wisconsin Microfinance see:  http://wisconsinfinance.org/