Vikram K. Akula of India

Vikram K. Akula, Founder and Chairperson, SKS Microfinance, India, interviewed by Global X at the 7th Summit of the Schwab Social Entrepreneurs in Zürich, Switzerland. Vikram Akula, speaks about the mission of SKS Finance.

“SKS believes that access to basic financial services can significantly increase economic opportunities for poor families and in turn help improve their lives. Since inception, SKS has delivered a full portfolio of microfinance to the poor in India and we are proud of our current outreach. As a leader in technological innovation and operational excellence, SKS is excited about setting the course for the industry over the next five years and is striving to reach our goal of 15 million members by 2012.”

Fazle H. Abed of Bangladesh

Fazle H. Abed, Founder and Chairperson, BRAC, Bangladesh, interviewed by Global X at the 7th Summit of the Schwab Social Entrepreneurs in Zürich, Switzerland. Fazle H. Abed speaks about how his life changed when a cylcone hit Bangladesh in 1970.

BRAC believes that poverty must be tackled from a holistic viewpoint, transitioning individuals from being aid recipients to becoming empowered citizens in control of their own destinies. Over the years, BRAC has organised the isolated poor, learned to understand their needs, piloted, refined and scaled up practical ways to increase their access to resources, support their entrepreneurship, and empower them to become active agents of change. Women and girls have been the central analytical lens of BRAC’s anti-poverty approach, recognizing both their vulnerabilities but also their thirst for change.

Today in Bangladesh alone, BRAC works to combat poverty in 70,000 villages and 2000 slums, and reaches three quarters of the entire population with an integrated package of services for rural and urban communities. We employ more than 100,000 people – microfinance officers, teachers, health staff, and enterprise managers – to be on the very doorstep of the poorest families making our services accessible, relevant and adaptable. We have learned over time to find the poorest of the poor – those who are destitute and outside the reach of most NGOs – and help them rebuild their lives from scratch and achieve financial independence.

Martin Burt of Paraguay

Martin Burt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fundación Paraguaya, Paraguay, interviewed by Global X at the 7th summit of the Schwab Social Entrepreneurs in Zürich, Switzerland. Martin Burt describes the concept that explains his success: model replication. More on Fundación Paraguaya from Kiva.

The Fundación Paraguaya is a self-sustaining social enterprise which promotes entrepreneurship in urban and rural areas through three inter-related strategies:

1) A Microfinance Program aimed at smaller microentrepreneurs and emerging microentrepreneurs, who are generally neglected by other microfinance institutions

2) An economic education program for children and youth (Junior Achievement)

3) A self-sufficient agricultural high school, which teaches organic agriculture and entrepreneurial skills to low-income youth from rural areas, transforming them from poor campesinos into rural entrepreneurs.

The three programs are separate in budgetary and financial terms, but are closely integrated at the operational level so that each program enriches, and is enriched by, the other two. This synergy gives “value added” to each of the three programs and is the driving force behind our “business model.” It is also an important ingredient in the success of our microfinance program.

Our Microfinance Program is a profitable, well-managed business. During the last five years, return of equity has averaged 10%. In 2005, it was cited in the Inter-American Development Bank’s League of Champions, as the sixth most profitable microfinance program in Latin America. In 2004, 2005 and 2006, the program also won Honorable Mention in the Financial Transparency competition run by the World Bank-sponsored Consultative Group on the Poor (CGAP).

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Around the world it is estimated that 1 billion people are going hungry. One quarter of those, around 265 million, are in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the horn of Africa being the worst affected.

Al Jazerra’s Mohammed Adow reports from the Turkana district of Kenya where life is a daily struggle.

UNICEF is working with the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) to alleviate the toll that drought takes on the nomadic Turkana people of northern Kenya. More from a February 2009 report in IRIN News:

Food shortages in the arid Turkana region of north-western Kenya, where an increasing number of people are already unable to find enough to eat, could escalate if rains fail in March, an official warned.

“With the prevailing drought, blanket feeding of the population may soon be the way to go,” Geoffrey Kaituko, Turkana district drought management officer, said.

The region has been hit by drought, insecurity, poor or no harvests, high malnutrition rates, water scarcity and high food prices. Children and the elderly, in particular, needed relief food to survive in all three districts – Turkana East, Turkana Central and Turkana South.

Peter Smerdon, spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said the Kenyan government, UN agencies and NGOs were conducting assessments following the October-December short rains to determine the numbers in need in Turkana and other districts.

“We expect preliminary results from areas hit by the failure of the short rains, which include Turkana, to be released later this month and the final report in March,” he told IRIN on 17 February. “WFP will adjust the numbers of people it feeds in Kenya accordingly.”

David Lotiang, the councillor of Kerio Ward in Turkana Central district, said he had heard of people dying of hunger-related problems, but could not confirm these reports because of poor roads and the remoteness of some villages.

“Restocking of people’s livestock and road repair are some of the urgent measures needed to curb this trend,” he said.

Kaituko said the quality and quantity of vegetation cover across the region had dropped. “Where there is still pasture, this may last only one month; if the March April rains also fail, the region will be in a full-scale emergency,” he told IRIN.

“People, as well as their livestock, walk long distances to get water, and this is another indicator of worsening food security since water bowls and shallow wells are drying up fast.”

There was also a problem of poor livestock health. “With pasture reducing, the animals are likely to starve, coupled with diseases such as PPR, which has killed millions of animals since it was reported in the country in 2006.”

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Two of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest families are battling each other in a New York court over claims that one side stole $10bn from the other.

The fraud case has highlighted the lack of transparency in doing business in the Gulf, where banks are blamed for lending money to wealthy families almost solely on reputation.

Hashem Ahelbarra looks at the fallout for businesses in the region.

More from Al Jazeera:

Saudi Arabia has been rocked by a case charging one of the country’s wealthiest businessmen, Maan al-Sanea, with stealing $10bn from his wife’s family over four years.

The prominent Algosaibi business group had filed a case in a US court accusing al-Sanea of using a workers’ remittance unit to hide the skimming of huge sums from unauthorised foreign-exchange deals with banks.

The case, filed last week in New York State Supreme Court by Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Bros (AHAB), is part of running dispute and responds to an earlier complaint filed against AHAB by Mashreq, a Dubai-based bank.

Mashreq Bank, one of the United Arab Emirates’ largest, is cited as a “relevant person” in the case.

The charges broke open a dispute between the two groups and numerous regional and international banks that had simmered behind the scenes for two months.

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Human rights groups in Azerbaijan are highlighting what they say are shrinking freedoms in the country, after two video bloggers were arrested and charged with hooliganism.

Activists say the charges were fabricated to punish the young opposition members, for their criticism of the government.

Matthew Collin reports from Baku.

More from Media Helping Media:

Reporters Without Borders is callling for the immediate release of two Azerbaijani bloggers detained pre-trial for two months by a court in Baku.

The two, Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli, are described as youth movement leaders, civil society activists and citizen journalists.

Reporters Without Borders described the decision as ‘disproportionate’.

“They were not allowed to see a lawyer and the charges brought against them are baseless. We are worried about their state of health and call for their immediate release.”

According to reports on several blogs, Facebook and postings on Twitter, the charges against the two could result in their imprisonment for up to two and a half years.

It’s reported that the two men were beaten and then arrested in a Baku restaurant.

According to Human Rights House Network, the two were sitting in a restaurant with other young adults, discussing the activity of youth organisations related to the Internet when two men told them to stop talking politics and then attacked them.

Ali S. Novruzov a blogging researcher based in Baku who also writes for Global Voices Online and the FrontLine Club blog says the two months of pre-trial detention is the maximum period that they could have been held for.

Novruzov writes that during the two months the investigation has to be concluded and their case brought before the judge.

If the investigation is not concluded, their detention period can be extended for additional two months.

“While detained, they won’t be able to receive any guests, instead of their lawyers.

“They will be held in a new detention center in a town of Kurdokhani, a small town in an hour’s drive from Baku,” he writes.

Campaigners are calling for supporters of the two to write to the US Embassy in Baku to try to get help for the two detained bloggers.

Onnik Krikorian, a journalist and photo-journalist and blogger who covers the Caucuses writes on Global Voices that the two were subjected to a trial behind closed doors.

“One Facebook status line update reported that the German Human Rights Ombudsperson, coincidentally in Baku at the time, considered its conduct to be in violation of Azerbaijan’s international commitments.”

Adnan Hajizadeh is one of the founders of OL! Youth Movement which has a Facebook site, the group tweets @olmedia and have a YouTube site. Emin Milli helped set up the Alumni Network (AN). All sites are being continually updated.

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The internet has been a vital outlet for protesters in Iran’s post-election turmoil, but now Iranian authorities are fighting back with strict cyber laws.

The government says it gives users ‘more security’ but privacy campaigners are concerned about the implications of state surveillance on free speech. Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri reports.

More from Al Jazeera:

Iran has passed a new internet law that experts fear will make information on internet users more readily available to the authorities.

Press TV, a news channel funded by the Iranian government, said on Monday that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country’s president, has issued an order for the implementation of the law.

According to Press TV, the cyber law would provide internet users with “more security”, as internet service providers are required to save all data sent and received by their clients for at least three months.

But critics of the legislation say the stored data would enable the authorities to monitor internet users, including anonymous bloggers opposed to the regime in the Islamic republic.

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