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Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day
June 27 is globally recognized as Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day. Click here for more information. This year, the special focus is on raising awareness of the need for greater investment into small and mid-sized businesses in developing countries. World Vision is making great strides in this area!
In the United States, 27 million small businesses employ about 50% of the workforce, and generate about 50% of our gross domestic product (GDP). In the poorest countries, micro-, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) are even more important. They dominate the business landscape, making up 90% of all firms in rural and urban areas, and providing the vast majority of formal and informal employment.
Unlike in the United States, in the poorest countries there are very few “formal” jobs available. If you want a job, you need to make your own. So you start your own business or run your own farm. However, small businesses are two things – they are small and they are businesses. In the places World Vision works most of these businesses are under-capitalized, and struggle to grow because of a lack of investment capital.
World Vision has two main responses to this challenge:
- Savings for Transformation Groups – where people learn to save money together, and where they lend each other their savings; and
- Microfinance Services – run by VisionFund International, we provide credit, savings, and insurance to people running their own small business or farm.
 World Vision has more than 1.25 million people involved in 53,000 Savings for Transformation Groups in 36 countries. These people have World Vision’s sole investment into these groups is the initial training and mentoring of the group. All of the $27.5 million in savings is their own money. Click here to download and read our new flier called “From Surviving to Thriving”.
VisionFund International serves nearly 1.1 million clients in 29 countries. With a loan portfolio in 2018 of $727 million, an average loan size of $495, nearly 98% repayment rate, and with 70% women clients, VisionFund is increasingly pivoting to serve rural and agricultural communities. Since its formation 15 years ago, VisionFund has made over 14.4 million loans and lent $8.2 billion. Click here to download and read our new flier about microfinance, and click here to link to the VisionFund International Annual Report.
With only a very small portion of people in both Savings for Transformation Groups and getting loans from VisionFund, that means that approximately 2.3 million people are getting access to financial services through World Vision’s efforts. Every 14 seconds someone is getting access to the resources that can transform their business. Now THAT is a number worth celebrating.
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