The Forum has been held under the heading “Comprehensive Finance for Comprehensive Growth”
- The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (FMBBVA) is a participant in this forum, which this year focuses on financial inclusion for economic growth. It is attended by institutions that work towards sustainable development and economic growth.
- The FMBBVA showcases its work in support of 1.7 million vulnerable people to help them rise out of poverty through entrepreneurship –in the form of small businesses–, as has been recognized by the United Nations. Its methodology for measuring the social impact of its activity has also become an international benchmark for the microfinance sector.
The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (FMBBVA) is participating in the lVth Sustainable Finance Forum (FFS), Turkey’s most important event on sustainable development, which this year focuses on the financial inclusion of underprivileged populations as a tool for contributing to countries’ economic growth.
Under the heading “Comprehensive Finance for Comprehensive Growth”, this year’s forum joins forces with the United Nations in its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) campaign aimed at eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. The event is organized by the Business Council for Sustainable Development Turkey (BCSD Turkey), the United Nations Environmental program (UNEP – FI), and Global Compact in Turkey.
La FMBBVA has been recognized by the UN for its contribution to the struggle against poverty, gender inequality and its support for long-term, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. At this forum, the Foundation shares its experience in financial inclusion, one of the unresolved obstacles facing disadvantaged sectors of society, particularly in developing countries. It is currently one of the leading philanthropic initiatives in terms of social impact in Latin America: it serves 1.7 million customers and its work improves the lives of almost seven million people in seven countries.
Around 2 billion adults around the world have no access to financial services, which substantially reduces their opportunities for the future and increases the likelihood of their remaining poor.
“Emerging economies account for 58% of world GDP. In the last decade, they have represented three quarters of the growth in real GDP worldwide. Today the number of poor people has fallen by one third compared to 1990. However, two thirds of the people who have emerged from poverty in recent years are still vulnerable and may fall back into this condition. The main reason for this vulnerability is that almost half the workforce is made up of casual workers who have little stability in their jobs. Self-employed workers and microenterprises are a way of changing the structure of the labor market”, explains Giovanni di Plácido, director of Study and Strategy at the FMBBVA, who is taking part in the forum as a speaker on the panel entitled “Promoting Financial Inclusion in Emerging Markets”.
Productive Finance is the BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s own specialty. This is an ethical model for approaching vulnerable customers which has also proved effective in the fight against poverty. It takes into account the profile and characteristics of vulnerability of the customers, and supports their sustainable development through the surpluses generated by their business.
83% of the small entrepreneurs served by FMBBVA are poor or vulnerable, 61% are women, 30% live in a rural setting, and 47% have a maximum of primary education. The programs are aimed at entrepreneurs, and offer opportunities to refugees who are looking to rebuild their lives, prison inmates who wish to re-enter society, and indigenous populations for whom a bank loan is so far beyond their reach that they never even consider it.
The entrepreneurs make significant progress. Their sales grow by 16% year-on-year and their assets by 30%. 32% of the customers who joined the bank when they were poor rose up out of poverty after two years, and although they sometimes remain exposed, they are less vulnerable the longer they remain with the FMBBVA’s institutions.
The FMBBVA compiles an annual report to measure the effect of its activity on social development and the progress of the people it serves in order to ensure its impact is even greater and more effective. The report entitled “Measuring what really matters” contains a detailed description of the entrepreneurs, their businesses and their economic and social development during the time they have been working with the Foundation. This report has become a benchmark for good practices in the microfinance sector and is recognized in the report entitled “Working together towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): Framework for Action”, compiled by the Kennedy School at Harvard University at the initiative of the UN.