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    "ocrText": "FOIA Number:\n2006-1733-F\nFOIA\nMARKER\nThis is not a textual record. This is used as an\nadministrative marker by the William J. Clinton\nPresidential Library Staff.\nCollection/Record Group:\nClinton Presidential Records\nSubgroup/Office of Origin:\nFirst Lady's Office\nSeries/Staff Member:\nSpeechwriting\nSubseries:\nLaura Schiller: HRC Speeches 11/94 - 8/95\nOA/ID Number:\n24624\nFolderID:\nFolder Title:\nHRC Foreign Speeches 1994-97: [5/10/97 Microenterprise Summit, Bridgetown, Barbados]\nStack:\nRow:\nSection:\nShelf:\nPosition:\nS\n61\n2\n2\n2\nMicroenterprise Summit\nBarbados 5/10/97\n5/9/97\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\nREMARKS MICROENTERPRISE SUMMIT\nBRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS\nMAY 10, 1997\nI\nAcknowledgments: Sir Neville Nichols; members of the Caribbean\nDevelopment Bank; National Development Foundations; USAID; Peace Corps\n[work on microenterprise with Carib Indians -- last remaining indigenous group in\nEastern Caribbean].\nThis is one happy day. I am in beautiful Barbados. And I get to learn about\nand discuss microenterprise. It doesn't get much better than that.\nI think we would all agree that this discussion could not come at a more\nimportant time. For the people of the Caribbean, life is considerably different from\nthe tranquil, care-free, and undeniably lovely environment many of us encounter\nwhen we vacation at your resorts.\nThe entire world is undergoing a profound economic transformation. The\ninformation revolution, increased global competition, rapidly opening markets are\nforever altering the way we work and do business. This change has disrupted lives\nand economies. And while I firmly believe that it is leading to a freer, more\nprosperous age, I also know that this transition has not been easy -- particularly for\nsmaller economies and particularly for the economies of the Caribbean. Despite\nyour best efforts, the force of this upheaval has pushed some of your people further\naway from prosperity's horizon.\n2\nThe countries of Caribbean and the United States are neighbors. Millions of\nAmericans trace their heritage to these islands. We are united not only by a\ncommon body of water, but also by a history of democratic and economic\npartnership. We will be partners in this transition, too. We will meet its challenges.\nAnd we will come through it stronger than ever.\nMy husband's visit here is an expression of that commitment. So, too, is the\nPartnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean he announced earlier\ntoday. As part of that initiative, the United States will commit $2 million to help\nthose Eastern Caribbean countries that are having the hardest time weathering this\neconomic transformation -- particularly the Windward Islands of Dominica, St.\nVincent, St. Lucia, and Grenada. This American investment will support\nCaribbean-based initiatives that are already in place and that are already making a\ndifference -- efforts to expand and diversify trade, strengthen social services,\npromote education -- and, of special importance to those of us gathered here today,\nto foster microenterprise.\nUnder the President's plan, the United States Agency for International\nDevelopment will award a grant of $500,000 for microenterprise assistance. These\nfunds will go to each country's National Development Foundation. The\nfoundations, in turn, will then make loans to deserving entrepreneurs. We know\nthat loans as small as $100 can make all the difference in the world for someone\nwho has never been able to get credit. Let me add that I very much hope that the\nCaribbean Development Bank, with its wealth of expertise in this area, will help us\nto coordinate the overall effort.\n3\nThe funding the President announced today builds on the work that USAID\nhas been doing to promote microenterprise in the region for the last 20 years. I am\nproud that USAID has been one of the earliest, strongest and largest supporters of\nmicroenterprise in the hemisphere. By working in partnership with the CDB and\nthe foundations, we are building on a proven strategy. We are not reinventing the\nwheel here -- we are just trying to make it turn a lot faster.\nThere is no better investment than microenterprise. For microenterprise, as\nwe heard from the people who just spoke, can literally lift people up and transform\ntheir lives.\nBy empowering people at the grassroots, it deepens the commitment of a\ncountry's citizens to democracy. By providing credit to the poor, it allows ever-\nmore men and women to pull themselves out of poverty and to enter the economic\nmainstream. By offering new opportunities to women, it moves us all closer to\nmaking real the dream of equality.\nI want to draw special attention to this last idea. Microcredit is available to\nboth men and women. But I think we would all agree that it is of special benefit to\nwomen.\n4\nThough the countries of the Caribbean have made real strides in seeing to it\nthat women receive the same educational opportunities as men, we know that here,\nand in my country and around the world, too many women still live on the outskirts\nof opportunity. Not only is that morally wrong -- it is self-defeating. For we are\ncutting ourselves off from the huge, untapped reservoir of potential that women\nrepresent.\nA democracy without the full participation of women is a contradiction in\nterms. Participation goes far beyond being able to walk into a voting booth or even\nto run for office. Wherever women are undervalued, underpaid, undereducated,\nunder-represented, fed less, fed worse, not heard -- we cannot sustain the\ndemocratic values and the way of life we have come to cherish.\nWomen must have a real place at the table -- and not just when it is time to\nclear the dishes. Women and girls must have access to what I call the tools of\nopportunity: education, decent health care, legal protections, and credit -- so they\ncan participate in the economic lives of their countries.\nThat, as you know, is where microenterprise comes in.\nI have had many experts in economics around the world say to me that\nwomen's work is not part of the economies of countries.\n5\nAnd yet I have seen with my own eyes, as I have traveled through urban and\nrural areas alike, something that will surprise none of you: Women are working!\nTheir contributions may not be counted in the gross domestic product of their\nsocieties, but they are definitely working. And that work is of value. I have always\nbelieved that if women got up tomorrow and announced that they would not work -\n- inside or outside the home -- the economies of every country would collapse.\nWhat's wonderful about microcredit is that it completely shatters this\nmythology. Microcredit is a stroke of genius precisely because it brings out into the\nopen and builds on skills that are already there, but which for too long have gone\nunrecognized by governments, banks, and international aid organizations. Anyone\nwho has seen a mother, night after night, stretch leftovers into a meal to feed her\nchildren anyone who has seen a woman piece together a quilt from the remnants\nof old clothes knows the talent women have had to have for making the very best\nchoices out of very little material.\nThere is a wealth of expertise and energy out there -- and microenterprise\nhas the power to liberate it. Moreover, it is able to do so without huge investments\nin capital, massive government programs, or expensive technology. In an era of\ngreater competition and scarcer resources, microcredit represents a new\nunderstanding of how we can equip people on the margins of society with the tools\nthey need to take control of their lives.\n6\nPerhaps that is why this idea travels so well. Around the world, we've seen\nthe power of microcredit to transform the lives of individual loan recipients, their\nfamilies, and their communities. The concept is universal -- even if its applications\nare different.\nFor example, my first experience with microcredit came via Mohammed\nYunus. In 1986, he came to Little Rock to help my husband and me understand\nhow the lessons of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh could be applied to\ndevelopment in Arkansas. With his guidance, we started the Good Faith Fund,\nwhich is still improving the lives of some of the poorest people in one of the\npoorest states in my country.\nAnd that was only the beginning. Since then -- in India, in Uganda, in\nBangladesh, in Bolivia, in Washington, D.C., and place in-between -- I have been\nprivileged to see over and over again how a modest investment in microcredit can\nyield enormous returns.\nThat was certainly my experience in Costa Rica just the other day. At a\nroundtable and later at a conference, I met with people -- mostly women -- who had\nstarted an astonishing range of businesses. One woman opened a laundry; another\ngrew orchids. One made wedding dresses; another, clothing for children.\n7\nWhat they did could not have been more different -- but what they achieved\nfor themselves and their communities was remarkably similar. They spoke of\nincreased self-esteem -- the businesses they started with small loans taught them to\nbelieve in themselves. This confidence, in turn, inspired fuller citizenship and\ngreater involvement in public affairs. These people built assets as well as incomes -\n- one bought a home, another paid for her child's education. They also described\nhow their loans helped to expand the circle of prosperity in their communities --\nmicrobusinesses grew into small businesses, which hired new employees and\npurchased ever-more raw materials from vendors. And they talked of how\nmicroenterprise banks are invaluable not just because they make credit available,\nbut because they train recipients on how to make the best use of that credit.\nThey also did something that seems to be a habit among microenterprise\npeople the world over: They wanted to know about other microenterprise efforts.\nI will always remember a group of women I met at a FINCA bank in\nManagua. After these women described the businesses they had started, I asked\nthem if they had any questions. One woman stood up and asked me to tell her about\nwomen I had met at a microcredit organization in India. She wanted to know what\nher counterparts a world away were spending money on and what businesses they\nwere starting. At that moment, I knew that microcredit was transforming lives\naround the globe.\n8\nEverything I have seen since has underscored that belief. In Cape Town,\nSouth Africa, for example, I met with formerly homeless women who were able to\nbuild their first houses because of financing techniques they had learned from yet\nanother initiative in India.\nIn closing, I'd like to make one last point. Until recently, the efforts we are\ntalking about today have been sustained almost entirely by institutions outside the\nformal banking system. As one woman in Denver told me, \"Some of the best ideas\nin the world die in bank parking lots.\" But fortunately, the success of\nmicroenterprise is slowly getting the attention of the traditional banks. It's easy to\nunderstand why. Microentrepreneurs repay their loans. The default rate in the\nregion is well under 10%. That's a rate any bank in any country would be proud to\nhave.\nI hope increasing numbers of commercial banks commit their resources to\nsparking microenterprise development. And I applaud the cutting-edge efforts of\nthe Bank of Nova Scotia in Guyana and the Workers Bank of Jamaica, which is\nnow using its post-office banking network -- a network that reaches 96,000 people\nin hundreds of rural communities -- to provide microcredit loans.\n9\nDemocracy depends as much on the internalization of values as it does on\ninstitutions like courts and congresses. Microcredit can play a crucial role in that\nprocess. If people believe they have a stake in their economies, they are more likely\nto believe they have a role to play in choosing their leaders. If people are able to\nimprove their lives, then we have a good shot at disrupting the tragic cycle of\npoverty and violence that is an affront to any civil society. If a young girl can grow\nup with a mother who is rewarded fairly for her hard work -- well, then that girl has\nevery reason in the world to believe that she will have the opportunity to live up to\nher God-given promise.\nMicrocredit probably isn't going to create another Microsoft -- but it will\nstrengthen democracy and expand economic opportunity. And that sounds pretty\ngood to me.\nAs I look out at this room, I am struck by the fact that despite the differences\nthat separate us, we all want pretty much the same thing. We want to feel safe. We\nwant peace. We want to have the opportunity to make the most of our lives. We\nwant justice, equality, and freedom. And we want this -- and more -- for our\nchildren. Microenterprise, in its own quiet, modest way, can help us create that\nfuture. If we work together.\nLet's get going.\n10"
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