§ Mr. Keith HillTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the amount of bilateral British aid in 1994 given to micro-credit programmes making small business loans to poor women. [41587]
§ Mr. HanleyBritish aid, in 1994, funded a number of programmes with micro-credit components including large programmes in Bangladesh, through the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, and in Kenya, through the Kenya rural enterprise programme. Neither the total of these micro-credit programmes nor the proportion made to poor women are readily identifiable, but women are the main beneficiaries in the programmes specified and we believe that total expenditure on micro-credit was approximately £3 million in 1994.
§ Miss LestorTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to contribute funds for the World Bank plan announced last July to assist micro-level credit schemes. [42195]
§ Mr. HanleyThe consultative group to assist the poorest, launched by the World Bank in June, aims to pool experience on the delivery of financial services to the very poor; to support institutions which provide such services on a financially sustainable basis; to strengthen donor co-ordination and increase awareness of microcredit schemes within the bank. The bank is 903W contributing $30 million towards this pilot programme. Other donors may contribute in cash or in kind, by nominating directly administered projects and programmes for joint review of experience and dissemination of best practice. The UK is participating in the group on the latter basis.