Women Make up The Majority of the poor

Today 1 billion people survive on less than $1 a day, the great majority of whom are women. To most effectively tackle the issue of world poverty, those who are most affected must be addressed, meaning women. Even at its inception, the Grameen Foundation sought out women borrowers, but not only does the Grameen foundation target women, 90% of loans in the micro-finance field worldwide are to female borrowers (“Bangladesh”). Women account for somewhere around half of the population in a given country. Without economic independence or power, women can make little or no impact on the economy. Given a loan, a woman can create her own small business and become a contributor not only to her family, but to her country as well. Alex Counts, the CEO of the Grameen Foundation rationalizes, “‘if 110 million people increased their per capita income by $3 a day, every day, that starts to become more meaningful on an aggregate level,’” explaining the great power that issuing just small loans can have (Hawser, 24-5). Loans affect more than just the people they are granted to, but continue to ripple throughout the economy as the money is utilized and spent. Women make up a significant proportion of any population, so having them go from no to even a small amount of income has a considerable impact on the macro economy. Aggregate supply, the only factor that allows a country to grow in the long run, is accounted for by, natural resources, labor, technology, capital and education. If any one of these factors is increased, overall output and therefore GDP can be increased, helping to lift a country out of poverty. Micro-loans help to utilize those previously unused resources in a country such as the unemployed poor and force them to effect the economy in a positive manner. Through micro-loans increase in potential GDP, both the economy and living standards are boosted for current and future generations. Granting women micro-loans amounts to finding an untapped natural resource within a country’s earth.