Economic Empowerment Program

Economic empowerment allows poor people to think beyond immediate daily survival and to exercise greater control over both their resources and life choices.

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go."

 (Isaiah 48:17)

The Economic Empowerment Program at MMI's Charity & Social Welfare Division aims to empower the poor, both men and women - in Africa and Latin America - by promoting the establishment of micro-enterprise development systems to enhance sustainable livelihoods. This is through the funding of sustainable, income-generating projects initiated by the poor as individuals, as a group or as a family; and also includes economic capacity building, financial management training and education on investment opportunities. The program seeks to play its part through interventions that seeks to:

• Improve livelihoods for families.
• Enhance entrepreneurship skills.
• Create favourable business environments.

Economic empowerment allows poor people to think beyond immediate daily survival needs, and to exercise greater control over both their resources and life choices. It enables households to make their own decisions around making investments in matters like health and education, and taking risks in order to increase their income, to impact both them and their children after them. More generally, the discourse on economic empowerment centres around four broad areas:

• Promotion of the assets of poor people.
• Transformative forms of social protection.
• Microfinance.
• Skills training.

Financial support to the poor:

There are a variety of interventions which attempt to alleviate poverty to enhance economic growth among the poor. Our empowerments program also incorporates microcredit and direct cash transfer to the needy:

Microcredit: This consists of the provision of small loans to people living in poverty. It attempts to fill the void between informal lending schemes and formal banking.

Direct Cash Transfer: This consist of direct disbursements to households, as is divided into two: a) Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) make the disbursements conditional on the satisfaction of certain behavioural requirements, generally concerning the health and education of the children resident in the household. b) Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCTs) do not make the transfer dependent on any conditions.

Cash transfers increases consumption patterns among recipient households, with notable results in improved food consumption, and also increase investment, enabling long-term improvement in earnings.

Economic empowerment enables households to make their own decisions around making investments in matters like health and education, and taking risks in order to increase their income.

Quick Facts: Poverty & Economy in Africa 

Poverty is at the heart of Africa's problems. This is an overview of some of the economic challenges facing the continent.

Most of Sub-Saharan Africa is in the World Bank's lowest income category of less than $765 Gross National Income (GNI) per person per year. Ethiopia and Burundi are the worst off with just $90 GNI per person.

Even middle-income countries like Gabon and Botswana have sizeable sections of the population living in poverty.

North Africa generally fares better than Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, the economies are more stable, trade and tourism are relatively high and Aids is less prevalent.

Development campaigners have argued that the rules on debt, aid and trade need reforming to help lift more African nations out of poverty.

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