May 2005


In the News

CESR just held it's most successful conference yet. For those who presented and participated thank you for your exceptional efforts! If you weren’t able to attend then you missed great keynote addresses by Maria Otero and Stephen R. Covey. You also missed the world premier of the public television documentary Small Fortunes: Microcredit and the Future of Poverty...  more

Village Banking Strategy Brings Hope to Communities

Village Banking is an ingenious system that brings community members together in reaching beyond the destitution of poverty. Within this model of creating desperately needed loans, FINCA is able to create savings and credit associations and groups that rely on one another for support. Village Banking groups are formed and then work together in supporting one another and recycling and refurbishing the loan supply to bring success to their communities...  more

MicroFranchising: The Latest Tool in Self-Reliance

The MicroFranchising track at this year’s ESR Conference made quite a stir as one of the best attended and most innovative and exciting tracks of discussion. This new tool to help microentrepreneurs has excited many practitioners and they are anxious to join in. Entrepreneur Stephen W. Gibson is one of the microfranchising pioneers. In 1999, Gibson (a CESR Faculty Steering Committee Member) and his wife Bette founded the Academy for Creating Enterprise in Cebu City, Philippines...  more