On Thursday December 4th I had the opportunity to speak at a very interesting event hosted by Women Advancing Microfinance (WAM) at the Microsoft Center in New York. The evening’s main speaker, Chagit Rubenstein, was speaking on the topic of “Microfinance in Israel: Supporting Bedouin Women.” Sarah Leshner and the team at WAM thought that LendforPeace.org would be a relevant organization for the attendees of this event and so asked us to give a short presentation.
The event drew a small crowd of microfinance professionals and many who had an interest in joining the field. I spoke briefly about the LendforPeace.org mission to use micro-lending to promote economic opportunity and political stability in the Middle East. I then described the platform we have built and our upcoming launch. The real star of the evening, however, was Chagit.
Chagit is the Microenterprise Program Director at Koret Israel Economic Development Fund (KIEDF). She helped spearhead a program called SAWA, a microfinance program in Israel that focuses on Bedouin women in the Negev. It is no coincidence that SAWA has chosen to work with this population: of the 160,000 Bedouins living in the Negev, only 55% of men and 11% of women are employed. SAWA has extended 750 loans totaling $900,000. Overall KIEDF has facilitated $170,000,000 in financings for 6,000 small and micro businesses in Israel, lending to both Jews and Arabs.
Chagit and David after our presentations
A startling fact about Israel: small and micro businesses account for 96% of all businesses, employ 60% of the workforce and receive 15-20% of banking credit. By speaheading the use of microfinance in Israel, Chagit and KIEDF are introducing powerful development methodologies to a large and underserved market.
