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Fighting Poverty with Social Capital : Social Capital and Financial Inclusion Conference

Assist Social Capital

Event date:  2007-11-09 00:00:00

The role of social capital in the fight against poverty will be examined at the international ‘Social Capital and Financial Inclusion’ conference in Edinburgh on 9 November. Organised by Assist Social Capital, the conference will bring together academics, practitioners and politicians from around the world to talk about social capital; not money as you might expect but rather networks of trust and mutual interactions that help communities work together, often referred to as ‘WD40’ for communities and the ‘Super Glue’ that binds us all together. Keynote speaker Professor Asif Dowla will put the spotlight on how social capital helped Mohammed Yunus and Grameen Bank become world leaders in tackling poverty. In 1976, economist Mohammud Yunus set up Grameen Bank in response to a terrible famine in Bangladesh. In 2006 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for saving millions of people from poverty by using micro-credit and social capital to relieve poverty. Colin Campbell, Director of Assist Social Capital, said, “The value of social capital as a resource to combat poverty is not widely understood. On the 9th of November we are fortunate to have some of the world’s leading experts in this field, here in Scotland, to talk about how social capital can be used to reduce the opportunity gap, in ways that have already helped millions escape the poverty trap.” Other keynote speakers at the conference are: Edgar Cahn, founder of the Time Banking and former speech-writer for Robert Kennedy. Cornelia Butler Flora, expert on rural development and advisor to the World Bank. The story of the Grameen Bank is told by ‘Asif Dowla in his book ‘The Poor Always Pay Back’ which will be available for sale at the conference. The conference is supported by Royal Bank of Scotland and will be held at their Conference Centre at Gogarburn, Edinburgh. For further details about the conference please contact Assist Social Capital at 54 Manor Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7EH or telephone (0044) 131 220 4104 or email conference@social-capital.net