UNESCO Courier articles from January 1997

UNESCO Courier archives from January 1997

Peace education is only meaningful if it leads to action. (interview with academician Johan Galtung)(Interview)
January 1, 1997... * What is the educational purpose of peace studies? Johan Galtung: A major focus of peace education is to enable and empower people to handle conflicts more creatively and less violently. This is what I mean by peace education, and a lot of...

Reaching the unreached. (provision of credit to the world's poor)
January 1, 1997... Hard-headed microfinance institutions are showing that lending money to the world's poorest people is a realistic option Over the past two decades, local institutions in different parts of the world have developed innovative mechanisms to...

A new weapon in the war on poverty. (microfinance)
January 1, 1997... To be fully effective, microfinance must slot into a broad strategy for cultural, educational and social development It all began with a simple question. What operational definition can governments or co-operation agencies use for poverty,...

Three golden rules. (microfinance)(includes related article on selected microfinance institutions)
January 1, 1997... Keys to success for microfinanciers and their clients Tiny economic units operating at the margin of the "modern" sector or outside it are the major source of employment in urban areas throughout the developing world. In some cities, more than...

Where credit is due....
January 1, 1997... Microcredit cannot succeed without economic opportunity Have you ever tried to sell half a goat without killing it because you only needed ten dollars? The question may seem absurd but it sums up a dilemma that faces many poor people in the...

A bank for the poor. (Bangladesh's Grameen Bank)(includes related article on relationship between bank and UNESCO)
January 1, 1997... The founder of the Grameen Bank describes the genesis of a pioneering institution that has encouraged the social and political emancipation of needy women in Bangladesh In 1972, the year after Bangladesh became independent, I began to teach...

Microfinance in Indonesia. (includes related articles on worldwide status of microfinance)
January 1, 1997... A nation-wide banking network provides sustainable finance for poor rural communities Within the last two decades, the Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), a large state-owned commercial bank, has shown via its "unit desa" or local banking system that...

Latin America: Accion speaks louder than words. (Accion International's services)
January 1, 1997... The story of BancoSol, the first private commercial bank for micro-entrepreneurs ACCION International is a U.S.-based private non-profit organization that currently provides technical assistance to a network of institutions in thirteen...

Enterprise in Africa.
January 1, 1997... Microfinance in Africa has grown out of the informal economy and social welfare programmes. The next step is to provide it with a legal framework. The Kenya Rural Enterprise Programme (K-Rep) is one of the largest micro finance institutions...

Village banking: a report from 5 countries.
January 1, 1997... In Latin America, Africa and Asia, an international nonprofit foundation has created a 3,000-strong network of autonomous village banks HONDURAS For as long as anyone can remember, the women of Siguatepeque, a rural pueblo in central...

Three microcredit schemes in Europe.
January 1, 1997... In the North as well as the South, microfinance can help to strengthen the community Wage-earning is the most widespread form of employment in the industrialized countries. However, in a context of economic crisis and high unemployment, the...

Education, the seedbed of the future.
January 1, 1997... Tomorrow's world will be shaped by our children's vision of it. What kind of vision will it be, and how can education help to shape it? These questions raise two sets of issues. One has to do with the contribution that education must make to...

People and plants. (includes related article on 'Earthwatch' program)
January 1, 1997... In India, between the Ganges and the foothills of the Himalayas, grows a shrub with pale pink flowers, smooth leaves and milky sap. In Hindi it is called chotachand. According to a local legend mongooses use to feed on the plant before fighting...

Colonia del Sacramento remembers its turbulent past. (Uruguayan port)
January 1, 1997... Colonial monuments with an eventful history grace the old quarter of the Uruguayan port of Colonia The Rio de la Plata estuary, which is 280 km wide at its mouth, sticks like a wedge into the continent of South America between Argentina and...

David Sanchez. (interview with Puerto Rican musician)(Interview)
January 1, 1997... Puerto Rico has a strong musical tradition dating back to the early colonial period. At the beginning of this century, the island had such a talented pool of instrumentalists that Afro-American band leader and jazz pioneer James Reese Europe...