Ssemambo Hussein Kakembo; Abu Umar Faruq Ahmad; Aishath Muneeza (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022)
Microfinance has continued to receive positive consideration as a powerful and prospective tool needed in combating poverty and promoting financial inclusion among the poor and lower-income groups. It refers to the provision of financial services to poor and low-income people whose low economic standing excludes them from formal financial systems (IRTI, 2007). Microfinance institutions (MFIs) do enable the poor to gain access to financial services such as micro-credit, venture capital, micro-savings, micro-insurance, and money transfers on a micro level which enhances the involvement of those considered unbankable but with the acute need of financial assistance. Extending financial services to the poor not only enhances their household income and economic security, but also enables them to acquire assets and decrease their vulnerability thereby accelerating the demand for other goods and services in terms of health and education, thus leading to socio-economic development.
The concept of sustainable development has been articulated for the first time in the Brundtland Report, also called "Our Common Future" published in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) and supported by the United Nations (UN). According to Brundtland Report, Sustainable Development is defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." In 2015 the United Nations has introduced the new global development agenda for 2015 through 2030 and adopted a set of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the action of the member states. According to UNDP, the SDGs as global agenda represents a universal framework for comprehensive development. It aims to plan for a better and sustainable future and address the global challenges faced by people and the planet.
