Our Commitment to Serving the Poor
The World Bank estimates that more than 2.5 billion people live on $2 a day or less. In India, 80 percent of the population lives below this line; the total is 72 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. The persistence of this extreme poverty is a structural and moral failure to recognize the fundamental promise of nearly half of the world’s population.

At Unitus, we know that putting extra income in women’s hands is often the most efficient way to affect an entire family, as women typically put their children’s needs before their own. This means that one microcredit loan can affect multiple generations. Over 95% of the clients served by our microfinance partners are women.

We believe we can transform the future for millions of the world’s least fortunate by scaling up highly leveraged, market-based approaches to fighting poverty using the power of microfinance. Once the working poor are no longer excluded from the resources and opportunities of the world’s financial markets, they are empowered to realize their full potential, building stronger families, communities, and lives.

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Our Strategy
Unitus works to create pathways out of poverty by increasing access to life-changing microfinance services—small loans, insurance, and savings programs designed to serve the poor. For millions of families around the world, microfinance means the opportunity for a successful small business and more—better healthcare and housing, increased household savings, education for their children, and ultimately, the real possibility of self-sufficiency.

The need is staggering—nearly half of the world’s population lives on $2 a day or less. To reach the most people in need as quickly as possible, Unitus seeks out and partners with young, high-potential microfinance institutions (MFIs), helping them to build capacity, attract capital, and achieve exponential growth. Through this leveraged approach, Unitus seeks to empower millions of the world’s working poor while transforming the financial systems now left out of their reach.

Rather than directly providing microfinance services, Unitus connects the ambitious, visionary social entrepreneurs who lead our partner MFIs with the business expertise, capital investments, and innovative tools and services required to grow faster, dream bigger, and reach farther. Their success in turn provides hope and opportunity for thousands who would otherwise remain stuck in the downward cycle of devastating poverty.

Unitus partners are adding new clients 7 times faster than the industry average. In just 6 years, we’ve helped our partners serve more than 3.5 million micro-entrepreneurs; our goal is to extend their reach to 15 million families by 2010.

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