6 2 - Dominican University

In its first year, the Dominican University Kiva team,
including members (from left) Tony Crement, PhD,
Justyna Kuczaj, Lowell Morrison MSCIS ’10, Van Tang
MSA ’10, and Jorge Mota Andrade, provided more
than $13,900 in loans, putting the team on par with
such top lending universities as Harvard, Yale,
Northwestern and the University of Chicago.
PHOTO CREDIT
John Briggs
Eradicating Poverty
Is No “Impossible Dream”
By: Anthony Crement, PhD
Half of the world’s population lives on $2 a day.
In 2000, the United Nations identified cutting world poverty in half by 2015 as one
of its millennial goals. The fact that the goal will not be met does not diminish the
worthiness of the goal. There is no metaphysical reason for poverty. It is not preordained
that there must be poor in the world. Sometimes I think that in our deep subconscious,
we accept poverty as a given and do not fight aggressively to eliminate it.
Kiva works because it attacks one of the core problems creating poverty – lack of credit.
In his groundbreaking book Creating A World Without Poverty, Muhammad Yunus
succinctly and eloquently defines the problem as follows: “...if you spend enough time
living among the poor, you discover that their poverty arises from the fact that they
cannot retain the genuine results for their labor. And the reason for this is clear; they
have no control over capital.”
Most poor people are not poor because they choose to be. Most are poor not because
they lack the desire, skill or initiative to earn a better living. They are poor in no small part
because, without credit, they can only earn a living by their physical toil and sweat.
The lack of credit limits the poor’s ability to be more productive. For the poor food
producer in Kenya, it is the difference between grinding corn by hand rather than
mechanically, thus producing a small percentage of what might be produced with the
proper tools. The lack of credit makes the difference for the woman in Cambodia raising
one milk-producing goat rather than two or three in order to better support her family.
The lack of credit for the poor also has many extended effects. Might a spouse of a
laborer in Mexico need to stay in the family business rather than seek possibly better
wages elsewhere? Would the children of a farmer in Peru be compelled to help on the
family farm rather than go to school?
A loan made through Kiva is not just paying for a corn grinder or a second or third goat.
A loan through Kiva provides hope for a better life. Kiva affords people the opportunity
to use their skills to reach self-sufficiency. Kiva loans provide opportunities for
entrepreneurs, not handouts.
To date in its relatively short history, Kiva has funded 362,800 entrepreneurs in 199
countries. If we were to assume five family members for each entrepreneur, that means
that more than 1.8 million people are at the very least closer to escaping the ravages of
poverty. It means that somewhere a mother might be able to sleep tonight without knowing
that her children are going to bed hungry. It means a man or woman might escape the
pain of seeing a loved one not getting medical attention because it cannot be afforded.
This is why Kiva is so important to me. Kiva allows me in some small way to join the effort
to do away with poverty. If believing that we can eliminate poverty makes me a fool,
it is a title I gladly accept.
Tony Crement, PhD, is an adjunct assistant professor of business ethics
in the Brennan School of Business.
Fall 2010 Dominican University Magazine