The Customer Magazine 1|2010

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29.06.2009

Against poverty

By: Hans-Josef Jeanrond

In 2006, the terms “microfinancing” and “microloan” made headlines. The collaboration between SAP and PlaNet Finance is part of SAP’s long term commitment to sustainability, and more particularly to corporate social responsibility.

Microfinance for needy people (photo: jupiterimages)

In 2006, the terms “microfinancing” and “microloan” made headlines. That was the year in which the Nobel Peace Prize went to Muhammad Yunus, an economics professor from Bangladesh who has been working on this subject at his Grameen Bank for more than two decades.

Microfinancing is considered an efficient means of providing long-term stimulus to the economies of impoverished countries. This more fair distribution of wealth is able to prevent conflicts around the world. The very first sentence of PlaNet Finance’s founding charter from 1997 accordingly specifies combating poverty as the greatest challenge of the 21st century.

World peace, the end of poverty – though there certainly are many people in the SAP network who are personally involved in seeing them achieved, these goals do seem removed from SAP’s day-to-day business at first glance. So what drew around 30 journalists to a joint press conference featuring SAP CEO Léo Apotheker and PlaNet Finance CEO and founder Jacques Attali at the Hotel Prince de Galles in Paris on a warm summer’s morning in June?

Watch a replay of the press conference

The unusual combination of topics and personalities was surely part of the attraction. Jacques Attali, a graduate of multiple elite grandes ecoles in the country, served as an adviser to President François Mitterand for ten years. Attali founded and became the first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which supports small entrepreneurs in 30 countries from central Europe to central Asia. The bank was established on Mitterand’s initiative.
Attali is also an economics professor, consultant, author, and historian.
The “Net” in PlaNet Finance indicates why both officials joined forces for the conference: The Internet and information and telecommunications technology in general are to play a greater role in microfinancing.