Hundreds of students, faculty members and organizations interested in helping in the development of third-world countries will have an opportunity to network and learn more about their cause this week.
BYU will host The Eleventh Annual Economic Self-Reliance Conference Nov. 6-7. The conference will bring in top researchers from around the country to discuss topics important to the success of developing countries, including micro-credit, influencing behavioral change and education, according to the event's Web site.
"The ESR Conference is a chance to celebrate, share and network with our practitioner partners, our donors, students and faculty that are committed to help families around the globe-and in our own back yard-to become more economically self-reliant," said Todd Manwary, director of the Economic Self Reliance Center.
Participation in the conference requires a fee, but Manwary said organizers realized many students who don't have the time or money to participate in the entire conference would want to get involved, so the conference will also include three events free of charge.
Brad Hales, assistant to the director of the Economic Self-Reliance Center, said many students attend the event because they have an interest in helping people in developing countries break the cycle of poverty. Students who are interested in getting involved can learn more about organizations that share the same goal.
"I think they can understand what these organizations are and what they do exactly on the ground," he said.
Many BYU students become interested in economic development in the Third World because they have served missions in these areas, Hales said.
"They have lived there, they have experienced these cultures and know what to expect," he said. "It's very advantageous to us to use returned missionaries."
John Hatch, founder of FINCA International and Alliance of Students Against Poverty, two organizations that work to fight world poverty, will speak on the social costs of poverty.
Poverty takes the lives of 10 million children per year, he said.
"This is the social cost of our inability to end global poverty," he said. "We're talking about families attempting to live on less than $1 a day."
Hatch will also teach a workshop on microcredit, small loans made to low-income families to help run their own businesses and thus help them lift themselves out of poverty.
Organizations such as FINCA International make loans of about $3,000 to create "village banks," small organizations that administer small loans to families. Hatch said he will be explaining a new system, Village Banking II, that will use successful participants in the original village banking system to become mentors and coaches to others who are in even more dire circumstances than themselves.
"That will help them to help the poorest of their neighbors and bring them into the village bank," Hatch said.
Microcredit programs and other community development programs could eliminate the worst of world poverty by 2025 if enough people contribute to the cause, Hatch said. Current college students can help that become a reality, he added.
"It's your generation that is going to end poverty on the planet," Hatch said. "It's going to be up to you guys."
Registration for the event closes at 5 p.m. Wednesday. There is also a special rate for BYU students and faculty.
The free events will take place at various locations around campus. The first will be Thursday at 11 a.m. in W410 TNRB. The other two events will be Friday, one at 11 a.m. in 3714 HBLL and the other at 6 p.m. in 1170 TMCB.
More information can be found at http://ce.byu.edu/cw/esr/.
Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Nov 2008
