but David Bussau says entrepreneurs are the key to
overcoming poverty. And he has the record to prove it.
By Paul D. Ryan in Anthill Magazine
“By enabling entrepreneurs, you create more jobs. If you want to transform communities, you have to economically empower them. There’s just no other way. You can be there for years giving out free food, housing and education, but if people are not economically empowered, they don’t take responsibility for themselves.”
This is the view of David Bussau, the founding force behind Opportunity International (OI), an organisation that offers small loans to budding entrepreneurs in developing countries. The organisation has created or sustained more than 2.5 million jobs since 2000. In 2003 alone, OI distributed over $200 million to 700,000 loan recipients, creating or sustaining over 922,000 jobs.
“The entrepreneur is the key,” says Bussau. “If you want to economically empower the poor, then you need to provide capital and training to entrepreneurs so they can grow a business, increase their market share and create jobs for the community.”
“Basically, the trust comes up with a market-based solution for a social problem,” says Bussau. “I don’t believe in the redistribution theory. I think that assumes that the resources are limited. You need to create more resources so there is more to share around. The only way to do that is to move to the capitalistic approach of enabling people to be more productive.”
The ¡¥grass roots’ economic model championed by Bussau is called ¡¥micro enterprise development’ (MED) and is being reproduced by other not-for-profit organisations across the world.
“MED has become a mega global industry. The World Bank and most governments are now funding some form of enterprise development. 2005 is the United Nations Year of Microcredit. MED is recognised as giving integrity to people. It allows them to take that journey out of poverty themselves,” says Bussau
Despite OI’s successes, Bussau says the organisation still faces 
obstacles. Traditional not-for-profits generally lack entrepreneurial flair, but they exploit emotive marketing that OI simply cannot replicate.
Opportunity International: small-scale entrepreneurs can be big change agents in overcoming global poverty. http://is.gd/byF1I
“We appeal more to the corporate arena, the more discerning foundations and philanthropists who have created wealth themselves,” he says.
“We’re probably the only product on the market that is self-financing. The revenue generated from the interest on loans covers operational costs. Once we put equity into one of our partners, they can then leverage that equity in an open marketplace,” explains Bussau. “They can go to formal financial institutions and borrow four or five times more than their own level of equity, which means they can help four to five times more people. Many of our programs are quite heavily leveraged. It’s not a concept that most not-for-profits like. They operate out of a real safety zone.”
For Bussau, the rewards are palpable. A Manchester University study has shown that for each job created, on average six people are permanently taken out of poverty and 13 people in the community benefit. Based on these figures, over five million people were potentially helped by OI in 2003 alone.
While all altruism is equal, it seems that some methods are more effective than others.
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