Ten years ago, it was not fashionable for social enterprises to take loans. Even if they wanted to, nobody would lend them money... Many small social investment firms have emerged recently.

Grameen Foundation announced it is expanding its technology for microfinance initiative to provide enhanced support to high-growth, mid-size microfinance institutions (MFIs) serving up to one million clients.

If Atlanta was the crucible from which these two movements sprang forth, why shouldn't Atlanta also be the place where a third movement will also originate - a third movement that will complete the sustainability triad and anoint Atlanta as the birthplace of sustainability?

CGAP, Deutsche Bank, Grameen-Jameel and Islamic Development Bank have joined forces to challenge the Islamic microfinance industry to develop new ideas for business models.

Even as financial inclusion emerges as one of the top goals of government and Reserve Bank of India, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), which are the pioneers of financial inclusion, are finding themselves in a bit of soup, strangely enough for fats growth and for big profits. So are MFIs doing too much too fast?

Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations. The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Sheetal Mehta is founder of Shanti Microfinance, which is a social enterprise charity that provides access to technology and capital for entrepreneurs in slums and villages in Gujarat, India.

CGAP, an independent microfinance center based at the World Bank, today announced a new partnership with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to expand ongoing global efforts to use information and communication technologies (ICT), especially mobile phones, to increase access to basic financial services for the poor. In addition to a 2006 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and CGAP funding, DFID will provide GBP 8 million to the CGAP Technology Program.