BELIEVING that through focused initiatives and international cooperation, poverty and suffering can be ended,

NOTICING that microfinance allows the impoverished access to much-needed financial assistance,

RECOGNIZING that those living in poverty may be targeted by unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent lending practices,

SEEKING to protect those persons from predatory lending through specialized, safe credit opportunities,

The World Assembly therefore

DEFINES microcredit as the extension of loans for small sums of money, by lenders to those in poverty, for the purpose of sustaining livelihood and encouraging entrepreneurship;

DEFINES microgrant as a gift of a small sum of money, for the purpose of sustaining livelihood and encouraging entrepreneurship;

DEFINES solidarity lending as practice of lending microcredit collectively to a group of persons, to decrease risk for lenders by increasing the probability of debt repayment;

DEFINES a defaulted loan as one that the borrower has failed to make scheduled debt payments for at least one year;

DEFINES borrower insolvency as the inability of a borrower to make scheduled debt payments, after all reasonable payment plans have been tried;

ENCOURAGES nations to strive to eliminate poverty through microcredit, social welfare programs, and other forms of assistance directed at the impoverished;

ESTABLISHES the World Microcredit Foundation (WMF) as a global resource for microcredit lenders and the world’s impoverished persons, which is tasked with establishing WMF chapters in willing nations and ensuring the safety and efficiency of microcredit by: - Determining credible, honest, and fair microcredit lenders and authorizing such lenders to participate in the WMF initiative, a global effort to provide microcredit and stimulate entrepreneurship; - Forming lending standards to which all authorized WMF lenders are bound, and routinely inspecting the practices and finances of authorized WMF lenders; - Disseminating information about WMF lenders, the WMF initiative, and microcredit in general, to microcredit lenders and borrowers; - Educating the general populace about the safe and responsible use of credit; - Working with borrowers to ensure the repayment of loans; - Reimbursing lenders the balance of the principle investment in cases of defaulted loans and borrower insolvency;

CLARIFYING that the WMF shall not be the originator of any loans;

ENCOURAGES WMF lenders to practice solidarity lending, believing it to be a building block of successful microcredit lending;

ENCOURAGES nations with areas of large numbers of impoverished citizens to inquire about and establish WMF chapters in those areas;

ENCOURAGES credit lenders to research and participate in the WMF initiative;

ESTABLISHES the Microgrant Institute as a subset of the WMF, which shall: - Accept monetary donations from individuals, governments, organizations, corporations, or other entities; - Determine individuals living in extreme poverty who are too risk-averse to seek out a loan or have been denied access to microcredit; - Review applications and determining if those individuals genuinely require assistance; - Distribute a microgrant, through the monies obtained through donations, to those persons, for the purpose of sustaining livelihood and encouraging entrepreneurship.