Who's Who

Acción International

Who are they?
One of the world's oldest and largest microfinance institutions.

What do they do?
In 2006, the Acción was serving around 2.46 million clients, most of them in Latin America, but also several thousand in Africa, Asia, and the United States. Acción works with partner microfinance institutions in most of the 24 countries it currently operates in.

Joseph Blanchard founded Acción International in 1961 as a way to assist South America's working and urban poor. The organization began microlending in Recife, Brazil in 1973, making it one of the first, if not the first, microcredit projects in the world.

Acción's President Maria Otero credits the organization with creating the "commercial model" of microfinance, the notion that microfinance institutions should generate more income than they spend - making them financially self-sustaining and ultimately profitable. Three of Acción's microfinance partners - Banco Solidario (Ecuador), Compartamos (Mexico), and Mibanco (Peru) - have made the transition from non-profit to commercial bank.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Who are they?

The world's wealthiest transparently run foundation.

What do they do?

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to improve health, reduce extreme poverty, and increase access to technology in developing countries.

In the United States, the foundation strives to provide everyone with education and access to technology in public libraries. The foundation was formed in 2000 and has gained worldwide fame despite its short history due to its impressive budget. Endowed with some 33.4 billion dollars from Bill and Melinda Gates' personal fortune, the foundation is by far the world's wealthiest philanthropic organization. So far, it has given out grants worth 13.6 billion dollars, 1.56 billion in 2006 alone.

The foundation will have an even bigger budget now that billionaire Warren Buffett has pledged to donate stocks worth 37 billion dollars over the next several years. The foundation does not run its own projects, but rather provides grants to organizations in more than 100 countries. These grants include the 11 million dollars given to the Mexican National Council of Culture & Arts for a library project, as well as a staggering 1.58 billion dollars given to the United Negro College Fund for the Gates Millennium Scholars Program.

The approximately 800 million dollars that the foundation gives every year for global health is close to the annual budget of the United Nations' World Health Organization.

Carbon Disclosure Project

Who are they?

A non-profit that collects and publishes information about the carbon emissions and climate strategies of large businesses.


What do they do?

Since 2002, the London-based non-profit conducts an annual survey of thousands of large companies about their greenhouse gas emissions and the business risks and opportunities presented by climate change. The aim of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is to promote dialogue between investors and corporations about the implications for shareholder value and commercial operations presented by climate change.

Ninety-one percent of the 2,180 surveyed corporations responded to the 2006 CDP survey, with 72 percent answering the questionnaire in-full. In February 2007, CDP sent out its fifth annual survey to 2,400 companies. The information request was signed by over 280 institutional investors with a combined worth of over 41 trillion US dollars.

Carbon Trust

Who are they?

A government-funded organization that assists UK businesses and public institutions reduce their carbon emissions.


What do they do?

The Carbon Trust encourages - through a variety of services like consultation, tax breaks, and interest-free loans - energy efficiency, use of renewable energy, and other technologies conducive to a low-carbon economy. It also provides free access to hundreds of publications ranging from introductory guides to energy efficiency to specific case studies.

The organization is an independent company set up by the British government in 2001. It is divided into five "business areas": Insight, Solutions, Innovations, Enterprises, and Investments. The Carbon Trust is partially funded from money generated through the UK Climate Change Levy, a tax on non-renewable energy sold to non-domestic users.

In Spring 2007, the Carbon Trust introduced a "carbon reduction label" that tells consumers the carbon footprint of a product. The trust expects the label to be adopted by many companies that want to "demonstrate their commitment to reducing carbon direct to consumers via their products."

CARE International

Who are they?

An international relief and humanitarian organization.

What do they do?

CARE tries to help the world's poorest. CARE is one of the largest international relief organizations in the world. Founded in 1945 as the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, the organization provided relief to survivors of World War II in Europe - the famous "CARE Packages."

With European recovery, the organization changed its name and scope into Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere. CARE now has programs in about 65 countries, reaching more than 50 million people. Over 12,000 people work for CARE and its projects worldwide. The organization's vast field of work covers emergency relief during and after disasters.

More emphasis is being put on addressing the systemic causes of poverty, such as poor health and the lack of education and economic development. Women have become the main target group because empowered women help entire families and communities. As an advocacy group, CARE lobbies for human rights and the eradication of poverty.

Conservation International

Who are they?

An international non-profit organization protecting plant and animal diversity.

What do they do?

Conservation International (CI) wants to preserve the Earth's global biodiversity. CI was founded in 1987 and currently has a staff of over 800 employees.

It headquarters in Washington, D.C. and works in more than 40 countries with emphasis on developing nations in Africa, the Pacific Rim, and the Central and South American rainforests. The group usually partners with local non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples for specific projects. Approximately one-fourth of CI's budget is disbursed to nearly 350 conservation partners.

CI has identified three central fields of conservational work:

- some 34 so-called biodiversity hotspots, such as the Himalayas or the Mediterranean Basin, that make up just two percent of the Earth's surface, but are home to about 75 percent of the planet's most threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians;

- five biologically diverse wilderness areas covering some six percent of the planet, like the Amazon region or the North American deserts;

- seven key marine regions like the Gulf of California or the sea around the Philippines that are under stress from dense coastal populations and subsequent toxin inputs, radioactive dumping, oil and gas mining, overfishing and global climate change.

On the ground, CI maintains regional and country programs to protect biologically critical areas in cooperation with national, regional and local leaders and partner organizations. CI also works with the private sector to establish sustainable business strategies.

Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)

Who are they?

A recognized center for expertise, knowledge sharing, innovation, and industry standards in the field of microfinance.

What do they do?

Housed in the World Bank building in Washington D.C., CGAP is an independent consortium of 33 public- and private-sector organizations working together to expand access to financial services for the poor in developing countries. The organization provides advisory services, training, research and development, consensus-building, and information dissemination on several topics related to microfinance. It has identified five "strategic priorities" for improving and expanding microfinance services worldwide: financial transparency, enabling policy frameworks, poverty outreach, institution building, and donor effectiveness.

CGAP also provides valuable Internet resources, including the Microfinance Gateway, a comprehensive online news and information resource about the microfinance industry. Many of CGAP's publications are made available in languages other than English (most often Arabic, Russian, Spanish, or French). CGAP also sponsors the Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX), a web-based platform that provides financial and performance information of around one thousand microfinance institutions worldwide.

Established in 1995, CGAP is supported by its "member donors," which include the Asian Development Bank, United Nations Development Program, European Commission, International Labour Organization, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the foreign, finance, or development ministries of Japan, France, Luxembourg, Finland, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, and the United States.

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

Who are they?

The UK government department responsible for environmental protection.

What do they do?

DEFRA has published or funded many important studies about climate change-related topics, including impacts and adaptation in Britain, emissions-reduction strategies, and the climate monitoring, modeling, and projections carried out by the Hadley Centre for Climate Protection and Research at the Met Office and other research institutions.

In March 2007, DEFRA submitted the Climate Change Bill, which called for a mandatory 60 percent reduction in national carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Since 2006, DEFRA has been examining the feasibility of tradable personal carbon allowances, basically a "cap-and-trade" system for British households.