Bhakti Mirchandani

On Nov. 18, the United Nations honored Harvard Business- student Bhakti Mirchandani, for her work on the Global Microenterpreneurship Awards. Mirchandani was given the award by Nane Annan, the wife of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The awards recognize the contribution of small entrepreneurs from a variety of industries to their communities. This not-for-profit initiative was spearheaded by Mirchandani and other Harvard graduate students who worked in close cooperation with private, non-profit and public professionals across the world. The initiative is aimed at increasing investment for microfinance from donors, national governments and private sector businesses.

Mirchandani’s fascination with the subject developed when she worked on a project for her graduate class.

Later, the United Nations Microfinance Unit asked her to coordinate theng of stock exchanges by the winners.

Microcredit helps people who are otherwise poor to get access to funds to start businesses. The U.N. International Year of Microcredit is intended at raising money to lend to such small entrepreneurs. The winners of the award get to ringng bells at stock exchanges in Amsterdam, Jakarta, Karachi, Manila, Maputo, Milan, Mumbai, New York (NASDAQ), Zurich, etc.

The effort was an official event at the launch of the International Year of Microcredit. The award competitions were held in Afghanistan, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Mexico, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda and New York City.

The sponsors of the awards included the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Citigroup, Converse, Inc., the Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Club and Social Enterprise Initiative, International Finance Corporation, as well as several individual donors.

At the launch party, Mirchandani told the guests that the biggest supporters of the Global Microenterpreneurship Awards, UNCDF and Citigroup, had decided to increase their commitment to the awards. This means that the reach of the awards would increase from eight countries to 30 countries by 2005.