Maria Otero Biography

Maria Otero is a major advocate in the field of sustainable microfinance across the world. With a long history of senior staff and board roles in international organizations concerned with poverty and finance, she has extensive worldwide experience. She is now the president and CEO of ACCION International, a prominent worldwide microfinance organization dedicated to helping the underprivileged through opening financial systems in developing nations. Ms. Otero is the co-editor of the book The New World of Microfinance and has published widely on the subject. In addition to microfinance, Ms. Otero is a well-known champion for women and women's problems, and she speaks about women in leadership from personal experience. She was named one of the 20 most important women in the United States in Newsweek's special feature "How Women Lead" in 2005. She earned the "Latina Excellence Award" from Hispanic Magazine in 2000, and she was also featured in Latina magazine. Since 1997, Maria Otero has been an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies. She was born and reared in the Bolivian city of La Paz. It is insufficient to assist 1,000 or even 100,000 people in a world where three billion people live on less than $2 a day. ACCION International provides individuals with the skills they need to lift themselves out of poverty, with the goal of eventually reaching tens of millions of people—enough to make a real difference in the world. ACCION's partner lending organizations assist underprivileged women and men start their own companies by offering microloans and business training. This allows individuals to climb their way up the economic ladder with dignity and pride. Because philanthropic donations alone will not be enough to achieve this objective, ACCION is spearheading the charge to make microlending self-sustaining. ACCION's financial systems strategy, which emphasizes commercial viability and institutional growth, has aided its partner microfinance institutions in achieving scale and financial self-sufficiency. ACCION provides technical support to improve operations and efficiency, as well as loan guarantees to enable partners to access commercial financing. Several partners have already made the shift from charitable nonprofits to banks or other regulated financial entities. Other commercial banks are progressively opening their doors to microentrepreneurs after demonstrating that it is feasible for a commercial lender to assist the needy while also making a profit. ACCION has also been a pioneer in credit-scoring systems and in land-titling.

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