First: The implementing organization must be accredited by AGFUND’s Board of Directors, and one of its projects was previously funded by AGFUND.

Second: It must fill in the application form approved by AGFUND (A development Project Funding Application Form).

Third: Mechanism of accreditation of UN/international organizations:

• To apply for accreditation as a partner organization entitled to submit its development projects to be funded by AGFUND, the organization shall submit a letter and a copy of its statute.
• The organization shall comply to the following conditions:

1.    The objectives of the applicant organization should be consistent with AGFUND’s objectives.

2.    The applicant organization should not have political goals and must implement its projects without any kind of discrimination.

3.    The organization must have working experience of more than 5 years.

"The phenomenon of poverty is a real constraint to development as it hinders people’s potentials, narrows available options and marginalizes sectors of society that bitterly suffer from the evil consequences. Therefore, it is logical to perceive poverty as an indivisible problem that cannot only be restricted to the income level."

"Sustainable human development can only be attained by attentiveness to poverty problems."

“Treating poverty is hindered by the lack of ideas rather than by the lack of funds ... Since the expansion of people's available options is the most important objective of human development, fighting against poverty should be the very first step taken to manage its limitations.” (declarations of HRH Talal Bin Abdul Aziz).

The new millennium’s development goals set to be achieved by the year 2015, reflect the aspirations of nations of the world for a better life. That’s why the Millennium Summit had eight key objectives, which unquestionably represent the most pressing concerns of humankind. These objectives are as follows:

• Put an end to poverty, and reduce the proportion of the poorest people in the world by 50% by the year 2015.
• Provide comprehensive primary education, and enable children everywhere, boys and girls alike, to complete the full course of primary school by 2015.
• Promote of gender equality and empowerment of women, so that by 2015, as maximum, distinction between both sexes in primary and secondary schools will have been removed.
• Reduce the mortality rate for children under five by two thirds during the period 1990-2015.
• Improve reproductive health, and work to reduce maternal mortality rate by 75% during the period 1990-2015.
• Combat AIDS, and work to stop the spread of the HIV / AIDS virus by the year 2015, especially at the age of five by two thirds during the period 1990-2015.
• Ensure sustainable environment through:

1.    integrating sustainable development into country policies and programs.

2.    reversing the loss of environmental resources.

3.    reducing the proportion of people unable to have a sustainable access to safe drinking water by 50% by the year 2015.

• Develop a global partnership for development, through:

1.    support debt relief programs for poor countries and those which are unable to repay their debts.

2.    increasing official development assistance for countries which are committed to fighting local poverty.

3.    ensuring access to essential medicines in developing countries at affordable prices, in cooperation with drug manufacturers.

As a whole, the above-mentioned goals are basics required to achieve a desired sustainable development. Experts confirmed that achievement of this end, is linked to the fight against poverty. That’s why the Millennium Summit’s goals were centered on “addressing and mitigating poverty”, as poverty is the greatest challenge facing the human civilization. According to a report prepared by the UNDP, approximately the income of 2.6 billion people (about 41% of the world's population (6.4 billion)) is less than two dollars a day, and nearly 1.1 billion people live below the poverty line, with an income of less than one dollar a day.

Poverty in the conventional sense has been widespread in human societies since ancient times. Here poverty means low income and lack of wealth. "Obscene wealth and abject poverty" is a well-known phrase that denotes how big the gulf between the rich and the poor is.

Undoubtedly it is a disgrace to humanity to witness the spread of the phenomenon of poverty and the increase of the number of people suffering from poverty in an era with unimaginable progress. Consequently, poverty is the greatest challenge facing our human civilization, and the fight against poverty and mitigating its effects are two of the most important elements of social, economic and political reform and stability of societies.

Generally speaking the poverty phenomenon originated from the glaring disparities in levels of development. Nevertheless, poverty is a broad concept and there may be as many poor people as the number of multiple and varied connotations of the word ‘poverty’. Every single language provides a wide range of words that refer to ‘poverty’. Therefore, there is no standard definition of ‘poverty’ in all cultures. However, according to the development literature, ‘poverty’ is a characteristic of a society where the individuals do not achieve a certain level of prosperity.

This concept of poverty is consistent with the vision of the UNDP of the definition of ‘poverty’ in terms of generating a low level of human welfare. In this context the best conception of poverty is that it is ‘lack of human capacity’. Poverty is a real constraint to development as it hinders people’s potentials and narrows their available options and marginalizes sectors of society, which bitterly suffer from the evil consequences of this phenomenon. Therefore, it is logical to perceive poverty as an indivisible problem that cannot be confined only in the income aspect. Poverty in its worst form is reflected in individuals who lost every single hope, found themselves stranded and unable to improve their situation and, consequently, feel miserably helpless.

Furthermore, poverty is evidenced and vividly embodied in the women who toil, trying to conquer the impossible to support their families. Besides, poverty’s grim face is revealed by the so-called “tin-huts belts” and marginalized spots around major cities, floods of refugees and displaced people who were forced by wars and other disasters to leave their homes. Poverty is also embodied by those who are abandoning the countryside to seek trivial jobs opportunities in cities. Furthermore, these forms in turn reveal more forms of poverty, ranging from lack of education, lack of healthcare and lack of participation…etc. That’s why poverty is tremendously escalating. Each form of poverty leads us to know other levels and forms of poverty which reflect hindered, wasted energies, humiliation of human dignity and people who are deprived from their most basic rights to lead a decent life. Therefore, sustainable human development can only be attained by focusing on addressing the poverty problem in the first place.

That has made the world eager to carefully address this close link between fight against poverty and sustainable development. That’s why the fight against poverty represents a major focus of the objectives of the MDGs, namely, the eight goals that were set to be achieved by 2015:

• reducing poverty and hunger by half.
• ensuring comprehensive primary education.
• achievement of equality between males and females in different areas of public life.
• reducing under-five mortality by two thirds.
• improve maternal health during pregnancy and childbirth.
• halt the spread of epidemics and deadly diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.
• provide a sound and sustainable environment.
• develop an international development coalition, since foreign debts constitute one of the strongest impediments to sustainable development.

It is clear all these problems have profound relationships with poverty.

The focus on addressing the poverty problem is the right approach to attain a development that conforms to the Millennium Development Goals, which are globally accepted as the most pressing concerns of mankind. Here comes the role of mechanisms and substantive and practical solutions to reach these ambitious goals, and achieve the simple, legitimate desires of the crushed and oppressed society classes to free themselves from poverty. There is a great deal of methods that seek to address poverty, and they are applied in many countries and by numerous organizations. Nonetheless, the most prominent method which is entirely accepted as the most effective in alleviating poverty and helping the poorest of the poor, is small and micro-credits.

The idea of this mechanism is to provide capitals for the poor. Those capitals are given to the poor in the form of loans without financial guarantees. The poor use them to carry out their own income-generating projects. That is based on regular collective guarantee. There are many applications for this mechanism. The most prominent and most successful example of that is Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which was founded by Professor Muhammad Yunus.

The establishment of basic rules that guarantee the continuity of small and micro credit projects, activating their role in the fight against poverty, and ensuring their success in achieving their objectives require a number of conditions and factors:

• Convinced that microfinance is an effective tool to reduce poverty, governments have an important role in making microfinance policies, and helping to build regulatory frameworks and legal structures for lending institutions in the Arab world.
• Governments must be committed to preserve the independence of microfinance institutions and should keep them free from any political interference and crippling bureaucracy.
• Microfinance institutions must be encouraged and recognized by the economic actors in the state, namely local Ministries of Finance and Central Banks. They also need adequate support in terms of supervising their performance and contributing to the development of their institutional construction.
• Successful microfinance policies are based on investment in people and institutions, rather than relying on the provision of financial support to borrowers and creditors.
• Participation in the performance concepts of microfinance institutions, based on accountability and transparency is key to developing a strong, positive and lasting institution that provides financial services to the poorest of the poor.
• Policy makers and decision makers in governments and leaders of microfinance institutions, must agree on the key elements of the frameworks of microfinance policies in the state.
• We must ensure that laws and regulations encourage a series of frameworks and structures to provide financial services to the poorest of the poor.
• It is essential for microfinance institutions to apply the best practices in the industry.
• Work to increase support for donors, and provide new sources of financing to support small and micro credits projects.