Clann Credo - Ireland’s leading social finance provider - has been praised by the United Nations for its promotion of social inclusion and integration.
The remarkable tribute to Credo’s work came from the United Nations NGO Committee for Social Development which selected just 14 organisations from projects in 60 countries for inclusion in its Rreport to the UN Commission for Social Development.
Welcoming the international recognition, Sr. Magalden Fogarty - the founder of Clann Credo - said: “This is quite a remarkable tribute to the work of Clann Credo, a tribute to high standards by which our staff operate and to the transformational nature of the work they carry out. That work is both life-affirming and life enhancing and delivers tangible change to real communities, precisely because it is built on a conviction that sustainable development must be built on social inclusion and integration.”
Examples of Credo’s work are included in the Report of the UN NGO Committee for Social Development which is distributed widely amongst UN members and relevant bodies within the organisation’s secretariat.
In addition, Clann Credo was invited to make a presentation on its work in the UN headquarters in New York, at events organisation in conjunction with the 48th Session of the UN Commission for Social Development which opens on 3 February.
Clann Credo provides finance and support to community and voluntary groups engaged in work that provides both a social and a financial return. A pioneer of social finance in Ireland, the organisation has received funding from religious orders and the Social Finance Foundation.
Of late, Clann Credo has reported an upsurge in demand for social finance, in the context of the ongoing recession, deepening unemployment and a lack of available finance from banks and other conventional lenders. To date, the organisation has invested over €26m in 250 community and voluntary groups in Ireland, Eastern Europe and Africa.