The United Nations has presented Harvard business student Bhakti Mirchandani with the Global Microenterpreneurship Award. Mirchandani was given the award by Nane Annan, the wife of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The awards recognises the contribution of small entrepreneurs from a variety of industries to their communities. This non-profit initiative was spearheaded by Mirchandani and other Harvard graduate students who worked with private, non-profit and public professionals across the world.
The initiative is aimed at increasing investment for micro-finance 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.
At the launch party, Mirchandani told the guests that the biggest supporters of the Global Microenterpreneurship Awards, the United Nations Capital Development Fund under the UNDP 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.