At the turn of the millennium, the UN set the goal that by the year 2015 the number of people living in poverty worldwide should be cut in half. As part of this effort, "micro-enterprises" and "micro-credit" were considered important strategies for relieving poverty in the Third World.
千囍年時，聯合國曾訂出目標，希望在 2015 年前，將全球貧窮人口降低一半，其中「微型企業」和「微額信用貸款」被視為改善第三世界國家貧窮的重要策略。