Thank you very much.
Let me clear up the figures part right away. It has been an extraordinary program, this Microfinance Investment Support Facility. It has won international awards. In a very, very tough country, it has gone very far very quickly and it has done very, very well.
The 440,000 clients are men and women countrywide. But because there is such a strong component of women, the figure I used was 290,000 women within that figure of 440,000 overall. That's to give a sense of proportion on that one.
I think you're underlining a point that seems to have emerged in an important way in the country; that is, one of the most effective ways that we've found to help support the equality of women is to be able to strengthen their economic position. So when we see the access and control over productive assets and we see the effects this has on the well-being of women, the well-being of families, the well-being of communities, on decision-making power within households, we see some very interesting and positive benefits. We also see opportunities and choices for women, who very often are now heads of households. In a context like Afghanistan, there are many situations where women are widows as a result of that country being torn apart by war.
We have microfinance programs that very often provide $50 or $100 loans that simply give women a hand up, allow them to have a measure of economic activity and economic autonomy, and I have to say that the repayment on these loans is well above 95%. It's an extraordinarily successful program, and what we see as a result is that there is impact. It enables women to leave home. It enables women to discuss among themselves what's going on. They're freer and they're more open in the way they go about their business.
I think the reference you made to Muhammad Yunus and his Nobel prize-winning Grameen Bank is very interesting in the Afghan context, because they're one of our close partners. They established operations in the country in 2003 and they've worked across the country now, both in education and in microfinance, and they've had a very strong support and focus on female clientele. You'll see that 86% of their clients, for example, are women.
I think the legacy of Muhammad Yunus is actually showing up in a very positive way in Afghanistan, and the impact on the situation of women has been immeasurable.