A man exercises in the early morning on a hilltop overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan March 3, 2016. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

Participants with traditional Japanese tattoos (Irezumi), related to the Yakuza, walk through the Asakusa district during the annual Sanja Matsuri festival in Tokyo on May 20, 2018. Sanja Matsuri festival is a celebration for the three founders of Sensoji Temple in the Asakusa neighbourhood with nearly two million people visiting during the three-day event. (Photo by Behrouz Mehri/AFP Photo)

The shoemaker in Turkey, the potato seller in Vietnam, and the weaver in Bolivia are among the billions of low-income entrepreneurs who make the world go round. They are also the type of people who can benefit significantly from microfinance. Every year, the Consultative Group To Assist The Poor (or CGAP) hosts a photo contest asking entrants to submit photos based around the idea of microfinance.The purpose of the contest is to give amateur and professional photographers a chance to show the different ways that poor households manage their financial lives and make their lives better through financial inclusion. Photo: South Asia Regional Winner – “Bricks Worker”, Bangladesh. A private enterprise worker is working at a brick field. These small businesses are creating new job opportunities for many poor people. (Photo by Moksumul Haque)

A woman holds a dressed cat during the exhibition “Autumn-2014” in Minsk, November 23, 2014. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

People move through a waterlogged street in Gauhati, India, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. Heavy showers flooded some areas in the city on Tuesday. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

A bandana-clad anti-government demonstrator gestures as she stands by the smoke of burning tires at a make-shift roadblock in Zouk Mosbeh north of Lebanon's capital Beirut, on March 8, 2021 during a protest against the deteriorating value of the local currency and dire economic and social conditions. (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP Photo)

Palestinian youth show their skills in jumping and blowing fire from their mouths on Gaza Beach, Palestine during sunset on January 11, 2023. (Photo by Ahmed Zakot/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A reveller daubed in “Gulal” or coloured powder celebrates Holi, the Hindu spring festival of colours in Bhopal on March 6, 2023. (Photo by Gagan Nayar/AFP Photo)