You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2009.
> Posted by Elisabeth Rhyne
I’m blogging from the annual meeting of the MicroFinance Network hosted this year by Equity Bank in Nairobi. Bob Annibale of Citi Microfinance led the group of CEOs from 25 leading MFIs around the world in a discussion of the impact of the global financial crisis on their institutions.
It’s no surprise that a challenge at the top of everyone’s list was avoiding overindebting clients, especially when clients can borrow from several MFIs in the same location. This is something I saw first hand on a field visit to the large settlement of Karangwari, where not only Equity Bank but also K-Rep Bank, Kenya Women Finance Trust, Faulu, and Jamii Bora were active. Carlos Labarthe of Compartamos noted that in Peru, with a very competitive microfinance market, the highly proficient credit bureau plays a key role in keeping overindebtedness down. Other network members contrasted this with Morocco, which lacks credit reference services, leaving lenders with no reliable way to find out about the existing debt of their clients. Carlos made a strong appeal to Microfinance Network members: “We have to help build the credit bureaus in our countries.” Read the rest of this entry »
>Posted by Amanda Powell
In our latest Energy Links podcast Paul Rippey interviews Nick Sowden of ToughStuff. Nick shares ToughStuff‘s success selling solar lamps in Madagascar and other countries using existing distributors, and a business in a box model. Listen here »
About Energy Links
The Energy Links Project is designed to develop, test, refine, document, and publicize integrated approaches to financing and marketing clean energy products to large numbers of people in developing countries. If you want to hear all of the podcasts in the Energy Links series you can listen here.
>Posted by Amanda Powell
Last week we introduced the Smart Campaign, formerly the Campaign for Client Protection. During our teleconference to introduce the campaign we discussed the past and future of the campaign. Over the past week three blogs have taken the opportunity to reflect on the campaign. The Connecting Women blog noted the tools the campaign has already created. This included the Client Protection Questionnaire and Self-Assessment Guide. Likewise, the Microfinance Insights blog underscored the need for client protection for both MFIs and investors. They also observed client protection helps distinguish good lenders. The MicroCapital blog described not only the development of the Smart Campaign, but how one MFI in Nicaragua is already implementing the Client Protection Principles that campaign endorsers support.
Stay tuned for the latest about The Smart Campaign.
>Posted by Amanda Powell
We re
cently introduced the Smart Campaign as a global effort to unite microfinance leaders around instituting client protection practices in all that we do. Today, Slate Magazine cited the Smart Campaign as a method to implement client protection standards across the microfinance industry. The article also encourages readers to support organizations that put clients first, including Smart Campaign endorsers. Read Slate’s article here on how client protection benefits industry members and clients alike. You can also read more about the Smart Campaign and the principles our endorsers support at http://thesmartcampaign.org/.
We are pleased to invite you to participate in a discussion with David Lascelles of CSFI and Philip Brown of Citi
Microfinance, about the future of the microfinance industry. The creators of the 2009 Microfinance Banana Skins will be joining us at the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION, in Washington DC, to discuss the report’s findings.
Published annually by CSFI, Citi, and CGAP, the report observes t he risks affecting growth in the microfinance industry. The findings have shifted significantly from the 2008 report due to the global financial crisis. Come listen to these experts discuss this year’s top-rated risks, how
2009’s findings differ from past survey’s, and implications for the microfinance industry. Space is limited, please RSVP to Amanda Powell () no later than Tuesday, October 20th.
Date: Wednesday, October 21
Time: 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Place: Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International
Address: 1401 New York Ave., 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20005
RSVP: Amanda Powell at
> Posted by Anita Gardeva
We are pleased to announce that we are beginning to accept applications for the 2010 HBS-ACCION Program on Strategic Leadership for Microfinance.
The Program is scheduled to take place April 5th through April 10th, 2010 at Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts.
The HBS-ACCION Program provides a unique opportunity for participants to expand their strategic thinking, learn through a proven case-study approach, and consider their role in finance for the bottom of the pyramid. The course is designed for CEOs and executives at leading microfinance institutions or mainstream banks, and is part of HBS’s Initiative on Social Enterprise.
The course will address fundamental challenges of doing business at the base of the financial sector, including:
- succeeding in highly competitive financial sectors
- maintaining a social focus in a commercial setting
- reaching new business segments
- developing innovative products and delivery channels
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and space is limited to 60 people.
For more information on the program and to apply please visit www.accion.org/hbs or email Anita Gardeva at .
>Posted by Anita Gardeva
In an op-ed in yesterday’s American Banker, Elisabeth Rhyne, managing director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION, highlights the importance of innovative financial products and delivery methods that are tailored to the needs of clients. Creativity and simplicity are the keys to opening the door to financial access for the poor.
“The first lesson for any financial service designer for the so-called base-of-the-pyramid market is that products for low-income people are not just scaled-down versions of products for the middle class. To assume that they are might be called the subprime fallacy.” With examples from countries around the world, Ms. Rhyne highlights successful innovations in providing financial services to the poor that are creative, yet simple, in their adaptation to the market’s local dynamics. “Only simple products can be delivered at affordable prices to low-income people. At the same time, simplified products must incorporate risk reduction in creative ways.” Ms. Rhyne also points out that providers who are able to rethink the nature of banking have the potential to generate benefits for both their clients and their businesses.
The article, which is adapted from Ms. Rhyne’s latest book, Microfinance for Investors and Bankers: Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges at the Bottom of the Pyramid, is available on the American Banker website. Access is password-protected but free trials are available. To read the book’s chapter from which the article was adapted, click here.
>Posted by Amanda Powell
After months of research, planning, and collecting feedback from microfinance industry leaders, we are ready to introduce The Smart Campaign (formerly known as the Campaign for Client Protection in Microfinance). This campaign is a global effort to unite microfinance leaders around a common goal: to enhance client protection in all that we do – to better serve our clients, increase employee satisfaction, and strengthen the microfinance industry overall. We want to see the microfinance industry be a leader in responsible finance and an example to “mainstream” finance.
As part of our official introduction to the campaign, we will be hosting an international teleconference with top industry leaders. It will take place on Wednesday, October 21st, at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time, US**). Click here to RSVP for the teleconference. (Please take note that the phone call will take place in English)
On the call, we will:
- Present the Campaign’s new look
- Update you on our activities since the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative announcement
- Provide you with an inside look at upcoming initiatives from The Smart Campaign, and
- Learn about emerging trends in client protection from top industry leaders
As we present the new look of The Smart Campaign we hope you will join us for this teleconference.
Please continue to follow the development of the Campaign as we strive to keep clients first in microfinance and bring full financial inclusion to people around the world.
** Seattle, 7:00a.m.; Mexico, Colombia, 9:00a.m.; Bolivia, Washington, DC, 10:00a.m.; Burkina Faso, 2:00p.m.; Switzerland, South Africa, 4:00p.m.; Egypt, Uganda, 5:00p.m.; India, 7:30p.m.; Cambodia, 9:00p.m.; Philippines, 10:00p.m.
> Posted by Sergio Guzmán
Google just launched an initiative called Project 10^100. Out of 154,000 user submitted ideas to make the world a better place, Google narrowed down the list to 16 major ideas and you can vote for one of them!
I would like to call your attention to one idea in general, it is to “Build better banking tools for everyone” Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Michael Stein
Michael Stein
On Thursday September 3, at the United Nations in New York, the Harvard Law School Project on Disability co-sponsored a side session at the Second Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the first human rights treaty of the twenty first century. The side session was focused on raising awareness and creating a forum to discuss possible avenues for making the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) disability-inclusive.
Although the MDGs relate to disability by referencing poverty, education, health care provision, and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen has publicly stated that the MDGs cannot achieve their goal without including person with disabilities, to date they do not expressly reference disability. This absence is especially problematic given that persons with disabilities suffer severe poverty at a higher rate than those without disabilities. For example, although 10% of the world’s population has a disability, 20% of those living below the dollar a day standard have a disability.
Microfinance provides one option to States Parties to the CRPD in their duties to provide an adequate standard of living to their citizens with disabilities Read the rest of this entry »
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