The following post by Natalie Zuniga was originally published on the Ashoka Changemakers’ blog with the title “Join @Changemakers and @G20Mexico on October 9th for a #SocEntChat about Global Financial Inclusion.” 

On October 9, 2012 from 11am to 1pm EST, Ashoka Changemakers will host a multilingual (English, Spanish, Portuguese) #SocEntChatabout promising solutions to achieve full financial inclusion. Experts and social entrepreneurs working in the field will convene and answer your questions during a Twitter-based discussion. Special guests Center for Financial Inclusion (@CFI_ACCION) and FINO (@Jatinhandoo) will join the conversation.

This #SocEntChat follows the closing of the entry period for the G2012 Mexico Financial Inclusion competition, which received 257 entries from 62 countries. Visit the competition page to check out solutions from around the world and to give social entrepreneurs your feedback.

Have you observed key barriers within the financial inclusion ecosystem? What can private institutions, NGOs, and the public sector do to open up access to affordable, quality financial services for all? Do you have experience with thriving citizen-based financial inclusion initiatives? How can those be taken to scale?

This is your chance to make your voice heard, or ask thought leaders your most burning questions!

To read the rest of this post, which includes instructions on how to join Tuesday’s financial inclusion discussion, visit the Ashoka Changemakers’ blog. 

In addition to CFI participating in this Twitter chat, during the week of October 8 Changemakers will highlight CFI Managing Director Elisabeth Rhyne as its Speak Up thought leader for financial inclusion, and share a new blog post from Rhyne on money management among the poor and the movement to bank the unbanked.

Image Credit: Microfinance Opportunities/Ashoka Changemakers

Have you read?

Citi and IPA Invite Financial Capability Innovation

Community Banking through Peer Credit Scoring

Mobile Money Transfer – What Does it Mean for Financial Inclusion?

Book-writing is partly about voracious reading, Alex Counts reminds us on his blog, which chronicles the process of penning a book about Haitian microfinance pioneer Fonkoze.

Counts, the CEO of Grameen Foundation,  most recently finished The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz (Rodale, 2009) and The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook by Rupert Scofield (McCraw Hill, 2011). (We previously gave a nod to Scofield’s book here on this blog. )

Counts joined other friends of Grameen Bank to set up Grameen Foundation in 1997. He was interviewed for the Center’s “Microfinance Matters” series. During his trips to Haiti, he has been meeting with microfinance industry leaders in general, and in particular with Fonkoze staff.

“Two Memoirs to Inspire and Educate Social Entrepreneurs,” his most recent post, begins:

I am returning from Istanbul, where I attended and spoke at a historic meeting of microfinance leaders from around the Arab World and from Turkey. A long layover in Amsterdam is giving me the opportunity to return to this blog while I prepare to head to Haiti via Washington and New York over the next two days. It has been a whirlwind fall for me, but my book on Fonkoze has never been far from my mind. Professor Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank and my mentor, was the most recent person to ask me about it when we were driving to a university in Turkey where he gave a speech two days ago.

Loyal blog readers will recall that one of the things I have re-learned about book-writing is that part of the process is voracious reading. Not just about the subject matter of the book you are writing.  It is important to read books that can provide literary inspiration and/or a sense of what the reading public is responding to in terms of broadly similar titles (in my case, related to international social enterprise).

Please click the link to read the rest of “Two Memoirs to Inspire and Educate Social Entrepreneurs,” and remember that you can bookmark the blog or sign up for the feed to follow this book-writing endeavor more closely.

Have you read?

Fonkoze & the Global Microcredit Summit – Alex Counts Book Project

Haiti, Fonkoze, & ‘The Female Vision’ – Alex Counts Book Project

Why Write a Book on Fonkoze? – Alex Counts Book Project

11 Surprises from Fonkoze – Alex Counts Book Project

Fonkoze and Madame Saras – Alex Counts Book Project

An Avalanche of Material (Including Repressed Memories) – Alex Counts Book Project

Haiti & Fonkoze in 10 Memories – Alex Counts Book Project

Haiti in the Spotlight as Alex Counts Begins Book on Fonkoze

Grameen Foundation CEO Alex Counts Tackles ‘Re-engineering’ Microfinance

Yunus, Grameen, & Bangladesh – What Are the Facts?

Grameen Foundation Increases Support for Strategic Human Capital Practices at Indian MFIs

On the Anniversary of the Haitian Earthquake: Fonkoze and the ‘Super Poor’