Event Name: European Microfinance Week 2014
Event Dates: November 12-14, 2014
Location: Luxembourg
Category: European Microfinance Week
SPECIAL REPORT: June 15 is Deadline for $132k European Microfinance Award: “Microfinance and the Environment”
June 15 is the deadline to apply to the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), a Luxembourg-based network of approximately 130 microfinance organizations and individuals, to win EUR 100,000 (USD 132,000) as part of the Fifth European Microfinance Award, which is themed “Microfinance and the Environment.”
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) Announces Fifth Microfinance Award of $132k for Environmental Initiatives
The European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), a Luxembourg-based network of approximately 130 microfinance organizations and individuals, has announced the 5th European Microfinance Award, which is themed “Microfinance and the Environment” to celebrate institutions offering new initiatives in environmental stewardship and sustainability in natural resources management.
SPECIAL REPORT: Why Microfinance Institutions Offer Unprofitable Housing Loans
On November 14, the closing day of the European Microfinance Platform’s (e-MFP’s) European Microfinance Week, Wilson Twamuhabwa, CEO of Uganda’s Ugafode Microfinance Limited, explained that his organization began to offer housing loan products partly because its clients were using 30 percent of their loans for housing anyway.
SPECIAL REPORT: Overcoming Barriers to Agricultural Microfinance
At European Microfinance Week, which is hosted by Luxembourg’s 140-member European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), Daniela Rottger, a consultant to German development finance institution Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), spoke Wednesday about her study of the agricultural lending products offered by several African banks and microlenders.
SPECIAL REPORT: Women Microfinance Clients Often Save More, Are More Loyal to Lenders
At today’s session on gender at European Microfinance Week in Luxembourg, panelists eschewed the idea that lenders have a moral obligation to serve a greater proportion of women. Instead, Anne-Marie Chidzero of South Africa and Anna Gincherman of the US-based Women’s World Banking (WWB) network both argued strenuously that lenders are leaving money on the table by failing to reach out to women.
SPECIAL REPORT: Michael Chu: “Disrupt this Old Model to Unlock the Potential of Microfinance”
At today’s opening plenary of European Microfinance Week, which is hosted by Luxembourg’s 140-member European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), Michael Chu of the US-based Harvard Business School and the Mexico-based venture capital fund Ignia, argued that microfinance is generally implemented using a 20-year-old model that is inefficient and “ripe for disruption” through technology.
SPECIAL REPORT: “Making Microfinance Investment Responsible” Group Wrestles with Inconsistent Data Reporting at European Microfinance Week
On this first day of European Microfinance Week, which is hosted by the 140-member European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) of Luxembourg, e-MFP’s “Making Microfinance Investment Responsible” Action Group convened to work on the data it has collected on client protection from 10 microfinance investors, rating agencies and NGOs.
SPECIAL REPORT: Youth Financial Inclusion Group Tackles Business Training, Scaling-up, Dormant Accounts, Program Indicators, Self-sufficiency at European Microfinance Week
As part of the opening day of European Microfinance Week, a series of events hosted by the Luxembourg-based European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), the Youth Financial Inclusion Action Group of e-MFP met today to carry on its work relating to savings and other financial services for young people, particularly those aged 15 to 24.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) to Host European Microfinance Week 2013, Luxembourg, November 12-14, 2013, With On-site Coverage Provided by MicroCapital
Event Name: European Microfinance Week 2013
Event Date: November 12-14, 2013
Event Location: Abbaye de Neumunster, Luxembourg
SPECIAL REPORT: Panel: Seeking Diversification, Microfinance Investors Often Reap Annual Returns of 4%
On Friday, November 16 at European Microfinance Week, a conference hosted by the Luxembourg-based European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), Sebastian von Stauffenberg, the CEO of US-based microfinance rating agency MicroRate, said of the larger investment community, “People outside of our microfinance bubble speak another language – if we don’t speak their language, the whole trickle-down effect [of increased investment in microfinance] does not occur.” Mr von Stauffenberg was speaking as part of a panel on microfinance investment that also included Sebastien Juhen of Swiss microfinance investor BlueOrchard Finance, who said that microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) should work to improve their communication to investors regarding the risks of investing in microfinance including how investment managers address these risks.
SPECIAL REPORT: Responsible Microfinance Implementation Action Group Looks to Boost Usage of Existing Tools, Distributes Template of Covenants for Investors to Attach to Loans to Microbanks
At the European Microfinance Week conference today in Luxembourg, representatives of the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) Action Group on the Implementation of Responsible Microfinance led a discussion on its work. The group presented graphics compiling existing social performance tools such as social audits and the publication of pricing data via the US-based nonprofit Microfinance Transparency. One of the suggested steps for microbanks embarking on the process of evaluating its social performance is to make a public commitment through an effort such as the Smart Campaign, which is backed by US-based nonprofit Accion, or the Global Appeal for Responsible Microfinance, which is promoted by a set of institutions led by Oxus Group, an initiative of French NGO Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED).
SPECIAL REPORT: Alalay Sa Kaunlaran Incorporated (ASKI) of the Philippines Takes $127k European Microfinance Award for Innovation in Food Security
The fourth European Microfinance Award, which focused this year on food security, has been awarded to Alalay Sa Kaunlaran Incorporated (ASKI) of the Philippines for its work serving people in rural areas with traditional financial services as well as community development efforts. Executive Director Rolando Victoria of ASKI, who is pictured at the right, stated that, “The motivation at the time [of our founding] was credit…. Now we were able to install a hanging bridge…linking farmers to markets.” Another way that ASKI has assisted its clients is by linking groups of customers with major buyers. A signature achievement was working with government partners to connect small-scale growers of onions and cassava with fast-food restaurant chain Jollibee Foods Corporation, which reported sales of PHP 44 billion (USD 1 billion) during the year ending June 2012. Mr Victoria reported that one of the challenges ASKI had to overcome was convincing farmers of the value of having a guaranteed customer with a price set in advance, even if market prices might turn out to be higher after the harvest. The award was presented as part of European Microfinance Week, which closes in Luxembourg on November 16.
SPECIAL REPORT: Sanjay Sinha of M-CRIL Calls Overexuberant Growth “Recipe for Disaster” at European Microfinance Week Opening
This morning, following a day of member meetings, the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) opened its eighth European Microfinance Week, which is themed “Combining Strength, Delivering Results” and aims to address the loss of confidence in many circles that microfinance benefits poor people. In the opening plenary session, Sanjay Sinha, managing director of India’s Micro Credit Rating International Limited (M-CRIL), said that, “Moderate growth is good for inclusion. Rampant growth, which is what we had for a long time in India, is a recipe for disaster…. In order to reduce growth, we need to temper the egos of the promoters of microfinance institutions (MFIs). And we all know we need to dampen the expectations of investors – I’m talking mainly of the Indian commercial banking sector.”
SPECIAL REPORT: European Microfinance Platform Remittances Action Group, GIZ, PHB Development Release Handbook: “Financial Literacy for Remittances and Diaspora Investments”
This afternoon, the Remittances Action Group of the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) met to share member experiences, plan future action steps and announce the release of the “Financial Literacy for Remittances and Diaspora Investments” handbook. The document, which is the first of three planned outputs to be completed by the group, was published by German bilateral development agency GIZ, with participation from PHB Development, a Belgium-based consulting firm, and e-MFP, which is a Luxembourg-based membership organization. As the handbook was released as a compact disc and on paper, it is not available online other than via the above link as of today. Details on the other proceedings of the meeting, such as the other planned outputs of the Remittance Action Group and news from action group members, are slated for publication by MicroCapital in a separate brief.
SPECIAL REPORT: At European Microfinance Platform’s Microfinance Week, ADA, REDCAMIF Detail Support for MFIs, National Networks in Developing New Products as Part $7m Effort in Central America, Caribbean
This morning, representatives of Luxembourg-based nonprofit Appui au Développement Autonome (ADA) and the Red Centroamericana y del Caribe de Microfinanzas (REDCAMIF), a network of seven national microfinance networks, presented their progress to date on their joint effort to promote product innovation and capacity building among microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Central America and the Dominican Republic. The partnership, which was launched earlier in 2012, has a budget of EUR 5.5 million (USD 7 million) to be disbursed over a period of 4.5 years. The organizations have completed a survey of client needs in the region and have dedicated approximately 15 percent of the project budget to support networks in becoming self-sufficient, including through a fund to support national networks in developing products they can sell to their member MFIs.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: European Microfinance Platform’s Microfinance Week, Luxembourg, November 14-16, 2012, Onsite Reporting to be Provided by MicroCapital
Event Name: European Microfinance Week 2012
Event Date: November 14-16, 2012
MICROFINANCE EVENT: European Microfinance Platform Hosts European Microfinance Week 2011, Abbaye de Neumünster, Luxembourg, November 2 – November 4, 2011
Event Name: European Microfinance Week 2011: Inclusive Finance for Excluded People
Event Date: November 2 – November 4, 2011
Event Location: Abbaye de Neumünster, Luxembourg