Category: Events

A CONVERSATION WITH PROFESSOR MUHAMMAD YUNUS

JANUARY 26, 2009, 383 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY

J.P. Morgan will host a Microcredit Summit Campaign event with Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, January 26 in New York City.  Also in attendance will be Ingrid Munro, Founder of Kenyan microfinance organization Jamii Bora.  The invitation for the event says that “Sam Daley-Harris, Founder and Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, and Professor Yunus will make an exciting announcement about the Campaign’s goals.”  The announcement will pertain to the Campaign’s original goal of reaching 100 million of the world’s poorest families with credit.  It will be accompanied by a conversation on the future of microfinance. Also on January 26, the State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 2009 will be released, and will be available on the Campaign website.

APPLICATIONS BECOME AVAILABLE ONLINE ON JANUARY 15, 2009 AND ARE DUE BY FEBRUARY 22, 2009.

Engineers for Social Impact (E4SI) has commenced its second annual rigorous recruitment process to match the most talented ten undergraduate students from fifteen elite Indian engineering schools with partner social enterprises that focus on development by means of sustainable for-profit entrepreneurship. E4SI fellowships promise to be highly entrepreneurial in a way that combines the best of consulting, technology, and social innovation. Fellows will gain unprecedented access to the development sector as they work with leading social entrepreneurs, attend leadership workshops at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, and pitch their ideas to thought leaders as they join an outstanding cohort of exceptional young leaders.

Partner social enterprises for the 2009 edition of the E4SI fellowship program are leaders in microfinance, multiple bottom-line investment advisory, education, energy, and healthcare. Among them are: Ujjivan, Intelicap, iDiscoveri, and Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO India).

For more information on the Engineers for Social Impact fellowship and details on how to apply for the 2009 edition, please visit the E4SI website. Applications are due on February 22, 2009.

Source: Microlinks

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, LISNER AUDITORIUM

GLOBAL MICROFINANCE INVESTMENT CONGRESS 2009

MAY 18-20 2009, NEW YORK CITY, USA

The American Conference Institute, a global business intelligence provider headquartered in New York, and PlaNet Finance, a French non-profit company that assists microfinance institutions (MFIs), will host the second annual Global Microfinance Investment Congress in New York, USA. The three day event will be held from May 18th to 20^th 2009 in New York City. The event brings together professionals from diverse backgrounds – public and corporate pension funds, hedge funds, MFIs, venture capitalist firms, investment and commercial banks, insurance funds and technology funds and firms – to discuss future investments strategies for microfinance and sources of finance. Please refer the event website for a list of the organizations represented.

THE ROLE OF DONORS AND THE CRISIS

JANUARY 7, 2009, WASHINGTON, DC, and ONLINE

Conan French of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will moderate this discussion among Kate McKee of CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), Sandra Adams of the Grameen Foundation and April DuBois of Opportunity International on the effect of the global financial crisis on the role of donors, and the possible implications for microfinance institutions and their clients. “The Role of Donors and the Crisis” will take place at 4 pm eastern US time on January 7 at the offices of QED Group in Washington, DC, and will be broadcast as a webinar in order to enable remote participation. There is no charge to attend. To participate in person, RSVP by email. To participate remotely, register online. No telephone number is offered.

This is the second seminar in a mini-series on the impact of the current crisis on the microfinance industry. In the coming months, a number of topics relating to the current financial crisis will be covered, including its effects on savings, remittances and microinsurance. After this event, materials will be posted at the microLINKS “After Hours” webpage.

We wish you success and happiness during the upcoming new year, as we close our office until January to celebrate and give thanks. Thank you for your work to build a strong microfinance industry and for the overwhelming support you showed us in 2008. Until 2009, from our family to yours, sincere best wishes.

PROCESS MAPPING TRAINING

JANUARY 6 – 8, 2009, HYDERABAD, INDIA

FULL PAPERS AND AND ONE-PAGE SUMMARY ACCEPTANCE DEADLINE DECEMBER 22, 2008.

CONFERENCE JUNE 2-4 2009, BRUSSELS BELGIUM

The European Microfinance Platform, in partnership with the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi) is proud to organize the First European Research Conference on Microfinance, with the purpose to gather leading academic researchers and to develop suitable frameworks in a constantly changing landscape.

Submission of Papers

Academic papers are being solicited for the conference in areas relevant to microfinance, including but not limited to the following topics:

• Social Impact
• Gender & Women Empowerment
• Governance and Efficiency of MFIs
• Rural Microfinance
• Link between financial and microfinance institutions
• Public Policies
• Innovation of Microfinance products

Full papers and one-page summaries are due December 22, 2008 and should be submitted to cermi@ulb.ac.be.

GLOBAL SOCIAL VENTURE 2009 COMPETITION (GSVC)

JANUARY 12 TO 13, 2009, NEW YORK CITY, USA

In January, a socially-conscious investment conference organized annually by Foundation & Endowment Money Management, Money Management Letter, and the Social Investment Forum will be held at the Union League Club located at 38 East 37th Street in New York City.   This year’s theme is “ESG on the Ground: Enhancing Profitability through Sustainable Investing.”   The third such conference of its kind, the conference this year has been expanded to two full days and will include a half-day workshop entitled, “A Practical Guide to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI),” which will be led by the PRI Secretariat.  The conference is open to those who hold leadership positions anywhere along the spectrum of investment organizations, from hedge funds and private equity firms to public foundations and family offices. 

C5, has postponed indefinitely its “European Summit on Global Microfinance Investments” that had been planned to begin March 2, 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland. No new date has been set. For more information you may email k.persson@CC5-Online.com, or call +44 (0) 20 7878 6888.

HBS-ACCION PROGRAM ON STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP FOR MICROFINANCE

MARCH 19 TO MARCH 20, 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

Uniglobal Research, a business events firm for various industries in the financial sector, will host its second Annual Microfinance Forum in Spring of 2009 in Vienna, Austria. The conference will touch upon all of the following topics: how global trends and imbalances affect the microfinance industry; successful business models in low-income markets; including the world’s poor as investors, producers, sellers, and buyers; common standards for the microfinance industry; mobile banking for the poor; retail microfinance; and micro (life) insurance. The event has been billed to various groups, including: microfinance institutions (MFIs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), commercial banks, research institutions, technology providers, and other public sector organizations. Uniglobal Research hopes participants will learn about the current activities and future plans of international commercial banks with respect to microfinance, capture lessons from relevant project experiences, and gain unique perspectives on how to align social issues with corporate strategy.

FEBRUARY 17 TO FEBRUARY 19, 2009, NAIROBI, KENYA

Aitec Africa, an event management and marketing firm with offices in Kenya and the UK, will hold a conference to discuss the banking and payment technologies available to the East African financial services sector.  Aitec Africa hopes that bank managers and customers will learn about the latest international developments in payment technologies, best practices in information technology (IT) project deployment, and current trends in customer service delivery.  The conference will be held over a three-day period at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. 

JANUARY 26 TO JANUARY 27, 2009, BERLIN, GERMANY

The ChaBaLEU-Project, a collaborative partnership of ten business, public, and academic institutions from four EU member states, will host a discussion forum entitled, “Implementing the EU Microcredit Initiative – What can we learn from developing and transforming countries?”  ChaBaLEU, short for “Character-Based Lending,” works to ensure the continued development of microcredit services and products aimed at small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) within the EU-15.  The forum intends to create a space for entrepreneurs and development leaders to discuss whether microcredit can “function as a meaningful instrument of business development in the EU.” 

Source: Legatum.