This 
year’s SAM (Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance) includes five days of conference sessions, an investors’ fair, an “Innovators’ Village,” research presentations, training sessions and workshops under the theme “Resilience of the African Inclusive Finance Sector.” The two-day conference portion of SAM includes sessions on topics such as how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected efforts to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals, financing agricultural value chains, risk management, serving youth, digital infrastructure and post-crisis reconstruction. The other days of SAM include workshops on topics such as social performance,
Category: Health
SPECIAL REPORT: Building Resilience for Microfinance Clients – the SAM 2021 Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, October 18-22
MicroCapital: How will the theme resilience be addressed during the SAM 2021?
Yombo Odanou: The EU has defined resilience as “the capacity of an individual, household, community, country or region to resist, adapt and recover quickly from crises and shocks.” The dual climate and COVID-19 crises and their effects on the global economy are forcing institutions to find new ways to take advantage of this austere environment.
Christophe Hebting: We believe the discussions at the SAM can build the resilience capacity of all actors in the inclusive finance sector. This includes addressing questions such as: How can resilience be increased through structural change? In the face of climate change? Through technological innovations?
MC: How are you addressing concerns attendees may have regarding the potential transmission of COVID-19 during the event?
YO: Since the beginning of this pandemic, MAIN has initiated actions to enable its members to minimise the risk of infection, allowing them to continue
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Deetken Impact Invests in Pro Mujer Mexico – Provider of Education, Healthcare, Microfinance – Through Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund
Canada-based asset management company Deetken Impact and US-based nonprofit women’s development organization Pro Mujer recently announced they are making an investment in Pro Mujer Mexico from the investment vehicle they co-manage, the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund. The parties to the transaction wish
SPECIAL REPORT: “Financial Inclusion Compass 2021” Reveals a Sector Grappling with the Consequences of COVID-19 – and Trying to Look Beyond It
In
2018, e-MFP launched the first Financial Inclusion Compass, a new annual publication series to collate sector opinions on emerging short-, medium- and long-term trends in the financial inclusion sector. e-MFP is delighted to now publish the English language version of the Financial Inclusion Compass 2021 – the fourth in the series.
The survey on which this paper is based was open in May 2021, with financial services providers (FSPs), investors, donors, researchers and support services providers evaluating and describing the importance of various current Trends, rating future New Areas of Focus, and providing open-comment qualitative input on the expected (and hoped-for) direction of financial inclusion progress.
The survey had two main sections: in Section 1, respondents rated from 1-10 the current importance of a list of 20 Trends and evaluated a list of 16 future New Areas of Focus to rank their highest five in terms of future significance. Optional comments on each were possible. Section 2 had three optional and open-ended questions, with a focus on the impact of the pandemic.
The Compass received 125 responses from 39 countries. A plurality of respondents were FSPs, followed by consultants/support services providers, infrastructure organisations, funders and researchers. On the main geographic focus of respondents’ work, a plurality selected Global, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Trends
Two new trends, introduced in response to the uniquely challenging context of the pandemic, took the top two spots
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Invest in Visions (IIV) Mikrofinanzfonds Lends $12m to Bayport for Payroll Lending in Colombia
Invest In Visions Mikrofinanzfonds, a fund managed by Germany-based Invest In Visions (IIV), has disbursed a senior loan of EUR 10 million (USD 12.1 million) to Bayport Colombia, one of the nine financial services providers (FSPs) of Mauritius-based microfinance network Bayport Management Limited. Bayport Colombia is using the cash to fund
SPECIAL REPORT: SAM 2021 to Take Place in Kigali, Rwanda, October 18-22; “One Is Not Born Resilient But Becomes Resilient: Fostering Inclusive Finance to Better Overcome Crisis!”
From ADA: It’s official! The largest event in inclusive finance on the African continent, the long awaited African Microfinance Week (AMW 2021), will take place in Kigali, in the land of 1,000 hills and mountains: Rwanda. From October 18 to October 22, 2021, the SAM will address the theme of resilience, a concern that is all the more important in these particular times.
This notice is the first in a
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Positive Ventures of Brazil Raises $10m for Impact Fund Supporting Cleantech, Education, Fintech, Health
Positive Ventures, a Brazilian venture capital and private equity firm, recently raised USD 10 million for an impact investment fund from its limited partners, including Cândido Bracher, who previously served as Chairman of Brazil-based Itaú Unibanco; Teresa Bracher; and Luis Stuhlberger, who co-founded Brazil-based Verde Asset Management. Positive Ventures invests in companies seeking to “create an economic, social and
SPECIAL REPORT: Christoph Pausch on the European Microfinance Award 2021: Inclusive Finance and Health Care
MicroCapital: 
Why was “Inclusive Finance and Health Care” chosen as the topic of the European Microfinance Award 2021?
Christoph Pausch: As the past year has shown us all with such unfortunate clarity, health is everything. Being healthy allows education to play its role in opening new opportunities; it allows people to earn, invest and employ others; it keeps the economy growing and lets groups and societies prosper. And the opposite is true as well: without health – without health care to help people recover from serious health shocks and to stop minor health issues from becoming serious – it’s so hard for people to prosper.
This is especially true for the global poor – the financially excluded – who typically have volatile and precarious incomes and live in countries without high-quality universal health care. They not only need access to health care, but also the ability to pay for it. Too often this can mean taking on debt and selling income-generating assets or even
SPECIAL REPORT: Apply/Postulez/Postular – European Microfinance Award 2021
From the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP): The €100,000 European Microfinance Award 2021 on ‘Inclusive Finance and Health Care’ highlights the crucial role the inclusive finance sector can play in helping low-income and excluded populations both plan day-to-day medical spending and ‘smooth’ out health-related financial shocks.
If you are