MICROCAPITAL EVENT: Microfinance and Climate Change: Can Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) Promote Environmental Sustainability?

NOVEMBER 18 TO NOVEMBER 20, 2008, INTERNET FORUM BY MICROLINKS

Over the course of three days, MicroLinks will host a “Speaker’s Corner” entitled “Microfinance and Climate Change: Can Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) Promote Environmental Sustainability?” Speaker’s Corner events are online conferences or forums for the purpose of engaging current microenterprise and microfinance issues. This forum will be hosted by Dan Lundmark, a documentary producer and director currently working on a film highlighting the environmental policies and impacts of MFIs and microenterprises in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Several panelists will join the forum from GreenMicrofinance: Joan Hall, Elizabeth Israel, Thomas Israel, Kathleen Robbins, Betsy Teutsch, and Bela Vora. Panelists from Indian MFIs will include Manab Chakraborty from MIMO Finance, Paul Moonjely from Wesco Credit, and Paul Thomas from the Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF).

The event will focus on the effect of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on the lives of the low-income rural poor who can “least afford” global warming and the ways that microfinance, originally designed and implemented to help the poor, can be modified to help them mitigate the environmental and financial effects of climate change. More specifically, the forum hopes to address the reasons why “green” microfinance solutions are mutually beneficial arrangements for MFIs and their clients and how MFIs can practice these solutions while remaining financially solvent.

Participants will share their experiences, questions and comments in the virtual environment. On Tuesday, November 18, the forum will focus on the impact of microenterprise and microfinance on the natural environment, in particular global climate temperatures. Participants will also converse about the effect of cooking techniques and technology on human health and the environment and will discuss rising commodities inflation and its effect on MFIs and their clients. On Wednesday, November 19, the forum will focus on the question of how MFIs can promote environmental sustainability while still reducing poverty. In particular, participants will discuss the ways in which consumer loans and productive loans affect environmentally sustainable lending and the challenges for an MFI in scaling up a clean-energy initiative. On Thursday, November 20, the forum will focus on the role of donors and investors in ensuring the environmental sustainability of an MFI and its clients. Among other topics, participants will discuss how to measure the impact of an MFI’s environmental sustainability program and the components necessary for ensuring a microloan program’s effectiveness.

The cost is free, but interested persons should register in order to sign up and receive email updates. Please contact Anna van der Heijden at avanderheijden@irgltd.com for more information.

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