2012 Webinar Series
In response to numerous alumni requests, the SMDP is pleased to announce a new webinar series which will cover many of the topics that are offered in the SMDP training programs we hold in Africa and New Hampshire. The SMDP Webinar Series sessions will be facilitated by many of the same faculty who teach our face-to-face courses. The webinars are free and are available for any practitioners wanting to increase their knowledge about sustainable microfinance, enterprise development, or other development finance best practices.
May 16 Webinar Description
Successful Strategies for Reaching the Very Poorest
The world’s poorest people (1.4 billion) require more than access to finance or new markets to escape poverty. The various economic strengthening disciplines (microfinance, value chain development, social assistance, skills training, etc.) have made significant progress in recent years in making their products, services and programs more accessible, reliable, relevant and affordable for the poor. However, ultra poor households (much more so than the economically active poor) will usually experience little benefit from such services and opportunities, when those are offered in isolation. This webinar will distinguish between ‘push’ mechanisms (such as social safety nets, savings groups, and asset transfers) that work to provide and protect a minimal asset base freeing households from poverty traps, and ‘pull’ strategies, that strive to include the poor in economic growth approaches (value chain development, market facilitation, financial services). A number of innovative approaches will explain how carefully sequenced and coordinated interventions link push and pull strategies, achieving sustainable pathways out of poverty.
Webinar Presenter Bio:
Jan Maes, SEEP STEP UP Initiative
Jan Maes is an independent consultant and facilitator of the STEP UP (Strengthening The Economic Potential of the Ultra Poor) Initiative, SEEP’s newest learning community focusing on innovative approaches to help very poor people escape extreme poverty through a variety of economic strengthening strategies. He holds a M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and a dual M.A. in International Management and Finance from the University of Denver. He specializes in evaluation and learning related to sustainable livelihoods and market development for households living in extreme poverty, and advises on programs related to livelihood promotion, microenterprise development, BoP marketing, and savings mobilization especially targeting ultra-poor populations.
Webinar Registration
To register for the May webinar, please click on this link:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/851066910
SMDP Webinar Series 2012 Schedule
Date/Time |
Topic |
Facilitator |
Sound Practices in Youth Inclusive Financial Services |
Veronica Torres |
|
Self-Financed Communities: Exploring Innovative Models for Building Assets and Social Capital |
Jean Claude Rodríguez-Ferrera Massons |
|
No video is available, but you can listen with MP3 player and download the PowerPoint Presentation |
Microfinance interest rates: What's 'reasonable,' and does it matter? |
Malcolm Harper, Cranfield School of Management |
Wednesday May 16 (Note date change) |
Successful Strategies for Reaching the Very Poorest |
Jan Maes |
Wednesday July 11 |
ProPoor Enterprise and Value Chain Development Advanced topics |
Katie Turner |
Wednesday August 15 |
Savings Groups As A Platform for |
Paul Rippey |
Wednesday October 3 |
Financial Education on the Pathway |
Candace Nelson |
Please note, all webinars will take place in Eastern Standard Time, or GMT - 5 (GMT - 4 during DST)
Previous Webinars
April
Microfinance interest rates: What's 'reasonable,' and does it matter?
Facilitator: Malcolm Harper, Cranfield School of Management
Click here to listen with Mp3 player and click here to download the PowerPoint presentation.
This session looked at interest rates primarily from the client's point of view, considering affordability and also the importance, or otherwise, of the price of loans relative to other features, such as speed and convenience. Our panelist, Dr. Harper, requested that participants do a micro-assignment before they registered for the webinar. You will see during the webinar how Dr. Harper used this data. Participants who completed the assignment were invited to ask questions and participate by voice during the webinar.
Here was the Micro-assignment: Talk to the owner of a micro-business, any activity, but the smaller the better. A newspaper seller, fruit vendor, shoe-cleaner, window cleaner, anything you like, or if possible a small farmer. Find out just two facts, very rough estimates will do. First: what is the total investment in the business, including fixed capital, such as the cart, the weighing scales, the crates, and working capital, the stocks, outstanding credit to customers, cash needed to make change, and so on?
Second: what are the net revenues to the owner, income from sales, or any other income, less costs, of goods sold, of any hired labor (not including the owner her- or himself), of rent, or bribes, or electricity, transport, whatever? Per day, per week, per month; whatever period is most convenient, and if it is not a year, the approximate number of days, months, or whatever the business operates in a year.
March
Self-Financed Communities: Exploring Innovative Models for Building Assets and Social Capital
Facilitator: Dr. Jean Claude Rodríguez-Ferrera, Association for Self-Financed Communities (ACAF)
Association for Self-Financed Communities (ACAF) is a Spanish organisation which has launched the Self-Funded Communities Model in Spain, Portugal, Hungary, and the Netherlands. Self-Funded Communities are composed of ten to thirty low-income people who buy shares to create a credit fund from which they can borrow. There is no external money and only members can invest in the group. As owners of the fund, they decide the credit conditions – interest rate, terms, collateral – and they receive all the benefits of the credit activity including a share of the interest earned on loans made by the group. It is completely self-managed and self-funded and many of the participants in ACAF are immigrants or disabled people. http://comunidadescaf.wordpress.com/
View this short video about ACAF (Spanish with English subtitles).
January
A Primer on Youth-Inclusive Financial Services
Facilitator: Veronica Torres, Making Cents International
This hour-long session introduces participants to the key principles and practices in youth-inclusive financial services (YFS) and offers reasons why a number of financial institutions across the globe are investing in the design of youth-inclusive products and services. Facilitator Ms. Veronica Torres, Director of Youth Economic Opportunities and Master Trainer at Making Cents International, gives an overview on the principles related to effective youth-inclusive financial products; the steps associated with quality product design; and examples of the kinds of savings products that currently exist for young people. Participants have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the session.