SoCap2008 , a conference designed to bring together the entrepreneurs who want to change the world and the capital that wants to make it happen took place this week Oct 13-15 in San Francisco. Unfortunately I could not attend this year but it is possible to follow some of the inspiring discussions through the many blogs available. Especially the team of nextbillion did a wonderful job covering the conference.
Where can one go to learn more about microfinance? Is there enough capacity (trained staff and managers) to cope with the explosive growth of the microfinance industry? Of course there is no limit (only one’s own time) as to how much one can learn through the internet (ie CGAP, mixmarket, microfinance gateway or the UNDP Microfinance Distance Learning Program) but, there are also an increasing number of institutions that offer training programs around the world.
For programs/courses: Boulder Institute of Microfinance(creating a platform for dialogue and critical thinking in microfinance), Microfinance Center (programs for practitioners in Eastern and Central Europe), School of Applied Microfinance (provides 2 week training courses for MFIs in East Africa), Harvard Business School & Accion Program on Strategic Leadership for Microfinance (executive education for directors of MFIs), and Frankfurt School of Finance and Management which runs the Micro Banking Summer Academy. One excellent institution, Microfinance Management Institute (MFMI) is building a community to foster development of human resources for the microfinance industry through the creation of learning tools and programs. They also provide courses for funders as well as integrating microfinance courses into the curricula of premier graduate management programs in developing countries.
If one’s interest is to get familiar with microfinance by going to the field there are many microfinance institutions that provide visitors programs. I have visited 2 of these which were excellent. BRI in Indonesia and BRAC in Bangladesh.
For international conferences the easiest way to see these are on the website of the microcapital, the top newsletter of microfinance investments.
So don’t wait if you want to learn more about microfinance get started now!
The 5th Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship took place last week in Oxford. This powerful, inspiring forum led by Jeff Skoll and Sally Osberg celebrates and connects social entrepreneurs to the world and is making “social entrepreneurship” known to governments as well as businesses. This year’s highlights were the speeches of Lord Anthony Giddens (climate change: opening plenary) former President Jimmy Carter (keynote: Skoll Awards Ceremony) and Paul Farmer and Al Gore (both in the closing plenary). There were 11 Skoll Awards given out this year and Kiva (Matt Flannery and Permal Shah) was one of them. This was the second year in the row that I attended Skoll Forum and it is an awesome experience to be 3 days in a place where you see over 700 people trying to make a world a better place. One of the ventures that I was very impressed about is E+Co which empowers local enterprises in developing countries by providing business services and financing so that these enterprises can deliver clean and affordable energy to households, businesses and communities. There are several sessions that are covered by video and are all highly recommended.
On January 24th at the WEF in Davos, Bill Gates made a call on “creative capitalism” a new system that “would have a twin mission: making profits and also improving lives for those who don’t fully benefit from market forces.” He pointed out that “To make the system sustainable, we need to use profit incentives whenever we can. At the same time, profits are not always possible when business tries to serve the very poor. In such cases there needs to be another market incentive- and that incentive is recognition… In markets where profits are not possible, recognition is a proxy; where profits are possible, recognition is an added incentive.The challenge is to design a system where market incentives including profits and recognition, drive the change” He cited examples like Bono’s RED Campaign which has generated in 18 months $50mn for the Global Fund to Fitght AIDS TB and Malaria, a Dutch company which holds the rights to a cholera vaccine that retains the rights in the developed world but shares those rights with manufacturers in the developing world, and a new law in the USA whereby drug companies that develop a new treatment for a neglected disease like malaria or TB can get a priority review from the FDA for another product they have made. He called on businesses, governments and the non-profit world on to take up on projects that works both to generate profit and solve the world’s inequities.
This is a great call on what is also referred as BOP businesses and “double or triple bottom line businesses” and the work done by many social entrepreneurs. The new name is good and easy to understand. The best part is the potential impact of this call as it comes from one of the most powerful business leaders and one of the most influential philanthropist of today. The webcast of this speech is available from the WEF site.
The Japan Microfinance Symposium took place on May 10th in Tokyo at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). This symposium which was the first international conference of microfinance in Japan was facilitated by Planet Finance Japan and was jointly organized by JICA, JBIC, ADBI the World Bank Group, KRI International and Shinsei Bank. The theme was “Poverty alleviation and the role of private and public sectors in microfinance” The turnout was larger than expected with more than 220 people attending the full-day symposium. There was a good dialogue between the audience and the speakers as many questions were asked (which I was told is not so common in Japan). My presentation for this conference titled “Microfranchising-The Next Step” is available here.Download file
The Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship starting tomorrow(March 27-29) is a leading gathering for changemakers around the globe attracting over 700 people from over 40 countries.
This forum is organized by The Skoll Centre of Social Entrepreneurship at Said Business School, University of Oxford in partnership with the Skoll Foundation. The Forum attracts an international community of outstanding practitioners and thought leaders in social entrepreneurship to set the future agenda for visionaries who want to transform society.
Speakers featured this year include: Jeff Skoll, the founder of Skoll Foundation, Muhammad Yunus founder of Grameen Bank, Peter Gabriel, musician, activist and cofounder of Witness, Larry Brillant, Executive Director of Google.org Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, Fazle Abed, founder of BRAC,and Ashok Khosla.
The Skoll Foundation invests in social entrepreneurs through the Skoll Awards; it connects them through their online community Social Edge. It also celebrates social entrepreneurs by enabling filmmakers and journalists to produce works that tell the stories of individual social entrepreneurs to promote large-scale public awareness on social entrepreneurship.
The theme this year is enabling social innovation. The 10 leading social entrepreneurs which will be receiving the Skoll Award this year are Escuela Nueva Foundation, Friends-International, Global Footprint Network, Gram Vikas, Kashf Foundation, Free The Children, Manchester Bidwell Corporation, Marine Stewardship Council, Verité, and YouthBuild USA.
You can follow the forum or see the latest newsletter of Skoll for more detailed information on the 2007 Awards.
The 2007 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting starts today in Davos. This year’s theme “The Shifting Power Equation” reflects the elements that are shaping the global agenda: the new power of the emerging economies, the increased leverage of commodity suppliers and the enhanced voice of individuals and small groups. Climate change is also high on the agenda. WEF brings in over 2000 leaders from business, politics, academia and civil society. The multimedia coverage of this meeting is quite amazing. One can see through their website any transcript or webcast, podcast and many blogs. Also for those interested in social entrepreneurship, one of the preconferences leading to Davos was the Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneurs’ Summit in Zurich. I recommend the blog of Jim Fruchterman, also a well known social entrepreneur, who is covering both conferences.
The Global Microcredit Summit 2006 took place Nov 12-15th in Halifax. Over 2300 delegates attended to monitor, discuss and celebrate having reached their goal of providing 100 mn of the world’s poorest families access to microcredit. 2 new goals were announced at this summit to (1) ensure 175 million of the world’s poorest families have access to credit (affecting 875 million family members) by 2015, and (2) help 100 million of the world’s poorest families move above the $1/day threshold by 2015 (affecting 500 million family members).
Prof. Yunus Muhammad, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner was one of the keynote speakers. Prof. Yunus together with Sam Daley-Harris, founder of RESULTS and the Microcredit Summit Campaign, talked to the media on Nov 14th. One can listen or read the transcript of this media call.