Past Events
www.microlinks.org/pastevents
This section provides reports, abstracts, summaries, research papers, case studies, PowerPoint presentations, audio recordings, and other relevant materials from past events.
April 7 – 10, 2010. Nairobi, Kenya. Join Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, and more than 2,000 delegates from over 40 countries at the Africa & Middle East Regional Microcredit Summit. The gathering is co-organized by the Microcredit Summit Campaign and the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Kenya (AMFI). Delegates will have the choice of participating in a wide variety of plenary sessions, workshops, day-long courses, various council meetings, and associated sessions over the course of the Summit, as well as field visits to leading Kenyan microfinance institutions. Some of the groundbreaking plenary sessions include: “Breakthroughs in Using Microfinance to Better End Poverty: A Vision for the Future of Microfinance in Africa and the Middle East”; “Using Microfinance to Improve the Environment and Agriculture: Ensuring Sustainable Livelihoods in Africa and the Middle East”; and “Using Microfinance as a Tool for Building Peace.” For more information, click here.
October 28, 2008. Financial Services at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Unlocking Capital Markets for Rural India."
Click here (text-only) to view resources from a USAID special event with Dr. Nachiket Mor of ICICI Foundation and IFMR Trust. Dr. Mor gave an overview of the current operational context for microfinance in India, and presented on the innovative work that IFMR Trust is doing to reach the rural poor with financial and business services.
July 28 - 30, 2008. Asia-Pacific Regional Microcredit Summit (APRMS).
Click here (text-only) to access blog coverage of APRMS 2008 in Bali, Indonesia, a summit which brought together delegates from over 40 countries. APRMS offered 6 plenary sessions, 24 workshops, 5 day-long courses, and various council meetings on a wide array of cutting edge financial and social topics central to the microfinance field. Summit attendees assessed progress toward the Campaign’s two poverty goals for 2015, and discussed obstacles and solutions to achieving these objectives.
April 23, 2008. Expanding Exports of High-Value Vegetables Based on Smallholder Production.
Click here (text-only) to view resources related to a workshop the USAID Microenterprise Development office and its partners organized and facilitated in Arusha, Tanzania. Key stakeholders discussed the opportunities and constraints in the Tanzanian horticulture value chain.
December 3-6, 2007. USAID 2007 Middle East and North Africa Value Chain Workshop.
Click here (text-only) to read more about the USAID Microenterprise Development office's regional value chain workshops. The workshops are specifically tailored for participating USAID and project staff. During the workshop, participants engage with key concepts, tools and guidelines for value chain development initiatives, including strategies for addressing bottlenecks, promoting private sector ownership of a competitiveness process, and catalyzing improved performance.
October 9, 2007. Jamii Bora: Reaching the Poorest in Kenya.
October 2, 2007. Industry Panel Discussion: The Compartamos IPO.
September 20, 2007. Mobile Phone Banking and Mobile Commerce Solutions for Microenterprises in the Philippines: MABS Project Presentation.
June 5-8, 2007. USAID 2007 Africa Value Chain Workshop.
Click here (text-only) to read more about the USAID Microenterprise Development office's regional value chain workshops. The workshops are specifically tailored for participating USAID and project staff. During the workshop, participants engage with key concepts, tools and guidelines for value chain development initiatives, including strategies for addressing bottlenecks, promoting private sector ownership of a competitiveness process, and catalyzing improved performance.
March 12-16, 2007. USAID 2007 Asia Value Chain Workshop.
Click here (text-only) to read more about the USAID Microenterprise Development office's regional value chain workshops. The workshops are specifically tailored for participating USAID and project staff. During the workshop, participants engage with key concepts, tools and guidelines for value chain development initiatives, including strategies for addressing bottlenecks, promoting private sector ownership of a competitiveness process, and catalyzing improved performance.
June 21 – 23, 2006. Taller Participativo de Alianzas Estratégicas en Finanzas Agrícolas y Rurales. (Strategic Alliances in Rural and Agricultural Finance Workshop.)
Click here (text-only) to access Spanish-language materials from a participatory workshop organized by the USAID/Mexico AFIRMA Project. The aim of the workshop was to increase knowledge of current restrictions faced by the rural finance sector, the agricultural sectors needs, and best practices and innovations in rural development.
December 21, 2005. Discussion of Microcredit on the Kojo Nnamdi Show.
October 26-28, 2005. SEEP Network Annual General Meeting.
Click here (text-only) to read more about the SEEP AGM and access the USAID Microenterprise Development office presentations delivered at the event. The meeting was a celebration of the SEEP Network’s 20th anniversary with workshops looking back and forward 20 years at the industry and SEEP. John Berry, Jeanne Downing, and Evelyn Stark were among the presenters.
October 5-7, 2005. VIII Inter-American Forum on Microenterprise.
Click here (text-only) to view resources related to a workshop the USAID Microenterprise Development office and its partners organized at the VIII Inter-American Forum on Microenterprise, held in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. The panel discussed strategies for enhancing value chain competitiveness and microenterprise and small business benefits by improving vertical relationships and opportunities for learning.
April 5-8, 2005. Rural and Agricultural Finance Training
Click here (text-only) to read more about the training for USAID staff and hosted by the Offices of Agriculture and Microenterprise Development. The four-day training provided participants with an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of rural financial context, analyze constraints to financial flows and better understand intervention options.
January 1, 2005 – Dec. 31, 2005. International Year of Microcredit.
The General Assembly of the United Nations (U.N.) designated 2005 as the International Year of Microcredit. The U.N. invited governments, organizations, the private sector, and the media to help raise the profile and build the capacity of the microcredit and microfinance sectors. For more information and resources on the International Year, please click here. (text-only)
June 29-30, 2004. Global Value Chain Analysis Training
Click here (text-only) for more information and handouts and presenations from the training. The objective of the training was to increase the ability of practitioners and donor professionals to identify and develop strategies that increase small enterprise participation in and benefit from participation in the global economy.
June 2-4, 2003. Paving the Way Forward for Rural Finance: an International Conference on Best Practices
Click here (text-only) for more information and resources from this conference. The objective of this conference was to capture the lessons and best practices—the successes and failures in agricultural finance, financial liberalization, risk management and microfinance—to pave the way forward for smart, sustainable financial market services tailored for the specific challenges of rural economies. Examination of current institutions, programs and ways to improve rural finance policies produced policy and programming recommendations for donors and practitioners involved in rural finance development.