SPECIAL REPORT: Investors, MFIs Continue to Wrestle with Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) #EMW2023

e-MFP logoThe Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR), which the EU passed in 2019, resulted in a “seismic shift” for impact investment funds and their investees. At the closing plenary of European Microfinance Week 2023, Emmanuelle Javoy of Switzerland-based investor Symbiotics explained her firm’s response to SFDR. The company invested a large amount of resources to review the sustainability objectives of each of its 25 funds.

Jurgen Hammer of the 

SPECIAL REPORT: Leveraging Financial Inclusion to Get Food Security Back on the Increase #EMW2023

e-MFP logoGlobal food security had been increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. People with low incomes were becoming more able to access – both in terms of cost and distance – a range of foods such as grains and fresh produce on a year-round basis. However, during the first year of COVID-19, 47 million women fell into extreme poverty, reducing their – and their children’s – access to

SPECIAL REPORT: Financial Inclusion of Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs), Host Communities Results in Competitive PAR Ratios #EMW2023

e-MFP logoThe Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation recently carried out a pilot project in Uganda engaging financial services providers (FSPs) in serving refugees and their host communities. The goal is to support FSPs in adapting their products to the needs of forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) – “adapting” because new products are not generally needed – and rolling them out to prove the business case for serving these populations. Despite early reluctance from FSPs, their portfolio-at-risk ratios turned out to be under 5 percent – sometimes better than their overall portfolios. As a result, two of the foundation’s FSP partners have

SPECIAL REPORT: Yikri of Burkina Faso Wins $110k European Microfinance Award for Progress Toward Food Security #EMW2023

e-MFP logoFrom the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP): Yikri wins European Microfinance Award 2023 for its commitment to addressing the complex challenges of food security and nutrition in Burkina Faso.

This report is part of

SPECIAL REPORT: Small Business Diaries Benefit Entrepreneurs, Microfinance Institutions #EMW2023

e-MFP logoThe Financial Access Initiative (FAI) at New York University recently completed a study spanning seven countries, collecting data from firms with up to 20 paid employees. Researchers visited hundreds of these companies every few weeks for one year to support them in completing diaries of their financial lives. Among the takeaways are that the owners of the firms want to maintain stability and grow at a moderate pace and that they are most in need of

SPECIAL REPORT: The Business Case for Education Finance #EMW2023

e-MFP logoMany families in low- and middle-income countries send their kids to low-cost private schools because the government is not meeting the need. However, many of these schools are not registered as businesses and don’t keep good records, so it is hard for them to borrow from banks to improve their facilities. Meanwhile, about one in five school-aged children – 260 million worldwide – are not in school.

Varthana is a lender in India that specializes helping schools expand. Its loans are often in the range of USD 20,000 to USD 100,000. The firm has developed a track record and so now is able to

SPECIAL REPORT: Digitizing Microfinance to Meet Customer Needs via an Incremental Approach #EMW2023

e-MFP logoAt today’s European Microfinance Week panel on transforming microfinance institutions (MFIs) into digital financial services providers, the focus was on meeting customer needs – not just implementing digital products, but attaining measurable success for clients and MFIs. Given that 80 percent of many microfinance portfolios comprises renewals, the renewal of microloans is a great process to digitize. This can free up staff to focus on recruiting new clients.

The consensus of the panelists was that going digital cannot be addressed primarily as a technology problem; rather it must be looked at as a business problem. The Vitas Group of Middle Eastern MFIs made the conscious choice to build a parallel system rather than

SPECIAL REPORT: Green Action Group Celebrates 10th Anniversary at European Microfinance Week #EMW2023

e-MFP logoToday’s opening plenary of European Microfinance Week included a celebration of the accomplishments of the European Microfinance Platform’s (e-MFP’s) Green Inclusive & Climate Smart Finance Action Group. The group has grown to 150 people and still is accepting new members.

One of the main outputs of the group is the Green Index, which helps financial services providers (FSPs) evaluate their performance in terms of green inclusive finance. The Action Group introduced the index in 2014 and most recently updated it in 2022. One of the group’s most recent outputs is the

SPECIAL REPORT: European Microfinance Week 2023 Opens With Action Group Meetings, Including Investors Sharing Strategies for Measuring Social Performance #EMW2023

e-MFP logoThe first day of European Microfinance Week 2023 began this morning with meetings of several of the European Microfinance Platform’s (e-MFP’s) Action Groups. At the Investors Action Group session, Cécile Lapenu of CERISE discussed the recent increase in demand for accountability regarding claims of positive client impact. What really makes an investor an impact investor? How can we measure impact in a way that is convincing and also efficient?

The recently published 60 Decibels Microfinance Index 2023 addresses some of these questions. The study, which is based on a survey of 32,000 microfinance clients in 32 countries, indicates that access to financial and non-financial services other than credit leads to deeper impact. Regarding credit services, group lending is associated with

SPECIAL REPORT: European Microfinance Week 2023 Is Almost Here! A Tour of the Upcoming Conference’s Sessions and Streams

e-MFP logoEuropean Microfinance Week (EMW) 2023, taking place in Luxem­bourg from 15-17 November, is fast approaching! One of the sector’s premier knowledge-sharing and networking events, EMW welcomes more than 500 professionals, in-person and online, and this year will comprise over 40 sessions – plenaries, breakouts, closed-door round­tables and Action Group meetings – organised across several thematic streams. These include: ‘Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutri­tion’, Green and Climate-smart Finance, Refugees and Forcibly Dis­placed Persons, Digi­talisation, Investing, Financial Health, Client Pro­tection, and Out­comes & Impact, among others. Here is a selection of what attendees can expect:

‘Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition’ is the topic of the European Microfinance Award 2023, the €100,000 prize award­ed annually by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, which this year seeks to highlight innovations by financial ser­vices pro­viders (FSPs) to safeguard access to quality and affordable food for vul­nerable populations and to increase resilience of food systems. EMW2023 attendees will be able to choose from a range of sessions address­ing the different dimensions of food security, including:

SPECIAL REPORT: e-MFP Launches the Green Map, a Pioneering Resource to Address an Information Gap in Green Inclusive Finance

e-MFP logoAs the inclusive finance sector increasingly understands the crucial role it can have in supporting the most vulnerable populations – who are dis­pro­portionately affected by the consequences of climate change – the Euro­pean Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) is delighted to announce the launch of the Green Map, a project implemented by the e-MFP Green Inclusive and Climate Smart Finance Action Group (GICSF-AG) and supported by the Government of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. The Green Map was officially launched on Thursday, September 28 at an in-person and live-streamed event entitled “Addressing Climate Change via an Open Resource for Green Inclusive Finance Projects & Practices.”

What’s this all for? The Green Map project aims to

SPECIAL REPORT: Fortune Credit of Kenya, Fundación Génesis Empresarial of Guatemala, Yikri of Burkina Faso Are Finalists for European Microfinance Award 2023 on Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition

e-MFP logoFrom the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP): On September 19 and September 20, 2023, the Selection Committee for the European Microfinance Award (EMA) 2023 on “Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition” selected the three finalists that will go on to compete for the prize of EUR 100,000 (USD 105,000): Fortune Credit Limited from Kenya, Fundación Génesis Empresarial from Guatemala and Yikri from Burkina Faso.

The choice of topic for the EMA2023 comes at a

SPECIAL REPORT: An Interview with Christoph Pausch of e-MFP on European Microfinance Week, Luxembourg & Online, November 2023

e-MFP logoMicroCapital: What can we expect from EMW2023, happening in-person November 15-17 in Luxembourg and online?
Christoph Pausch: EMW2022, back in-person after two years, showed us that there is no substitute for getting the opinion leaders and decision-makers in the inclusive finance sector together in-person, ensuring they have the time and space to debate, make new connections, and of course give presentations and discuss the various challenges and innovations under­way around the world.

After the success of the hy­brid EMW2022, which gathered 570 attend­ees (including over 200 who joined us online) from 48 countries, we are delighted to return to the beautiful Abbaye de Neumunster in Luxem­bourg for another hybrid event, which will once again offer an excep­tion­al networking and knowledge-sharing experi­ence with the top ex­perts in the financial inclusion sector. And the programme is designed to be as conducive as possible to those joining us online from different time zones. Plus, sessions will be re­corded for “catch-up” after.

MC: What choices of sessions can attendees expect?
CP: As always, EMW sessions have been put forward largely by our members – so they address the sector’s current “hot topics” – and we organise them across several thematic streams. We received an enor­mous response to our call for proposals that went out early in the sum­mer, giving us great scope for a fascinating, diverse program across different streams. In addition to our usual annual topic areas – digiti­sation, social performance, funding/investment – this year there also will be streams on refugee finance, agri-finance, a particular emphasis on

SPECIAL REPORT: Christoph Pausch on the European Microfinance Award 2023 – Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition

e-MFP logoMicroCapital: Why was “Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition” chosen as the topic of this, the 14th edition of the European Microfinance Award?

Christoph Pausch: For a long time, it looked like progress in this field would be positive and continuous. But a combination of factors – among them climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and the global infla­tion­ary context – means that progress in food security and nutrition may have stalled, or in fact reversed. According to the World Food Pro­gramme, “Conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes and soaring fertiliser prices are combining to create a food crisis of unprecedented proportions.” And the Food and Agriculture Organization reports that the number of people affected by hunger has grown by 150 million since the onset of the pandemic. But the problem is not only one of hunger – lack of access to sufficient food – it’s also one of insufficient quality, meaning poor nu­tri­tion, and lack of access to the micronutrients necessary for good health, all compounded by the stress of uncertain supply. There may be 2 billion people worldwide in this category.

There are many sectors that have to play roles in addressing food secur­ity and nutrition. And because the people most vulnerable to food in­security and malnutrition are largely those who are low-income, living in low-income countries and financially excluded, there is a vital role for the financial inclusion

MICROFINANCE EVENT: Financial Inclusion That Works for Women; March 2, 2023; London, UK

This event will review the 2022 edition of the European Microfinance Award, which was themed “Financial Inclusion that Works for Women.” Sam Mendelson of the Luxembourg-based European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) will discuss

SPECIAL REPORT: Saluting MFI Staff, Promoting Flexible Products, “Keeping the Client at the Heart” as European Microfinance Week Closes

e-MFP logoA panel of microfinance luminaries shared their moments of pride and disappointment at the closing plenary of this year’s European Microfinance Week. Yannick Milev of the Cambodian microfinance institution Chamroeun expressed his admiration for the staff members of Chamroeun, who continued to work through the COVID-19 pandemic at significant risk to their and their families’ health because “stopping operations completely would have had a terrible effect on us and on our clients.” Mr Milev added that Chamroeun issued many loans during the early days of the pandemic to help clients diversify in response to the economic effects of COVID-19.

Marc Labie of Belgium’s University of Mons described the pandemic as “a chance for the industry to

SPECIAL REPORT: Increasing Financial Access for Women with Better Data, Mentoring, Staff Training, “Gender-smart” Audits

e-MFP logoSilke Mufflemann of Frankfurt School of Finance and Management described the common differences between women-owned micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and those owned by men during a session at this month’s European Microfinance Week. On average, women owners are more cautious regarding business decisions and want more information before accepting a loan. In lower-income countries, women often have had less access to education and are less confident in their financial and business management skills. They also tend to have more limited social and business networks from which to draw information and other resources. For all these reasons, Ms Mufflemann argues, it is key that financial services providers (FSPs) connect women with non-financial support services.

Bettina Wittlinger, also from the Frankfurt School, discussed how to determine whether a FSP is “gender-smart.” Among the factors is