MICROFINANCE EVENT: MEDA Innovate Learning Event; March 17, 2020; Ottawa, Canada - CANCELED

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.

Presenters at this event will share testimony on “designing, testing, and scaling non-traditional finance solutions and agricultural technologies for smallholder farmers.” Other topics will include customer centricity and transitions in policy and regulation relating to agricultural innovations.

Background on Organizer: The event is produced by Innovate, a program of the Canadian NGO Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). Innovate is a three-year “learning series [that] highlights research assessing the potential of non-traditional finance to promote agricultural innovation adoption among smallholder farmers across East Africa, South America, and South Asia.” Innovate is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a unit of the Canadian government that “invests in knowledge, innovation, and solutions to improve the lives of people in the developing world.”

MEDA seeks to help families living in poverty in the developing world through investment, largely via microfinance. The organization dates to 1953 when a group of Mennonite businessmen invested in a dairy farm in Paraguay. MEDA has collaborated with 543 partners operating in 76 countries as of 2020. Its product lines include the following: (1) investment fund development – establishing private investment as a solution to global poverty; (2) member engagement – helping members strengthen faith-work development connections in their own lives and in all the places touched by their work; (3) microfinance – providing innovative and sustainable access to savings and credit for poor people; and (4) production and marketing linkages – providing innovative and sustainable access to markets for small producers and giving poor people better access to products that serve their basic needs. For 2019, MEDA reported total revenue of USD 39.9 million.

Registration: You may apply to attend the event via https://www.meda.org/innovate/events/ntf4ag#register.

Event Website: https://www.meda.org/innovate/events/ntf4ag

For more information about the conference, you may email innovate[at]meda.org. Or by calling +1 519 725 1633

By Kiersten Greene, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Event webpage
https://www.meda.org/innovate/events/ntf4ag

Event agenda
https://www.meda.org/innovate/events/ntf4ag#agenda

MEDA homepage
https://www.meda.org/

IDRC homepage
https://www.idrc.ca/

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