by the MicroCapital Team - Agriculture / Rural Finance, Client Protection, European Microfinance Week, Events, Green Energy -

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:

  • An opening plenary to kick off this session stream, which will bring together different perspectives from key stakeholders to address holistically the current challenges in the field and discuss the role of FSPs in food security and building sustainable food systems;
  • Creating Supportive Ecosystems to Maximize Supply of Agricultural Products Through Investments and Technical Assistance will focus on how invest­ments paired with technical assist­ance can be a real driver for impact;
  • East Africa – The Role of Microfinance in Food Secur­ity will discuss the role of financial inclu­sion in sup­porting food security and the chal­lenges that FSPs face when supporting small­holder farmers and agri-food businesses in the region;
  • Food Security & Nutrition: the FSP Customer Perspec­tive: an exploration of the different food security & nutrition challenges of customers in rural and urban settings – and how FSPs can better address them; and
  • Increasing Food Security Through Women-centred Finance: a panel to present the lessons learned from women-centred finance and food security projects.

As always, Thursday evening will see the Award ceremony, hosted at the European Investment Bank, to announce the winner of the 2023 Award, and to which all EMW2023 attendees are invited.

Green and Climate-smart Finance is increasingly emerging as the most important topic for EMW attendees and e-MFP members (as the upcoming Financial Inclusion Compass 2023, to be launched at EMW2023, will show). EMW2023 will kick off with an opening plenary to recog­nise (and celebrate) the 10 years of e-MFP’s Green and Inclusive Climate-smart Action Group – and to present the main milestones achieved so far and the evolving challenges in the field. This will be followed by breakout sessions on:

  • Inclusive Green Finance – a Regulatory Agenda: a guidance session about the role of central banks and financial regulators in furthering finan­cial inclusion and enhancing climate change resilience;
  • From Product to Impact: Data Management in Green Inclusive Finance: this session will bring MFIs, investors and policymakers together to dis­cuss climate risk products, impact data management tools and the latest taxonomies;
  • Financial Services for Forestry Value Chain Development and Financing the Just Transition: the Key Role of Inclusive, Biodiversity and Climate Finance will address the issues of climate change and biodiversity erosion, which call for a deep and quick transition of our economies; and
  • Other panels, such as Investing in Climate Resilience: Strategies and Oppor­tunities, will cover the path from climate change risk assessment and mitigation to climate resilience, as well as the business opportunities and chances of success for FSPs.

As of June 2023, there are more than 102 million forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) around the world. Friday morning will feature a plen­ary ses­sion to gather the perspectives of varied stakeholders working toward the financial inclusion of FDPs. This plenary, entitled Financial Inclusion of Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs) – Experiences from the Field will explore the implementation experiences of financial inclusion projects in several countries in the Global South and Europe.

Outcomes & Impact continues to be one of the most important – and growing – topics for e-MFP members and EMW attendees, par­ticularly the challenge for FSPs to sustainably and ethically collect reliable data to measure the effects of their activities. Sessions on this topic during EMW2023 include:

  • Social Performance and Outcomes: Where Do We Stand?: this session will present some of the lessons learned from key stakeholders and their projects conducted in partnership with investors;
  • Building a Shared Vision for Financial Inclusion Impact 2.0: a session to discuss why the impact of financial services continues to be a top priority for various FSPs, policy makers and funders, despite several decades of effort; and
  • The Power of the Client Voice: Using Survey Data to Understand and Improve Clients’ Lives: this panel will focus on the work that investors perform in part­nership with FSPs to efficiently collect data from clients and the importance of internalizing and acting in line with that information.

Finally, there will be a closing plenary entitled From Brussels to the World: The Downstream Impact of EU Fund Regulations, which will discuss the likely impacts of recent EU fund regulations governing social and environmental investments.

Other topics covered during the many EMW2023 sessions include client protection, women’s leadership and gender mainstreaming, regulation, insurance, fintech, WASH, data and more. As always, we have lined up top experts – practitioners, academics, investors, technologists, analysts and others – to lead these sessions and the ex­tensive Q&A and other audience engagement activities. And there will be many networking slots for attendees to either mingle over food and drink, or to meet in small groups in a more private context.

For more information on all themes and sessions, networking oppor­tunities and side events – or to register – please visit the conference web­site. We hope to see you at the Abbaye de Neumünster in Luxem­bourg (or if not, online) next month!

e-MFP, with over 130 members from all geographic regions and specialisations, is the leading network of organisations and individuals active in the financial inclusion sector in developing countries. e-MFP fosters activities that increase global access to affordable, quality, sustainable and inclusive financial services for the un(der)banked by driving knowledge-sharing, partnership development and innovation. Learn more at www.e-mfp.eu.

Fernando Naranjo is the Programme Coordinator at e-MFP, oversee­ing the organi­sation of EMW.

This report is part of a sponsored series on European Microfinance Week 2023, which will be held from November 15 to November 17 in Luxembourg and online. MicroCapital has been engaged to pro­mote and report on the event each year since 2012. You may register for European Microfinance Week at https://www.emw2023.eu/.

Additional Resources

European Microfinance Week 2023 homepage
https://www.emw2023.eu/

European Microfinance Award homepage
https://www.european-microfinance-award.com/

MicroCapital coverage of European Microfinance Week since 2012, including the European Microfinance Award
https://www.microcapital.org/category/european-microfinance-week/

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