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What is the name of your company, organization, or school?

University of Oregon and MAPLE Microdevelopment

What is your job function?

Professor and Advisor

How did you find out about the Microfinance Network?

Through Emily Smallwood

What is your alma mater?

Willamette University, University of Oregon, University of Utah

Why are you here?

I was invited.

What are you currently working on?

I teach a graduate course in microfinance and development and help to operate a community-focused microdevelopment organization in Uganda.

At 11:49pm on February 7, 2010, Lyrana Hughes said…: This is very true, rating agencies are going to be reporting on portfolio ratios etc. rather than outreach and other socially-oriented performance benchmarks. The only studies I've seen so far that have quantified outreach have been in papers looking at "mission-drift" of MFIs that have commercialized, and outreach was defined as not only average loan size but also percentage of female borrowers and presence in rural ares. I've also heard of the “Progress out of Poverty Index," which is presented in this paper on social performance: http://www.microcreditsummit.org/papers/Workshops/29_HashemiFooseBadawi.pdf

Its nice to finally meet some actual practitioners, as I've been keeping my nose in the books for far too long!
My trips to Senegal were before I discovered microfinance, but hopefully I will be back in Africa soon to actually witness the work itself!
Thanks,

L.H.

At 4:53pm on February 7, 2010, Ron Severson said…: Hi Safia,
We have a year round operation in Mbale, Uganda, where the Islamic University of Uganda also exists. MAPLE Microdevelopment is articulating an internship program with IUIU. I'm not sure where you would like to be in your future, but let me know when your program is over, what breaks you have, for how long, and whether or not you might be interested in arranging some kind of internship. We are a small grassroots organization that works very closely with community members. Nice to hear from you.

At 4:44pm on February 7, 2010, Safia Sahaimi said…: Hello Ron,
It sounds really interesting.
I am studying a Microcredit and development Master in Autonoma University - Madrid. I am from Morocco. I did another Master about Immigration, Cooperation and Humanitarian Action. I'd liked to be an international consultor specialised in African and Arabic countries, I have a lot of dreams. Really I need to push to enter in this sector.
Thank you. Safia