Thanks for adding me as a friend, I have been a microfinance practitioner for last 9 years emporwering women in Kenya, Am sure I will learn more from the group.
At 3:18pm on February 17, 2010, Fehmeen Khan said…
Thanks for adding me as a friend Ron. I actually run a website about microfinance. Perhaps you could share your interest in this field too.
At 2:43am on February 11, 2010, Lizah Nyemba said…
Thanks Ron, for welcoming me. I am delighted to be connected to people of like mind and like passion with me. I have a huge passion for microfinance especially for rural folk and more especially rural women. What do you do in microfinance in Uganda?
Yes, I think two of our Ugandan field team members, Rachel Breaux and Joel Hedges, will attend. We are trying to work out the expenses. They are former students and have graduated, so are not eligible for travel scholarships through MFIConnect, unfortunately. Good to hear from you, Alex.
Ron
Do you think any of the people you work with in Uganda are interested in attending the Microcredit Summit in Kenya this April? Let me know if you need more information, but also refer to the front page of MFIConnect.
Interesting...I just left a comment on your other page... Well if by chance it didn't reach you I'll post it again:
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,
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Ron
Do you think any of the people you work with in Uganda are interested in attending the Microcredit Summit in Kenya this April? Let me know if you need more information, but also refer to the front page of MFIConnect.
Alex Simon
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.