Events & Presentations

March 11,  Boston, USA

On March 11th Deborah Drake will be speaking on a panel focusing on ‘International Priorities - Business Operations, Execution and Risk Management, Performance Measurement’ held at Tuft University’s Conference on Impact Investing & Community Finance. This conference will bring together top impact investing and community finance experts with a broad range of experience across domestic and international projects and programs.

December 2,  9:30AM - 10:30AM ET, Virtual

Join us in a webinar to meet the 2015-2016 CFI and Accion Research Fellows and hear more about the research that they are undertaking. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss some of these topics CFI and Accion have identified as the more critical topics to moving forward on financial inclusion today. The Fellows are Guy Stuart on G2P as an on-ramp to financial inclusion; Leon Perlman on challenges of technology access in enhancing financial inclusion; Christie Stickney on financing the growth of enterprise; and Amy Jensen Mowl on big data for financial and social inclusion. To register for the webinar, click here. For more information on the CFI and Accion Research Fellows program, click here.

September 10,  9:30AM ET - 10:30AM ET, Virtual

On Thursday, September 10th, 2015, 9:30- 10:30am EDT, Governance Working Group will be hosting a discussion on Corporate Governance for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). This presentation will feature a section from the recently published World Bank paper, Corporate Governance for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), written by Ira W. Lieberman and two World Bank staff—Laura Ard and Pasquale Di Benedetta. Please find an invite for this call here. This call will also include updates from our Governance Working Group members on their recent governance projects. We hope you will be able to join us for this discussion.

August 17-19, Nairobi, Kenya

John Lwande, Program Director of the Africa Board Fellowship and Bruce MacDonald, Head of Communication, will represent the CFI and attend the East Africa Microfinance Summit in Nairobi. This event will cover topics including: (1) the impact of mobile banking and agent-based banking; (2) the role of regulation; (3) credit information sharing; (4) the role of youth and women in advancing social and economic development; (5) microfinance and socially responsible enterprise; and (6) recent trends.

June 29 - July 3, Dakar, Senegal

At this year’s African Microfinance Week, Accion and the Africa Board Fellowship (ABF) program will be both participating and serving as conference sponsors. Additionally, during the event there will be an ABF booth and announcement to support conference participants learning about the new program. The Africa Board Fellowship connects board members and CEOs through peer learning and exchange to strengthen the governance of financial institutions serving low-income clients in sub-Saharan Africa. African Microfinance Week brings together microfinance providers, investors, technology providers, researchers, and members of associations and rating agencies to explore the future of microfinance, how to leverage impactful partnerships, the financing of institutions, and other key questions facing the industry. Organized by the regional African microfinance networks (AMT, AFMIN, AFRACA, MAIN), the theme of this year’s conference in “Accelerating Innovative Rural Finance in Africa”.