Microfinance Summit Nepal 2010

[Sushila Gautam]

Dear all,

Greetings from CMF Nepal!

Once again the time has come for the organizers to hold a Microfinance
Summit Nepal with the goal to unite microfinance stakeholders in Nepal
in order to express their collective commitment to build a strong and
inclusive microfinance sector and to increase outreach to all households
in need of microfinance services in Nepal through the development of a
joint microfinance strategy and action plan.

"Microfinance for Inclusive Economic Growth" is the theme of this year's
summit. The Microfinance Summit Nepal, 2010, is being organized two
years after the end of the initial Microfinance Summit Nepal, 2008. The
2010 Summit has been scheduled to take place in Kathmandu, Nepal from
the 14^th -16^th of February and in order for this upcoming summit to be
as successful, we request the full participation of all organizations
and individuals related and interested to the field of microfinance.

*Methodologies and themes*

The main product of the Summit will be the joint declaration and an
action plan for building a strong microfinance sector for inclusive
economic growth. Thus, the plenary and breakaway sessions should be
designed to facilitate the achievement of the intended output. The
following table gives an overview on how the summit could be structured:

Methodology.JPG

 

After the opening ceremony, participants will attend an introductory
session where they shall be briefed on the format and intent of the
summit. This would be the ideal time to present a paper outlining key
issues in the field, written by either an organizer or a prominent
expert in the field.

The noon sessions of day one will be a plenary sessions with panel
discussions. These sessions are mainly to get to a common understanding
of where we stand in terms of outreach and financial performance and how
far we have progressed since the previous summit. After participants
understand where we stand and our updated targets, all stakeholders
should present previous obstacles to increasing outreach and how they
were overcome, and identify possible solutions to any frequent or new
obstacles.

The afternoon sessions will consist of four breakaway sessions on
Practices in Microfinance. The next fourteen sessions will revolve
around five major problem areas:

*Value Chain Finance: *What are the potential products and services that
should be focused in value chain finance and what are the specific
aspects of the business model that should be modified to efficiently
serve the microfinance sector?  

*Innovative products and services* that are demanded by the clients and
technically feasible in our context will be discussed. How helpful are
these products and services in increasing outreach and sustainability of
MFIs.

*Clients and Protection: *How can we ensure that individual microfinance
clients optimize their output and receive the most possible benefits
from our services? What are the steps we need to take to ensure the
wellbeing of clients and prevent client duplication?

*Sources of Fund: *What services can be used in the sector to facilitate
its capital growth, increasing its overall service capabilities, to
improve the overall impact of the sector. What are the challenges and
opportunities of services such as wholesale funds in this context?

*Competitiveness:  *What can be done to increase the involvement of
commercial banks in microfinance and would it really be beneficial?

 

During the final session before the end of the summit, participants will
be allowed to deliberate and eventually come to an agreement regarding
the issues to be included in the Summit Declaration and the joint action
plan. The moderators in this session will have the challenging task to
guide the discussions in such way that recommendations for the
declaration can be derived from the deliberations. The last session will
consist of reading out the points on which the participants had agreed
on in the previous sessions. The points of agreement will shape the
basis of the Summit Declaration, after which the closing ceremony shall
take place.


Registration forms are available at
http://www.microfinancesummitnepal.org/ 



Please contact the Center for Microfinance (CMF), Nepal, the Secretariat
of the Microfinance Summit Nepal for further details regarding the matter.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

Sincerely,

Sushila Gautam
Sr. Program Officer
CMF
Phone:[phone]
Fax:[phone]


MFS2010 participants.JPG