The Call for Presentations / Papers is Now Closed

The Banking With the Poor Network (BWTP) and the Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC), with lead sponsorship from the Citi Foundation, are pleased to convene the Asia Microfinance Forum 2010 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, October 12 -15, 2010.

The BWTP Network is pleased to announce a call for presentations and papers based on the forum theme to encourage regionally stakeholders to participate in this much anticipated event.

Forum theme: Financial Inclusion – Achieving Asia’s

 

 Potential

Asia Microfinance Forum’s are practitioner-focused events, and as such encourages submissions from all microfinance stakeholders on the issue of financial inclusion. A survey of BWTP Network member organisations determined a range of issues of great importance when discussing financial inclusion. These issues address some of the key limitation in achieving financial inclusion, such as institutional capacity, diversification of products and services, geography, gender, socio-economic or cultural exclusion, financial literacy, limitations of income-generating activities, lack of data and policy and regulation. The specific issues identified include:

  • Defining financial inclusion in Asia;
  • Policy and regulations, research and recommendations;
  • Measurement of financial inclusion and case studies;
  • Case-studies of innovation in utilisation of microfinance in examination of national policy frameworks, policy dialogue and collaborative capacity-building that might assist economies to improve their performance in providing sustainable financial services;
  • Innovation in product design and delivery;
  • Transformation of Institutions in Asia;
  • Transparency and Self-Regulation;
  • Human resources and the role of credit officers;
  • Governance;
  • Social Performance Management;
  • Credit methodologies and their effectiveness;
  • Managing costs of MFIs;
  • Branchless Banking – limitations and opportunities;
  • Agricultural and microfinance;
  • Youth entrepreneurship;
  • Financial Inclusions and sustainable livelihoods;
  • Filling the gaps to meet international standards, data discrepancy, and lack of systematic knowledge-sharing among policy makers;
  • The role of credit bureaus;
  • Implementing consumer protection strategies;
  • Branchless Banking;
  • Mobile phone banking;
  • Policy and Regulatory Challenges;
  • Regulating for increased financial inclusion;
  • The role of microfinance networks in advocacy;
  • Leadership for financial inclusion.

Guidelines

Conference Presentations Types

  • Abstracts (up to 1000 words);
  • Papers (4 – 8 pages)
  • PowerPoint presentations (6 slides) will be accepted. PowerPoint presentations must be submitted with a 3 – 4 page description of the presentation.

Selection process

All submissions will be considered by the BWTP Secretariat, Executive Committee and AMF 2010 Steering Committee.

Papers will be considered using the following criteria:

  • Directly address the issue of financial inclusion through microfinance;
  • An emphasis on innovation, solutions and practical lessons learned;
  • Demonstrated applicability across regions and industries;
  • Ensuring an overall balance of regional industry stakeholders will be applied to the entire process;
  • Proposals that are sales or marketing orientated will not be considered.

Submission

A submission form is available here.

Deadline for submissions is on:  30th June 2010