Category: Blog

2017 in Review

Agenda for ROI AG Workshop

November 29 (Wednesday): EMW Action Group Day

Rural Outreach and Innovation Action Group (ROI AG)

14:00–16:30: Trends in Rural Development (Room Chapel)

This session will showcase ROI members’ work in the field of rural development. Each trend summary will last around 5 minutes, followed by a round table discussion with audience input at the end of each segment.

Speaker Organization Trend Case study country/region
Moderator: Michael Kortenbusch

Part 1: 14:00–15:00
Marina Kortenbusch BFC / ROI AG Head Healthy businesses and gamification Switzerland / Global Online Communities
Johanna Ryan VisionFund Economic empowerment for women Africa
Amsalu Alemayehu Wasasa MFI Financial relations with cooperatives Ethiopia
Birgit Galemann IFD Excel-based microfinance tools Uganda
Roundtable discussions
30-minute break

Part 2: 15:30–16:30
 

Michael de Groot

  

Rabobank Foundation

 Geodata and ICT solutions for inclusive finance and food  

Africa
Mariel Mensink ICCO Mastercard rural finance programme Rwanda, Ethiopia, Sen-­‐ egal,  and  Burkina Faso
Etienne Mottet BFC Business models for farming apps Georgia and Kyrgyzstan
Marina Kortenbusch ROI AG Q/A: Call for new ROI AG Head N/A
Roundtable discussions

 

Free Webinar: What’s next for InsurTech? January 25, 2pm GMT

A great opportunity to bring yourself up to speed with the latest technological developments which are driving innovation in the insurance industry and beyond.

See below for information provided by the organiser:

  • What trends can we expect to unfold across the year?
  • How is the insurance industry’s approach to InsurTech likely to change in 2017?
  • How can insurers, investors and start-ups work together to drive the sector’s growth?

Presenters:

Moshe Tamir
Global Head of Digital Transformation
Generali

Jannat Shah
Associate
AXA Strategic Ventures

Jean-Charles Velge
Co-Founder
Qover

Find out more and register your interest.

2016 in Review & Project Leadership 2017

Thank you to all of you who attended the ROI AG workshop and the panel at the European Microfinance Conference. 

All the results of ROI AG activities from 2016 can be found in the Library folder EMW-2016.

ROI AG Subgroups 2016-2017

Based upon the survey results from the beginning of the year,  ROI AG’s focus was spilt into the following sub-groups:

  • Value Chain Finance
  • Agroinsurance
  • Non-Financial Services for Farmers
  • Social Aspects of Rural Development

With two additional projects in cooperation with other AG Groups:

  • Inclusive Green Rural Finance (Microfinance and Environment AG)
  • Digital Finance Learning Communication Platforms (Digital Innovations for Financial Empowerment AG)
Top Ideas from Brainstorming of 2017 ROI AG Activities      (e-MFP ROI AG Workshop, November 17, 2016)

gs

  • Create a database of contacts by topic
  • Weather forecast for farmers to mitigate risk
  • Create a certification programme: “Agri Finance Expert”
  • Work with the same local parties to exchange our experiences.
  • Understand what makes it hard to get more members.
  • See more in Google Spreadsheet File
Photo Protocol

vernisazh

Presentations

ppts

Photos

photos

 

Over the past year, the BFC Team took the leadership for enhancing communication channels between members (and non-members) to present Trends in Rural Finance via the blog and across the 17 webinars/online discussions.

For the coming year, we would like to encourage members to show leadership with their own projects or to lead the existing ROI AG subgroups. Please act upon your own initiative to build collaborations amongst other members and work together to create impactful results.

For any questions, sharing of information, or support, please feel free to contact Marina Kortenbusch.

MIMOSA: Credit Market Penetration Tool

MIMOSA is an index tool used to measure credit market penetration and saturation, indicating potential over-indebtedness or unfulfilled credit needs. The technique for calculating the MIMOSA score was explained by Daniel Rozas in his recent ROI Webinar.

The first version of MIMOSA was only applicable to countries as whole, but the updated MIMOSA 2.0 can be applied to the regional level to give an in-depth view of where credit is most needed.

cambodia

Cambodia, May 2015. The darker regions are indicated by MIMOSA 2.0 to be the most saturated for credit.

Continue reading “MIMOSA: Credit Market Penetration Tool”

Heirloom Seeds

An increasing number of farmers are becoming interested in growing their harvest using organic methods and heirloom seeds. But what is an heirloom seed?

An heirloom variety is a plant that has been passed down from generation to generation. Vegetables from heirloom seeds often have a rich taste, distinctive shapes, and come in an abundance of colours. Importantly, the seeds from heirloom plants tend to be genetically stable and can be saved and used for future harvests indefinitely (as opposed to hybrid seed varieties, where the desirable properties of the seeds disappear after the first generation).

Using heirloom seeds also has a social aspect. If we preserve and use them, we are contributing to ecological sustainability by encouraging biodiversity and promoting organic farming. As well as this, heirloom seeds are a representation of a region’s culture and heritage; this is valuable to conserve, but once a variety is no longer used, it is impossible to reproduce. Continue reading “Heirloom Seeds”

Social Issues in Rural Finance_Resources

See below for additional resources to accompany Patricia Richter’s recent webinar.

  • Child Labour and Microfinance publication/s:

> Responsible finance and child labour: quo vadis microfinance? 

Patricia Richter and Sophie de Coninck

In: The Global Child Poverty Challenge: in search of solutions. 2016.

> Microfinance and Child Labour, ILO, 2011 (PDF).

Jonas Blume and Julika Breyer