On March 14, e-MFP was pleased to open applications for the European Microfinance Award (EMA) 2024, which is on ‘Advancing Financial Inclusion for Refugees and Forcibly Displaced People’. This is the 15th edition of the Award, which was launched in 2005 by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs — Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, and which is jointly organised by the Ministry, e-MFP, and the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg (InFiNe.lu), in cooperation with the European Investment Bank. Kicking off e-MFP’s annual series of guest blogs on thi ..read more

In this latest e-MFP guest blog, Dalia Ali, Project Manager & Consultant at GOPA AFC, discusses trends and challenges of fintechs digitising the ROSCA model, and provides examples of how this is now happening. The case for ROSCAs The Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA) stands as one of the oldest and most popular informal financial institutions, that thrives on community-based pooling of resources and is driven by shared trust and mutual support of the group. A group of individuals, typically from a close-knit community, agree to contribute a fixed sum regularly, typically on ..read more

Entrepreneurs du Monde celebrates its 25th anniversary this year in style, with one of its microfinance institutions, Yikri of Burkina Faso, winning the European Microfinance Award 2023 on Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition. e-MFP reached out to hear more. e-MFP: EdM celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, congratulations! Could you tell us a bit about how that journey has transpired - some milestones along the way, and how EdM has evolved in its focus and work? Entrepreneurs du Monde (EdM): Thank you! The NGO EdM was born in June 1998, with a clear mission: to help partic ..read more

In the latest in our guest blogs on the topic of the European Microfinance Award 2023 – Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition – Michaël de Groot from Rabo Foundation shares how three of the foundation’s partners are working to build more sustainable and resilient food systems by tackling challenges across the food value chain. Farmers, both small and large produce enough food to feed 1.5x the global population. Despite this, 850 million people are hungry, and many of the world’s 450 million smallholders have to live on less than $2 per day. Add to that the significant role of ou ..read more

In the latest in our guest blogs on the topic of the European Microfinance Award 2023 – Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition – Ayako Iba from the UN World Food Programme discusses the global food crisis and the role cash transfers can play in addressing access to food, while promoting financial inclusion at the same time. At the backdrop of a global food crisis, triggered by the effects of economic shocks, climate crises, and conflicts, the link between food security and financial inclusion has become ever more evident. In 2023, over 345 million people – more than double the nu ..read more

On World Refugee Day, we are happy to share with you the first in our series of guest blogs dedicated to the financial inclusion of refugees and forcibly displaced persons. We have invited Swati M. Dhawan to curate this series. In this first instalment, she presents the ‘Finance in Displacement' research collaboration to outline the particular barriers that refugees and displaced persons face. Between 2019 and 2021, I had the privilege of being part of the Finance in Displacement project, a research collaboration that studied the financial lives of refugees in Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, and Ugand ..read more

e-MFP is delighted to welcome Low-Income Financial Transformation – L-IFT – as one of its newest members. L-IFT is a research organisation committed to empowering communities through data. L-IFT strives to make anonymised data accessible to all as a utility service, continuously building evidence to support the work of the financial inclusion and other sectors. L-IFT’s mission is to help communities take ownership of their data, learn from this data and to train youth to be customer-centric. Its motto is “listening to the unheard”. We at e-MFP invited L-IFT’s managing director Anne Marie van ..read more

Kicking off a series of guest blogs on the topic of the European Microfinance Award 2023 – Inclusive Finance for Food Security & Nutrition – EMA2023 consultant (and e-MFP member) Myka Reinsch Sinclair outlines the scale of the challenge, and the role that financial inclusion organisations can play in combatting food insecurity and malnutrition. The negative trend in food security Despite impressive growth and innovation in inclusive finance strategies to reduce poverty, the fundamental problem of world hunger is still on the rise. Food insecurity currently affects at least 10% of people w ..read more

A basic account is a secure entry point for previously unbanked people to become more resilient. It also opens a wealth of opportunities – for investing in education, or growing their businesses. Programme background A six-year partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and WSBI, Scale2Save is a programme to establish the viability of low–balance savings accounts and to understand the extent to which savings allow vulnerable people to boost their financial resilience and wellbeing. The programme’s work is anchored by developing viable business models with a broad mix of financial service prov ..read more

Kicking off our guest blog series of the year, e-MFP members Cerise+SPTF present the new SPI Online tool, giving the background to its development and the evolution of social performance management in the financial inclusion sector. It’s been more than 20 years since Cerise+SPTF built the first version of the SPI (Social Performance Indicators) audit tools in collaboration with purpose-driven organisations from the inclusive finance industry. Cerise and its founding members built the first version of the SPI audit tools in 2001, in collaboration with microfinance institutions and sector profe ..read more