Events and Meetings
The APPG hosts regular meetings for Parliamentarians and interested parties to discuss pertinent issues.
Upcoming meetings
'Women are useful to microfinance: how can we make microfinance more useful to women?'
Wednesday 7th March 2012, 2-3pm
To mark the week of International Women's Day, the APPG will be addressed by Dr Linda Mayoux, a leading expert on gender and social development, and Inez Murray, Vice-President of Women's World Banking, which is the world's only microfinance network with a focus on women.
The traditional image of microfinance is of small loans given to poor female entrepreneurs in the developing world. Microfinance institutions have targeted women clients for a variety of reasons: for those institutions that aim to alleviate poverty women are an obvious target group because they are disproportionally likely to be poor; but in addition women as a group have better repayment rates in microfinance, and for many institutions the choice to focus on women is pragmatic. While it is clear that women are good for microfinance institutions, it is not always quite so clear that microfinance is helping women as much as it could be, as we highlighted in our report 'Helping or hurting: what role for microfinance in the fight against poverty'.
Linda and Inez will speak from their research and experience about how microfinance institutions can most effectively serve their female clients.
To reserve a place at the meeting please contact microfinance@results.org.uk Please note places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.
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A selection of past meetings and events are highlighted below:
AGM 2011
On 13 July 2011 the APPG held its 2011 AGM. The meeting featured a discussion of the APPG's activities over the past year and of future plans for 2011-12. Notes of the meeting are available here. A document reviewing the APPG's activities in 2010-11 is also available here.
At the AGM an election for the officer positions within the AGM was held. The following Parliamentarians were elected:
Co-Chairs:
Harriett Baldwin MP (West Worcestershire, Conservative)
Lord Boateng (Labour)
Annette Brooke MP (Mid Dorset and North Poole, Liberal Democrat
Vice-Chairs:
Stephen Lloyd MP (Eastbourne, Liberal Democrat)
Mary Macleod MP (Brentworth and Isleworth, Conservative)
For further details please contact the APPG Coordinator, Julia Modern at julia.modern@results.org.uk
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Launch of the APPG on Microfinance's inquiry report 'Helping or hurting: what role for microfinance in the fight against poverty?'
The APPG held the launch of 'Helping or hurting: what role for microfinance in the fight against poverty?' on 8 June 2011. The report is the culmination of our 7-month inquiry into the impact of microfinance on poverty. The launch event was chaired by Madeleine Bunting, Columnist and Associate Editor for the Guardian, and featured presentations from the report's authors, Anton Simanowitz of the Institute of Development Studies, and Dr Susan Johnson of the University of Bath.
For further details please contact Julia Modern APPG coordinator Julia Modern at microfinance@results.org.uk
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Oral evidence sessions for the APPG inquiry into the impact of microfinance on poverty
Wednesday 23 March 2011
Panellists:
Professor Thankom Arun, Lancashire Business School
Dr Kate Maclean, King's College London
Professor Paul Mosley, University of Sheffield
Notes from the session are available here.
Tuesday 29 March 2011
Panellists:
Rosalind Copisarow
Maude Massu, CARE International
Roger Witcombe, Opportunity International
Claire Innes, Department for International Development
Notes from the session are available here.
Monday 4 April 2011
Panellists:
Sukhwinder Arora, Oxford Policy Management
Marcus Fedder, Agora Microfinance
Chris Bold, CGAP
Notes from the session are available here.
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17 November 2010: How can microinsurance help the poor weather life's storms? (Joint meeting with the APPGs on Agriculture & Food for Development and Climate Change)
Issues such as climate change present significant problems to the world’s poor, particularly those engaged in agricultural production. Fluctuations in the environment, combined with the rise of large scale environmental disasters, has led to the introduction of microinsurance schemes. These are aimed at providing a safety net to individuals who would ordinarily be forced to hardships, such as drought, alone.
Kerry McCarthy MP chaired this event, which was jointly held by the APPG’s on ‘Microfinance’, ‘Climate Change’ and ‘Agriculture & Food for Development’. Richard Leftley, CEO and President of MicroEnsure, and Alan Doran, Business finance Adviser for Oxfam, were invited to speak about the microinsurance products that their organisations have introduced and how these schemes have progressed and adapted to the needs of their clients.
The presentations offered a compelling look at the possibilities for this area of microfinance. The speakers also acknowledged challenges to the model, such as the difficulties of engaging with the population and the difficulty of assessing damages and risks. However they also spoke about the role that new technologies can play in addressing these issues and helping microinsurance schemes to reach the poor people who could benefit from them.
The event was well attended by both academics and practitioners who contributed significantly to the content of the event with questions on issues such as; insurance premium price fluctuations; combined microinsurance/microcredit products; and the implications of remote sensing innovations for the collection of agronomic data. It was clear from this event that this is a growing area of microfinance and one that could have potential for reducing the potential impact, of climate fluctuations, on the world’s poor.
(Download Richard Leftley's presentation)
(Download Alan Doran's presentation)
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19 October 2010: The Microfinance Debate
Microfinance has been hailed as an effective and sustainable tool to combat poverty. However, recent studies have challenged the extent to which microfinance can lift people out of poverty and whether it is really having the impact that its supporters propose.
The APPG invited a panel of eminent speakers to discuss this critical issue and debate the question: Is Microfinance an Effective Tool for Helping Eradicate Poverty? The panel of debaters was composed of two teams with Dr Martin Greely from the Institute of Development Studies and Tom Sanderson, Director of Five Talents UK debating in support of microfinance and Dr Milford Bateman from the Overseas Development Institute and Professor Malcolm Harper, Cranfield School of Management, arguing against the motion.
Almost 100 members of the public, including members of the Houses of Parliament, academics, private investors, representatives of international organisations and microfinance institutions, attended making this the biggest event the APPG has hosted to date.
If you missed the debate or would like to listen again, you can download a recording of the event here. A summary of the arguments made by each speaker as well as interventions from the audience is available to download here.
At the end of the event, the vast majority voted in support of microfinance as an effective tool or helping eradicate poverty. However, the opposing team also made very strong arguments which have challenged the APPG to push for better evidence about what works and how to deliver microfinance that has a lasting impact on the poor. It was clear from both sides that microfinance now has many different guises and the APPG therefore needs to do further work to identify which types of microfinance are effective for helping to alleviate poverty and warrant further support from the UK Government and other donors.
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July 2010: Annual General Meeting
The APPG on Microfinance held its first meeting of the new Parliament on 6 July 2010 where Officers of the group were appointed. Annette Brooke, MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole was re-elected as the Chair of the group, while three other Members of Parliament were elected as Officers of the APPG including Vice Chair Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East; Vice Chair Stephen Lloyd, MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon; and Treasurer Robert Syms, MP for Poole.
Our guest speaker, Wilson Moleni, from Opportunity International Bank of Malawi (OIBM) explained his views on how microfinance has transformed lives in Malawi through OIBM’s efforts to scale down the banking model and adapt it to meet the needs of poor people. The first branch was set up in Lilongwe in 2003 and was funded by DFID. Now, more than 277,000 people are reached with savings and loan products across Malawi. Mr Moleni showed a short video which exemplified OIBM’s operations and achievements.
Aaron Oxley, Director of RESULTS UK gave an overview of the field of microfinance, highlighting some of the challenges currently faced by the sector as well as many of the opportunities. He mentioned that microfinance organisations have proven that it is possible to serve the poor successfully whilst being sustainable and highlighted the need for more public-private partnerships to build on the relative strengths of the different sectors. Aaron stated that we need to acknowledge that the profit motive is firmly imbedded in the microfinance industry and the APPG must press to ensure there is still an adequate focus on providing financial services to the poor as a tool to assist them in their escape from poverty. He also proposed that the APPG could look at how it can support innovation around technology and new product lines in microsavings and insurance. To see Aaron's presentation click here.
The meeting was concluded by a Q&A session and a debate on the issues raised by the speakers as well as more general microfinance trends. A more detailed summary of the meeting and participant list is available here.
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December 2009: Harnessing the power of Microfinance in Africa: challenges and opportunities
The APPG held a high level roundtable meeting bringing Parliamentarians together with experienced microfinance professionals and academics to discuss the promise and challenges of microfinance in Africa.
Francis Pelekamoyo, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi and current Chairman of Opportunity International (Africa) opened the discussion, followed by a presentation from Gareth Thomas MP, Minister of State for International Development, on a new capacity-building fund for microfinance in Africa that is being designed by the Department for International Development (DFID).
Participants at the meeting advised DFID to build social goals such as poverty-reduction and empowerment into the structure of the new fund. For more details you can read the minutes of the meeting.
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September 2009: Annette Brooke visits India with Five Talents
Annette Brooke MP, Chair of the APPG on Microfinance, was invited by Five Talents to visit microfinance programmes in Chennai. She reported that the trip was "one of the most interesting and informative" she had ever been on. Annette visited a number of villages that were badly affected by the 2004 tsunami and saw how groups of women support each other to save money and use small loans to support income-generating activities. For more information about the trip, click here.
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July 2009: AGM
The AGM of the APPG was held, at which the officers of the group were re-elected, and the group's finances and future business were discussed. Minutes of the meeting are available here.
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April 2009: 100 million of the world's poorest reached with microcredit
In 1997 the Microcredit Summit Campaign launched a campaign to provide key financial services to over 100 million of the world's poorest people. On 27th January 2009, it announced that this groundbreaking milestone had been reached, with over 106 million people recieving microcredit by 2007.
Sam Daley-Harris, Founder and Director of the Campaign addressed a meeting of the APPG to discuss this remarkable achievment.
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November 2008: Round-table discussion on the commercialisation of microfinance
The APPG on Microfinance/Microcredit held its first roundtable breakfast meeting bringing together leading microfinance specialists from the commercial and social sector, representatives from DFID, key academics and Parliamentarians. Participants at the event discussed whether or not the growing commercialisation of microfinance is threatening to undermine its original social vision.
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July 2008: Microfinance in the Islamic World
The APPG on Microfinance/Microcredit held a meeting to discuss Microfinance in the Islamic world. To lead the discussions we were joined by Sir Iqbal Sacranie and Abyan Ahmed of Muslim Aid and by Mufti Barkatulla and Fezal Khan Boodhoo, both experts on Islamic Financial Institutions.
To see the excellent powerpoint presentation given by Abyan Ahmed please click here. For accompanying explanatory notes, click here.
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April 2008: Microfinance: a commercial or social endeavour?
The APPG's first meeting of 2008 looked at whether the growing commercialisation of microfinance is threatening to undermine its original social vision. See minutes here.
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March 2007: Females First: the impact of microfinance on gender equality
Joint meeting with the APPG on Sex Equality looked at case studies from three continents. See minutes here.
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January 2007: Microfinance in the context of globalisation: making change work for the poor
See minutes here.
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October 2006: Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction: targeting the ultra Poor
Joint meeting with the Microfinance Club of London.