Network Conference Call on Management of Training Courses
MFMI network members from six different time-zones around the world conducted a successful conference call, July 15, 2008, using Skype call and chat, comparing their organizational experiences in the development, advertisements, and staff deployment for training courses in microfinance. Read this summary.
Mid-Career Professional Survey
The MFMI is doing research currently on models of mid-career professional programs where a management, legal, policy or accounting professional can use their skillsets for a period of time in a new field of practice (such as in microfinance, or other development or social programs). We're looking different approaches including fellowships, sabbaticals, or other ways that professional staff may be on loan to development organizations, The MFMI is interested in learning from its members about how any such programs are structured and the experiences in how they have worked.
Interview with Natasa Grononja
Read this interview with Natasa Goronja who manages the MFMI's work on training for funders as well as network outreach and marketing.
Creative Participation from MBA Students Sought
The MFMI invites MBA Student Groups, interested in Microfinance, to contact the MFMI to contribute to a new student portal on the new Resource Center.
If interested, email theMFMI@gmail.com, or or conniejones01@hotmail.com.
The MFMI receives MasterCard Foundation Grant to Channel Support to Scholarships
Beginning in March 2008, the MFMI will manage a new program of scholarships for those of its network members who participated in a joint proposal and plan to offer partial scholarship funding to MFI staff to attend professional trainings. Read more at this Learning Support page.
Successful training: 'Making Microfinance Operational' at the World Bank
The MFMI successfully co-delivered a 2-day workshop with real-life microfinance case studies for World Bank and IFC staff, as well as other funders, 30 participants in all, March 6 and 7 of 2008. It was a truncated version of the five-day funder training that has been given many times. Michael Goldberg and guest-speakers from CGAP, the World Bank and IFC made it a fast-paced and well-evaluated training. CGAP, the World Bank's Latin America and Caribbean Region and Finance and Financial and Private Sector Development, Vice Presidencies, along with the Microfinance Management Institute, organized the workshop on microfinance tailored to the needs of funder agency staff.
An Interview with Director of Curriculum Development
Read this interview with Ron Chua, MFMI's Global Director of Curriculum Development.
Major Regional Workshop held in Philippines for All Asia, Jan/Feb 2008
The largest gathering to date of microfinance educators, trainers and network capacity builders was held in the Philippines from January 29 to February 8. Over sixty professionals shared ideas and insights at the two-week workshop in Boracay Philippines, co-hosted by the Asian Institute of Management, with support from TSKI. Two successful training-of-trainer workshops were held the second week, covering adult education and the process of research/writing of teaching case studies in microfinance. The Asian workshop pulled training practitioners from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Poland, Russia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Read interviews with MFMI President, Leslie Barcus and MFMI Curriculum Development Director, Ron Chua.
The MFMI Looks Back on Some 2007 Achievements
In 2007, the MFMI global network took off, swelling from 12 to almost sixty members. The members will add significantly to peer to peer learning and knowledge exchange for microfinance training and education. MFMI learned that its members offered some 200 courses to more than 10,000 students and practitioners in 2006 and early 2007.
At the same time, the MFMI incorporated the planning and implementation of the course with CGAP for donors, or, now "funders." Four courses were offered, in Mali, Egypt, Italy and Indonesia, to steadily increasing evaluation scores.
In 2007, the MFMI also supported regional workshops for its Latin American and African network members and began preparation for an Asian workshop, from late January 2008 into February.
Network members benefited from MFMI training of trainers support in Costa Rica for the Latin American region, Pakistan, Bolivia (on micro-insurance) and Colombia. The MFMI created and piloted a new training of trainers (TOT) course to further the skills of microfinance educators and trainers to research, design, develop, implement and evaluate their microfinance offers.
In early 2007, the MFMI moved into a new office space, brought on 4 new staff, and held two open houses that engaged people from forty different organizations from both DC and around the world.
Most importantly, the MFMI began reaching out to a number of foundations, to provide added value as a bridge between the many trainers and capacity-builders living and working in developing countries who otherwise have little means to tap donor support.
Recruiting Training and Academic Organizations to Develop Financial Systems for the Poor
To download the Application for Affiliation to the MFMI Global Network, please click here .
If you have any difficulties downloading your application, please contact us at ngoronja@themfmi.org
En Español:
Reclutando organizaciones académicas y de capacitación para el desarrollo de sistemas financieros para los pobres
Para descargar la aplicación de afiliación a la Red Global del MFMI en español, por favor haga click aquí.
Para mayor información, por favor consulte a Natasa Goronja, Gerente de la Red y Mercadeo: ngoronja@themfmi.org.
Français:
Le MFMI (le Microfinance Management Institute) est en train de recruter des organisations académiques et de formation afin d'élargir son réseau mondial de professionnels qui oeuvrent à renforcer les capacités des établissements
financiers et des systèmes financiers engagés dans la microfinance et la bancarisation de masse.
Si vous êtes intéressé(e)s par la possibilité de faire partie de ce réseau mondial, nous vous invitons à remplir le formulaire d'application et de le renvoyer à ngoronja@themfmi.org,
responsable du réseau et marketing, ou bien cliquez
ci-dessous.
Microfinance Management Institute (MFMI) and CGAP Training Program Unite
In February 2007, CGAP and the MFMI announced their agreement to join two of CGAP's highly successful training programs—Skills for Microfinance Managers and the CGAP/UNCDF Donor Training—with the MFMI MBA Program. CGAP is a co-founder of the MFMI along
with the Open Society Institute. The united effort will strengthen the skills of trainers and academics in microfinance and build donor awareness of how to support the capacity and opportunities of those offering financial products and services to the poor. The MFMI will 1) post information and resources on training and education; 2) strengthen and motivate local service providers to deliver high-quality microfinance courses and skills building programs; 3) improve donor effectiveness in supporting training and education; and 4) accelerate the use of best practice messages, tools, and publications on financial inclusion.
MFMI News