The Global Microcredit Summit 2011 was held in Valladolid, Spain from November 14th to November 17th.The conference was attended by more than 2,000 delegates from 105 countries, and conducted more than 100 plenaries, workshops, courses and associated sessions in 4 days. More sessions were provided in three languages than any previous Summit, and it was the first Global Summit held outside North America. It was the first Summit to ever completely off-set its greenhouse carbon emissions by funding a carbon-reducing microfinance project in Mongolia.
The Summit’s learning agenda was the richest of any of the Summits yet and it was right on target given the difficult year the field had faced. The agenda included sessions addressing the relationship between microfinance and the environment, agriculture, and health and placed a strong focus on social performance and on client-level outcomes. Most notably, this Summit was the place where the first major discussion of the Seal of Excellence took place.
To learn more about the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit, please click here.
From April 7th-10th, 2010 more than 1200 delegates from 85 countries attended the Africa - Middle East Regional Microcredit Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. It was the fourteenth gathering in a series of global and regional summits organized by the Microcredit Summit Campaign. Co-hosted by the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Kenya (AMFI) and the Campaign, delegates assisted in a spectacular four days of learning and networking. Download the Summit report here.
Summit Features
Notable attendees included the President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki, HM Queen Sofia of Spain, HRH Princess Máxima of The Netherlands, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus. They and delegates from around the world discussed microfinance and its relation to the environment, agriculture, and health with a strong focus on empowering the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families.
Delegates discussed the importance of:
Sam Daley-Harris, founder and director of the Campaign, challenged delegates to change our way of thinking in his opening and closing ceremony speeches. He said, "The technical side of microfinance is important, but only if it serves the transformational dimension...[to effect] redemption that restores peoples' honor and worth" and sets them free.
To view and download the powerpoint presentations from the Kenya Summit, visit http://www.slideshare.net/Microcredit. Share them with your friends, post to your Facebook page, and comment on what you learned!
More than 850 delegates from 35 countries attended the Latin America/Caribbean Regional Microcredit Summit in Cartagena, Colombia earlier this month. One of the elements that made this Summit a watershed moment for the field was the inclusion, for the first time ever, of the plenary titled: Breaking the Rules of Microfinance to Better End Poverty: Innovations from Around the World. More than 60 percent of those responding said that the session was excellent.
We have tallied the evaluation forms on the following scale (4 excellent; 3 good; 2 average; and 1 poor). The average tally for the plenary sessions was 3.2 and the average for the workshops was 3.0. Here are a few of the comments from the delegates:
We were honored to have the President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, open the Summit and to have the participation of the former President of Peru, Alejandro Toledo, the First Lady of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus.
The hard work of practitioners and individuals like yourselves is conveyed in the explosive growth and importance of the movement. Our continued collaboration has the potential to provide all people with the financial services necessary to find a dignified route out of poverty. We look forward to working together as we strive to reach the goals of our individual institutions, of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, and in doing so, end global poverty.
Thanks to all the partners and participants, the 2008 Asia-Pacific Regional Microcredit Summit held in Bali, Indonesia was a huge success. Professor Muhammad Yunus called it the "best Summit yet!" One of the great initiatives to come out of this years Summit was the launch of Microfinance Transparency, a not-for-profit initiative that will bring transparency to interest rate pricing. This new initiative was endorsed by institutions reaching 74 million clients (more than half of all microcredit clients in the world) including some of the largest MFIs and networks around the world.
The Global Microcredit Summit 2006 was held from November 12-15, 2006 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. More than 2,000 delegates from over 110 countries participated at the event, assessing progress made toward the Campaign's goal of reaching 100 million of the world's poorest people by the end of 2005, and launching the second phase of the Campaign with two new goals. Those goals are:
The second Latin America/Caribbean Region Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils (LACRMS) was held in Santiago, Chile April 19-22, 2005. 1,100 delegates from 38 countries attended.
The Middle East/Africa Region Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils (MEARMS) was held October 10-13, 2004 in Amman, Jordan. 650 delegates from 75 countries attended.
The second Asia/Pacific Region Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils (APRMS) was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh February 16-19, 2004. 1,200 delegates from 47 countries attended.
The Microcredit Summit +5 was held in New York City, USA November 12-13, 2002. 2,000 delegates from 100 countries attended.
The first Latin America/Caribbean Region Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils was held in Puebla, Mexico October 9-12, 2001. 600 delegates from 34 countries attended.
The first Asia/Pacific Region Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils was held in New Delhi, India February 2-5, 2001. 2,000 delegates from 100 countries attended.
The first Middle East/Africa Region Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils (MEARMS) was held in Harare, Zimbabwe October 8-13, 2000. 580 delegates from 50 countries attended.
The second Global Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils was held in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire June 24-27, 1999. 600 delegates from 85 countries attended.
The first Global Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils was held in New York City, USA June 24-27, 1998. 1,000 delegates from 107 countries attended.
The original Microcredit Summit was held in Washington, DC, USA in February 2-4, 1997. More than 2,900 delegates from 137 countries attended.
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