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Program Title: MFTOT 6 VC1 Asia Region
Description:
Objectives and Contents
This presentation is the first among four videoconference (VC) sessions organized under the 6th offering of the Microfinance Training of the Trainers (MFTOT) Distance Learning Course. In this VC, Professor Stuart Rutherford will give an introduction of the general purpose of microfinance, in both theory and practice. For 3 years, Professor Rutherford’s team has been conducting a weekly tracking of borrowers, observing their financial activities and analyzing their spending (and saving) habits. By doing so, they have found and proven a number of important points that every microfinance practitioner must know, in order to better improve the quality and delivery of microfinance services to the poor. Professor Rutherford’s presentation will also highlight a recent trend that has emerged in the field of microfinance which is commitment savings. Commitment savings is the core of Grameem II which was established by the Grameen Bank after it bounced back from a crisis brought on by too much lending. Professor Rutherford will profile Safesave’s latest pilot product which also adopts the idea of commitment saving by aiming to offer poor people liquidity in the form of interest rate-free loans, provided that they save one-third of each loan they make. Speaker Profile Professor Stuart Rutherford is an independent researcher and consultant in financial services for the poor, specializing in south and south-east Asia. He concentrates on field-testing innovative financial services schemes for the very poor in the countryside and in the towns. He also helps local NGOs develop financial services schemes, and provides consultancy services to a wider range of clients. Professor Rutherford is also the founder and Chairman of SafeSave, a financial services Co-operative which pioneers ultra-flexible savings and loans services for the urban and rural poor. He has also authored and co-authored a number of publications in microfinance including The Poor and Their Money and Portfolios of the Poor.
Date Published: 17 Jul 2009 12:07 PM (JST)
Available Until: Does not expire Duration: 203 minutes |