Financial Services for the Poor: How Donors Can Make a Difference

Microfinance means offering a broad range of financial services to a wide variety of poor clients. It means opening up the financial sector to ensure that the poor enjoy permanent access to services they need. It means providing poor people with options.

CGAP and UNCDF / Special Unit for Microfinance have developed a new series of five-day training workshops that translates this vision into concrete actions for donor staff. This field-based course is a primer in microfinance for CGAP member donors, UN agency staff, socially responsible investors, and policy makers. No extensive prior knowledge of financial statements and microfinance concepts is required. This course is intended for donor staff who manage microfinance projects but are also responsible for other activities and do not work full time on microfinance. In line with CGAP strategy and findings from the Peer Review exercise, it aims to provide donor staff with an understanding of best practice and the tools available to support sustainable financial systems for the poor. Course participants will also have the opportunity to visit best practice financial institutions that serve the poor in Kenya.

The course focuses on the role of donors in supporting financial systems that work for the poor. It is highly participatory and based on case studies where participants apply the learned techniques step-by-step to analyze, decide on, design, and monitor a microfinance investment. It will also convey new thinking and international experience in the microfinance industry.

For more information about this program, please contact Annette Krauss (annette.krauss@undp.org) and Natasa Goronja (ngoronja@worldbank.org).

Brochure (214 kb - Spanish)

CGAP's website info