May 25-26, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya
Co-Hosted by the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises, The Fletcher School and the Central Bank of Kenya, with support from Equity Bank, Visa, Western Union, Iris Wireless, Cellulant Technologies, Safaricom, Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Barclays Bank, ICT Board, Zain, and Open Revolution
This successful event brought together more than 100 key stakeholders in the mobile banking sector—regulators, financial institutions, telecoms, customers, and mobile service entrepreneurs—in an effort to shift the dialogue around mobile banking from the risks it presents to the social benefits and business opportunities it provides. The conference focused on the identification of tangible m-banking policies that strike a balance between increasing access for the underserved and controlling misuse of these new systems. The current nature of the m-banking sector and potential future developments were also explored. Post-conference results included major legislation and policy directives. Information is still available at the conference website.
March 26-28, 2009
Co-Hosted by the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises, The Fletcher School and Oxfam America with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
This three-day conference and practitioner workshop explored the world of savings-led microfinance, one of the newest and most surprising alternatives to credit-led microfinance. Themes discussed included: the evidence of impact of savings groups on the lives of households living and coping in difficult, often isolated geographic areas; the links between savings groups and the formal financial system; methods used by NGOs and banks to scale up the number of groups and ensure performance quality; and the integration of savings groups into other development sectors such as water, health, agriculture, environmental protection, land tenure initiatives, and education. Case studies commissioned by the conference will be released as a book by Kumarian/Stylus Press in 2010.
April 11, 2008
Co-Hosted by the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises, The Fletcher School and the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy, The Fletcher School
This event brought together leading manufacturers and investors in alternative energy products and technologies, as well as practitioners and policymakers, to discuss initiatives that enterprises and governments in emerging markets must address. The full conference report is available here.
November 2, 2007
Hosted by the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises, The Fletcher School with support from the Institute for Human Security at Fletcher and the Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
This major conference gathered leading practitioners, donors, policymakers, and scholars to explore the critical issues and breakthroughs in microfinance. In a “dialogue” format, participants are encouraged to partake in open interchange. Drawing on the issues and debate raised by Mexican microfinance institution Banco Compartamos’ April 2007 completion and landmark success of an initial public offering, dialoguers and attendees were asked to reflect on microfinance and the role of capital markets, the use of soft money, impact measurement, and the future of the sector.
October 9, 2007
Lecture by David Rothkopf, CEME Visiting Practitioner
September 10, 2007
Colloquium, with Oliver Wyman