Asian Alliance for Solidarity Economy

National Microfinance Conference- 2010

17th and 18th March, 2010- Ashok Hotel, New Delhi

This is to update you that frills have been added especially for your participation in the Annual National Micro Finance Conference. The last date for early bird registration (20% discount) has been extended to 28th February 2010. Kindly register at the earliest and ensure you participation for this year’s Conference.

Theme of the Conference

Financial Inclusion has been one of the priority areas for the Government of India in the recent times. Various players, both Government and Non-Government are making unstinting efforts to make Financial Inclusion a reality. Micro Finance sector is making it quantum of contribution to aid the Government’s mission. Micro Finance though not an end in itself towards Financial Inclusion; is certainly has a dominant and conspicuous role to play.

The following eminent people from the stakeholders’ group have confirmed to speak at the conference:

Mr. Salman Khursid, Hon. Minister for Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India

Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission

Dr. C P Joshi, Hon Minister for Rural Development

Mr. Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor, Govt. Of India

Mr. U.C. Sarangi, Chairman, NABARD

Mr. R.M. Malla, Chairman, SIDBI

To give you a glimpse of the Conference, a summation of two sessions with speakers is given below:

CHALLENGES TO MICROFINANCE: ANTICIPATED AND UNFORESEEN

Microfinance does not operate in a vacuum, particularly given its impressive outreach, the variety of actors involved and the high profile of the sector.  This has led to competition, multiple lending, and pricing of the product & reputational risk of the sector. Thus it should come as no surprise that the industry often is the subject of criticism and challenges.  Particularly in the last year the industry received challenges, some baseless and some warranted, that cut to the core of operations.  This session will examine the truth, fiction and motivations behind such challenges, lessons learnt from global experiences and how best to address them today and in the future.

Eminent Speakers:

Mr Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor, Govt. Of India

Mr. Sanjay Sinha, Managing Director, MCRIL

Ms. Laura  Foose, Coordinator, Social Performance Task Force.

Mr. Chuck Waterfield, CEO & President MF Transparency

Mr. Rakesh Rewari, DMD, SIDBI

Translating Financial Inclusion into Sustainable Livelihoods

Poverty is not a circular trap but a downward spiral. One household held out of poverty must stay out of poverty. It seems, to come out of poverty one initial push is not good enough. The momentum to sustain itself demands various programs and actors/stakeholders to collate and join hands such that the person/household progressively comes out of poverty. Is there a way to integrate National Skill Development Mission and National Rural Livelihood Mission? New linkages need to be sought. Is there a way such that SHGs, NREGA, NRLM and Financial Inclusion agenda work in tandem with each other? The hour demands new thinking.

Eminent Speakers

Dr. C. P. Joshi, Honourable Minister for Rural Development, Government of India

Ms. Amita Sharma, Jt Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Govt of India

Mr. AL P Fernandez, Chairman, NABARD Financial Services Ltd.

Dr. U. V. Babu, Head- Agrotech & Phytochemistry, The Himalaya Drug Company

Mr. RCM Reddy, Managing Director., IL&FS

In our next update, we will inform you about more speakers and other sessions.

For Additional Information, Please Contact:

Mr. Punit Kr. Singh

Program Executive, Member Development & Support Team

Sa-Dhan

Tel: +91-11-47174400, 9560055661, Extn. 415

With Regards,

Conference Team

Sa-Dhan | The Association of Community Development Finance Institutions

12&13, 2nd Floor, Special Institutional Area, Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg, New Delhi – 110067.

Tel: +91-11- 47174400 Fax: +91-11-47174405

Website: www.sa-dhan.net

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HDRO/UNDP

19 February 2010

2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the Human Development Report. Since 1990 HDRs have shifted development discourse and provided alternative and innovative analysis on subjects ranging from gender and poverty to globalization, climate change and human mobility.

HDRs spark debates to improve people’s lives. What is fundamental to all reports is the concept of putting people first, as first stated in the 1990 report:

“Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. The most critical ones are to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated and to enjoy a decent standard of living. Additional choices include political freedom, guaranteed human rights and self-respect …”

2010 offers an opportunity to revisit the approach in light of the experience and knowledge garnered in the past two decades and to ensure its continued relevance.

A key component of every report is the Human Development Index (HDI), which measures people’s well-being by combining measures of health, education and wealth. Since its inception, the HDI has become a prominent global measure of well-being. By offering a comparison of where countries stand in the world, the HDI led the way in moving away from income as the sole measure of development.

The HDI has been the hallmark of the report, and a major factor in its success and ongoing interest. The 20th Anniversary allows consideration of elements to enhance the value of the HDI, and add reforms to the HDRs statistical dashboard to address broader issues surrounding such key dimensions of human development as sustainability, equality and empowerment.

The 20th Anniversary is a time to take stock, reflect and move forward concepts, measures and key debates around human development. The Human Development Report Office (HDRO) is supporting key new research to review and understand human development gains, and challenges, in a world experiencing unprecedented change. A central theme to the 2010 report will be closing the gaps in human development. The 2010 report is expected to generate an agenda for change to significantly advance human development thinking and policies.

The 2010 report will launch around the world this autumn. Research and technical meetings are underway. HDRO invites you to sign up for our regular Let’s Talk HD column and to stay informed about HDR-related developments and research, such as the upcoming publications of HDR background papers. You can sign up to our email list by clicking here.

Following the success of the World Zero Evictions Days, preparations for the World Assembly of Inhabitants (WAI) continue. The WAI will be held at the Dakar WSF in 2011. Several Promotor Committees have already been set up in various countries, with further committees currently taking shape on every continent: in particular, there are plans to set up committees during this year’s Social Forums.
These preparations make the Rio de Janeiro step (22-26 March 2010) a major event. It will include the Urban Social Forum (USF), organized by local urban social movements and international housing rights networks, and the World Urban Forum 5 (WUF5), organized by UN-Habitat.

The initial assessment, drawn up during the International Day of Solidarity with Haiti of citizen organization initiatives in support of inhabitants affected by the earthquake, amplifies the importance of these events.

And we should not forget the Rio de Janeiro region, whose inhabitants have no desire to suffer the harmful effects of the Football World Cup (2014) or the Olympic Games (2016): evictions of working class populations driven by powerful real estate interests.

The International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI) has therefore decided to invest fully in organizing and supporting a programme of initiatives at Rio that aim for the greatest possible political impact by bringing together inhabitants organizations, with all their forces and skills, and their institutional counterparts. It is difficult to believe that, left to themselves, governments, professional investors and even UN-Habitat are capable of abandoning the market-centric approach that has until now characterized most of their interventions. This approach is behind the possible failure of MDG 7-11, if it is confirmed that the number of badly housed and homeless people is set to climb to 700 million by 2020 rather than dropping below 100 million. Neoliberalism blinded these stakeholders to the real estate bubble and explosion of the global financial crisis which is affecting the entire planet, with dozens of millions of people more literally being thrown in the street.

Although it is important that WUF5 be dedicated to “The Right to the City – Bridging the Urban Divide”, without specifications and specific commitments in terms of political and budgetary decisions for developing public and participative housing and urban policies, it will be nothing more than a talking shop.

For these reasons, and in accordance with the agreements reached by Urban Convergences during the Belém WSF, the IAI has undertaken to participate in several initiatives at the USF and WUF5, alongside other inhabitant networks and organizations (COHRE, FAL, FNRU, HIC, etc.).

The USF, organized atthe Açao da Cidadania centre, fairly close to the WUF5, is at the heart of popular mobilization and the WAI construction process. The four chosen themes (Violence and Criminalization of Urban Poverty, Mega Events and Cities Globalization, Environmental Justice in the City, City Centers and Port Areas) represent avenues that can be explored to generate discussion and help us work together to construct the next stages, both locally and globally.

An important role is played by the workshops and assemblies organized by various actors which will supply the WAI Promoter Committee with content and food for thought. On the agenda will be a review of the process currently underway and the mobilization strategy leading up to Dakar.

Another theme will be the video interviews with urban social leaders in the favelas and at the USF, conducted in partnership with the Museu da Pessoa. They constitute the first stage in the multimedia systematization of inhabitant organizations, a founding memory of the shared experiences of a network under construction.

The opening march on 22 March, an event that connects the USF and WUF, will provide grassroots organizations with a concrete means of influencing the official position, opening up an institutional space, challenging the neoliberal approach and proposing a New Social Urban Pact for a Equitable and Sustainable Habitat, rooted in the right to the city for all.

Proposed by the main international networks for the right to housing during the first G20 on the crisis, there is now a need to take things further, in terms of action focused on a joint supported g-local platform, demanding and applying alternative policies as a way out of the urban and global crisis.

Key indicator: the number of homeless and badly housed people, to reduce to zero, so that we all become true inhabitants, playing a mindful and active part in building the cities of the future— the cities we already inhabit.

Rio invites us to meet the challenge.

The Volunteer translators for housing rights without frontiers of IAI who have collaborated on the translation of this text were:

Philippa Bowe Smith, Juliet Haylor

At the moment, the coordination of the emergency assistance is a major issue, but it’s already time to think about Haiti’s reconstruction.

INAISE is convinced that a concerted action throughout the world can actively and efficiently contribute to it.

INAISE is a network of social finance organizations. Our members include social & microfinance related funds, institutions, regulated social banks and networks.

With this call we want to associate all social/local organizations to this solidarity-based movement.
Our Haitian member, KNFP (Konsey Nasyonal Finansman Popile), is made up of 9 Microfinance Institutions who work with almost 3000 solidarity mutual funds representing 365 000 people all around the country.

In order to avoid the dissipation of the financial help and to encourage structured and coordinated actions, we offer you the chance to contribute directly to Haiti’s reconstruction by supporting KNFP, our local member in Haiti.

Like many other crucial players in the country, KNFP has lost all its assets (building, vehicles) in the earthquake. Moreover, with a current focus on aid, the development programs of its financial partners might be transferred to emergency help.

As a consequence, KNFP will face real difficulties and could see its capacity for intervention weakened dramatically.
We need your support to help KNFP become a key tool of Haitian reconstruction.

Our objectives are:

1. To help KNFP rebuild its capacity for intervention: by searching for a new home from which operate, acquiring a replacement vehicle fleet and a new computer pool so that it can resume its daily activity.
2. To enable KNFP, through its members, to welcome the inland migrants (by ensuring food and water supply and offer some camp facilities)
3. To encourage the resumption of even basic economic activity amongst its members. Given the deep state of breakdown of the local economy, this can only be done through donations.

Today KNFP’s need, to rebuild a minimum structure and restart its activity, comes to 50 000 Euro. It’s not that much but it can have a real impact on over 65 000 Haitian families (about 365,000 people)

Only 500 donations of €100 will help them rebuild their capacity to help 365 000 poor Haitians.
Only €30 will help them to finance one local project.

THEY NEED YOU… Donations can be made on INAISE website (secured procedure).

This is a joint action INAISE and Sidi, French partner of KNFP.
For more information, please contact Christian Schmitz or Viviane Vandemeulebroucke

January 2010, Ottawa

The ‘Call for Participation’ was launched today for Women’s Worlds 2011, a global feminist conference being held in Ottawa-Gatineau in July of 2011.

Acknowledging that important insights come from academia, community, and everywhere in between, organizers have deliberately dubbed this a ‘Call for Participation’. Proposals from individuals, groups, coalitions, networks, and teams will be accepted until September 15, 2010. Potential presenters are being invited to submit proposals under the main congress theme, “Inclusions, exclusions, and seclusions: Living in a globalized world”.

Since its first congress in 1981, Women’s Worlds has grown from a modest academic gathering to a distinguished international and interdisciplinary event. The 30th anniversary of Women’s Worlds in 2011 will potentially be the largest gathering of its kind in Canadian history.

Bringing together academics, advocates, researchers, policy-makers, workers, activists, and artists of all ages from around the world, the 2011 congress will be an occasion for equality advocates from around the globe to discuss globalization as it relates to women. Organizers also consider it an opportunity to strengthen connections while collaborating on approaches to advancing women’s rights, women’s empowerment, and gender equality.

Proposals are invited in French, Spanish, or English via the online form at the Women’s Worlds 2011 website.

Pour plus d’information: Pam Kapoor, Communications, Mondes des Femmes 2011, (001) 613.853.8089
media@womensworlds.ca

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Lancement de l’Appel à participation d’un congrès féministe international

POUR DIFFUSION IMMÉDIATE
Janvier 2010, Ottawa

Mondes des Femmes 2011, un congrès féministe d’envergure internationale qui se tiendra à Ottawa-Gatineau en juillet 2011, lance aujourd’hui son Appel à participation.

Les organisatrices de Mondes des Femmes ont délibérément choisi de généraliser leur ” Appel à participation ” parce que, de l’université aux groupes communautaires, tous les milieux ont des perspectives importantes à proposer. Individues, groupes, coalitions, réseaux et équipes de travail peuvent soumettre leurs propositions d’ici au 15 septembre 2010. Les présentatrices sont invitées à s’inspirer du grand thème du congrès, ” Inclusions, exclusions et réclusions: Vivre dans un monde globalisé “.

De modeste rencontre universitaire lors de son premier congrès en 1981, Mondes des Femmes est devenu un prestigieux événement interdisciplinaire. Son 30e anniversaire en 2011 pourrait s’avérer le plus grand rassemblement du genre de l’histoire du Canada.

Rassemblant universitaires, militantes, chercheures, décisionnaires politiques, travailleuses, activistes et artistes de tous âges et de partout sur la planète, MF 2011 fournira aux  militantes pour l’égalité du monde entier l’occasion d’explorer les enjeux femmes et mondialisation. Les organisatrices y voient également un lieu de renforcement des liens et de collaboration sur des approches visant l’avancement des droits des femmes, leur autonomisation et l’égalité entre les sexes.

Les présentatrices sont invitées à soumettre leurs propositions en français, en espagnol ou en anglais au moyen du formulaire Web qui se trouve sur le site de Mondes des Femmes 2011.

Pour plus d’information:

Pam Kapoor, Communications, Mondes des Femmes 2011, (001) 613.853.8089, media@womensworlds.ca

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Conferencia feminista global publica ‘Convocatoria abierta’

PARA PUBLICACIÓN INMEDIATA
De enero de 2010, Ottawa

Hoy se publicó la ‘Convocatoria abierta’ para participar en Mundos de Mujeres 2011, una conferencia feminista global que se llevará a cabo en Ottawa, Gatineau en julio de 2011.

Al reconocer que las contribuciones de la academia, de las comunidades y de cualquier forma de acción intermedia son igualmente importantes, l@s organizador@s han decidido dirigir esta “Convocatoria abierta”, a ponentes individuales, grupos, coaliciones, redes y equipos para que envíen sus propuestas de participación antes del 15 de septiembre de 2010. Se espera que l@s interesad@s en participar propongan presentaciones en torno al tema del congreso: “Inclusiones, exclusiones, y reclusiones: vivir en un mundo globalizado”.

Mundos de Mujeres, cuyo primer encuentro tuvo lugar en 1981, ha pasado de ser un pequeño encuentro académico, a ser un prestigioso acontecimiento interdisciplinario e internacional. En 2011,  el 30o aniversario de Mundos de Mujeres será, con toda seguridad, el encuentro más importante en su tipo en la historia de Canadá.

Como punto de encuentro de académic@s, activistas, investigador@s, legislador@s, trabajador@s y artistas de todas las edades y de alrededor del mundo, el congreso de 2011 será la ocasión ideal para que defensor@s de la equidad de todo el mundo discutan las maneras en que la globalización afecta a las mujeres. L@s organizador@s también lo consideran una oportunidad para fortalecer contactos y colaborar en la construcción de enfoques que contribuyan a la equidad de género, al empoderamiento y al progreso de los derechos de las mujeres.

Se invita a l@s ponentes potenciales a enviar sus propuestas de participación en español, francés, o en inglés, a través del formulario disponible en línea en el sitio web de Mundos de Mujeres.-

Para obtener más información: Pam Kapoor, Comunicación, Mundos de Mujeres 2011, (001) 613.853.8089
media@womensworlds.ca

Ethel Côté

Centre Canadien pour le Renouveau Communautaire  – Développement des Entreprises Sociales

Canadian Centre for Community Renewal – Social Enterprise Development

1551 concession 1

Plantagenet, Ontario, Canada

K0B 1L0

Tél: + 1 613 673 2178

Cell: + 1 613 447 4437

Email: ccrc@xplornet.ca

Mission
Canadian Centre for Community Renewal is committed to crafting solutions and adaptations to the critical challenges stemming from climate change and peak oil. Our priority is working with communities to increase their resilience, especially their capacity to equitably meet their needs for food, energy, finance, shelter, and sustainable livelihoods.

Le Centre Canadien pour le Renouveau Communautaire s’est engagé à élaborer des solutions et à proposer des adaptations aux défis critiques découlant des changements climatiques et du pic pétrolier. Notre priorité est de travailler avec les communautés pour accroître leur résilience, en particulier leur capacité à satisfaire équitablement leurs besoins alimentaires, énergétiques, financiers, en habitation et leurs moyens de subsistance durables.

The co-operative movement, whose fundamental value system has consistently proved its prestige and legitimacy, stands ready more than ever to respond to the many challenges that our society is facing as it labours under the weight of a worldwide economic, social and financial downturn.

Co-operative enterprises assert that it is possible to conduct business using an alternative economic model. Indeed, they have been putting that model to the test successfully for more than 150 years. Their strengths and advantages are rooted in economic efficiency, democratic and participative management and a concern to put social responsibility into practice. Co-operative entrepreneurship offers a modern response to the expectations and aspirations of both citizens and democratic governments alike. Indeed, the co-operative business model is increasingly being seen as a powerful instrument for stimulating growth and for pioneering sustainable development. Even today, when the world is in the grip of a deep and widespread recession, it holds out the promise of creativity, innovation and social justice. The increasing number of co-operatives being created makes these assertions abundantly clear.

The theme of the 2010 European Co-operative Convention will be : “Innovation and cooperation: a key policy for co-operative growth and creation”. Four seminars will be devoted to the analysis of development and innovation strategies, new growth sectors of the co-operative movement, the modernization of the co-operative image and, a reflection on economic research that is more suited to the nuances of co-operative enterprises.

Do not hesitate to contact the team of Cooperatives Europe  office@coopseurope.coop for any further information.