Millennium Development Goals

In 2000, governments agreed on a set of MDGs to cut the proportion of people living in absolute poverty by 2015. INAFI sees a natural interconnection between microfinance and the MDGs, as the work of INAFI members complements the realization of the MDGs. Building sustainable social capital requires affirmative action within the alternative paradigm of microfinance, lending primary focus on elevating the poor’s capacity to direct their economic and social development.

The UN Millennium Campaign and INAFI agreed to launch a joint global campaign towards achieving the MDGs by mainstreaming the MDGs into the microfinance agenda at local and country levels. The UN Millennium Campaign and INAFI advocate greater participation and commitment by governments, civil societies, the private sector, and other stakeholders to reorient and promote microfinance initiatives towards the sustainable achievement of the MDGs. The joint campaign will endorse pro-poor policies and strengthen people’s capacity to define and access their rightful livelihood resources, hence ensuring their right to basic services.

Thematic Focus

Promote microfinance to contribute to poverty reduction and to promote a holistic approach in ensuring access to universal primary education and reducing infant and maternal mortality.
Support the expansion of demand-driven financial services to include microinsurance, remittance service, and other pro-poor financial products.
Advocate preference for the extremely poor in microfinance programs to ensure food security and contribution to poverty reduction.
Promote microfinance for special groups such as people affected by natural disasters and HIV/AIDS.�ffffected
Use microfinance to mainstream gender balance and empower poor women.
Measure the social impact of microfinance and other development interventions.

Food Security & Rural Finance

woman_fish INAFI observed that the core savings and credits are not always suitable for the hardcore poor, people at the bottom of the society. Products are designed in such as way that they are more suited to moderately poor or not so poor people.

INAFI has engaged in product development, specifically for the hardcore poor so that food security is ensured.

The INAFI Food Security project involves the development of rural financial products through a new process and methodology known as ‘new frontiers’. Through the proposed products, the network expects that 10 of its member institutions in Africa (5), Asia (3), and Latin America (2) will enable,among other objectives, smallholder farmers to:

Capitalize on increased opportunities to create/build sustainable livelihoods in their rural communities.
Enable existing on completely new supply chains of farm inputs and linkages to markets re-established, strengthened and expanded.
Create the opportunity and capacities of at least … farmers to explore, experiment with, and adapt new ideas related to market-led agricultural production, storage and processing increased.
Facilitate access to economic activities in agriculture and off-far micro/small-scale enterprises for at least 1,000 socially marginalized youth, women and communities.

Microinsurance

Keeping the overarching and objective of INAFI network to address poverty through microfinance services and in particular to address the risks and vulnerabilities of the poor, INAFI initiated pilot initiative involving 12 member organizations in three continents (Africa Asia and Latin America).

Further the rationale for the initiative stems from the fact that the insurance services are not made available to the poor. Besides the access factor the services that are provided in the market by the mainstream insurance companies are not affordable, both on the accessibility and availability front, the poor are denied.

Yet another rationale for the initiative is the encouraging fact that a few initiatives are already under way such as the one INAFI Bangladesh through the MIME Project, ASKMI of INAFI member in India (DHAN Foundation) have given the practical hope that given the right kind of design and implementation the insurance services to the poor is a feasible and viable proposition.

Further, this pilot initiative is also inspired by the fact that many members of the network started feeling the need or demand from the members for insurance services as an essential ‘add on’ to the savings and credit programmes already under implementation by the member organizations.

Microfinance & Remittances

More info on INAFI Remittances EU project on remittances.inafi.org

INAFI has already organized three global conferences on the role of microfinance in migration, remittances and development: in 2005 in Zacatecas, Mexico; in 2006 in Tagaytay City, Philippines; in 2007 in Cotonou Benin. His Excellency Yayi Boni President of the Republic and his Government hosted the Benin event, under the Ministry of Microfinance, Small and Medium Enterprises, Women and Youth Employment.

Microfinance is not a mere financial instrument but a powerful tool for development to address the multiple dimensions of poverty.Among other core objectives, INAFI through its programmes and activities is promoting sustainable development by trying to ensure complementary cooperation and services between microfinance institutions and migrants associations through remittances. The objective is to contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for sustainable development.

As way forward for the INAFI Conference bannered by the theme “Alternative Financial Institutions as a Platform for Harnessing Remittances, Diaspora Philanthropy and Investment for Sustainable Development” that took place in the capital city of Benin, a proposal was developed jointly with AFFORD, a United Kingdom based diaspora organisation and DFD another Netherlands based diaspora organizaton under the auspices of Linkis, the remittances Department of OxfamNovib.

In addition, INAFI International and the INAFI Regional offices will also take active part in several activities and projects and/or explore new venues for cooperation with the regional offices and other potential partners. These are enhancing and contributing to the successful implementation of the INAFI Global Remittance programme.

Social Impact Measurement - SIM Tool

In 2006, INAFI launched a new research study, Social Impact Measurement (SIM) project that is exploring ways of measuring social impact of microfinance interventions. The SIM project, advancing social impact measurement tools intents to raise awareness on achieving social outcomes through microfinance practice. This research outlined INAFI’s contribution to ongoing global studies to define social impact indicators and follow-up efforts in the sector to combine financial performance and social monitoring of poverty dimensions. A key G8 ‘Principle of Microfinance’ states, “Microfinance works best when it measures – and discloses – its performance; both financial and social information”. The SIM project has used participatory methods to pool experiences of ten (10) microfinance practitioners who have experimented measuring social impact of clients over the last decade.

The SIM Pilot Project: Background and Main Aim
INAFI, Oxfam Novib, and Ordina joined forces to create an efficient database system for Social Impact Measurement. INAFI, as a network with more than 320 micro finance institutions worldwide, reaching 25 million people living in poverty, needs a uniform database system to assess social impact and measure performance. Oxfam Novib, an international development NGO based in the Netherlands brokered the contacts between Ordina and INAFI, having supported INAFI since 1993. Ordina, a Netherlands based software company are involved in this project as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. The partners have signed a MoU that clearly define roles, responsibilities and tasks of each partner during this pilot project.