Kelley Mesa

Blog Post

&gt; Posted by Kelley Mesa
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1379" title="Beth on Forbes" src="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2010/03/beth-on-forbes.jpg" alt="" width="272" height="151" />Where did microfinance come from? How do lending ethically get their small loans repaid? Elisabeth Rhyne, Center for Financial Inclusion managing director, answers these and other questions during two interviews with Forbes.com Video Network.
Watch them interviews...
<div><a href="http://video.forbes.com/fvn/bizviz/repaying-micro-loans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Repaying Micro-Loans</a> | Video</div>
<a href="http://video.forbes.com/fvn/bizviz/origins-of-microfinance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Origins Of Microfinance</a> | Video
For more information, <a href="http://bit.ly/FI2020signup">sign up for updates</a> from the Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign.

Microfinance 101

&gt; Posted by Kelley Mesa
This year the Center launched an ambitious initiative to accelerate progress towards achieving "full financial inclusion" around the world by 2020. The Center began by taking an in-depth look at Mexico, a country with both great need and great potential. The results of the Mexico pilot will be presented for the first time during this roundtable and will provide strategic and factual tools to enable leading private businesses, public agencies, and social-sector institutions to make policy, business, and resource allocation decisions that will substantially advance financial inclusion.
Through this roundtable on September 30 at the IDB Foromicro in Arequipa, Peru, the Center will convene key stakeholders and invite discussion and feedback on the white paper. This roundtable is particularly targeting people and institutions providing financial services in Mexico. It will provide a forum for discussion and feedback on the white paper.
<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1806">For more information and to register, click here.</a>
For more information, <a href="http://bit.ly/FI2020signup">sign up for updates</a> from the Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign.
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Roundtable on Mexico's Prospects for Financial Inclusion

&gt; Posted by Kelley Mesa
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-609" title="Tuck" src="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2009/07/tuck.jpg" alt="Tuck" width="280" height="64" />This summer a group of Dartmouth undergraduate students are working at The Tuck School of Business in coordination with the Center’s “<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1731">Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign</a>.” Through the Paganucci Fellows program, these students are working together to explore the state of financial inclusion through creating “scorecards” that define and paint a picture of financial access in various countries around the world.
You’ve already heard from <a href="http://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/cfi-collaborates-with-the-dartmouthtuck-paganucci-fellows-program-on-achieving-%e2%80%9cfinancial-inclusion-2020%e2%80%9d/">Kal Kuchimanchi</a> , the fellowship program manager, now let’s meet a few of the 2009 Paganucci Fellows…
<img class="size-full wp-image-751 alignleft" title="Yang Wei Neo" src="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2009/07/yang-wei-neo.jpg" alt="Yang Wei Neo" width="140" height="157" />Yang Wei Neo (Philosophy, 2012)— I grew up in Singapore, and prior to coming to Dartmouth I worked in the Singapore Navy for two years. I became interested in microfinance after attending a conference on social entrepreneurship that Ashoka organized back in Singapore. Significantly, I was impressed with the tangible results that can be achieved by marrying business efficiency with social aims. Thus, when the Paganucci Fellows Program presented itself, I jumped at the opportunity - it was to me a marvelous experience to deepen my understanding of the topic and to make a real contribution to this important industry.
One of the most challenging aspects of the project is in deciding what are the appropriate measures of financial access. For example, we decided to proxy financial access through its usage instead of through availability. Availability might seem like a more appropriate choice, but measures of it are inherently subjective depending on the surveyor's judgments. Usage is by definition different, but measures of it are objective and unambiguous. This trade-off between conceptual accuracy and practical measurements is just one of the many methodological decisions we make every day in order to present as complete and as understandable a picture of financial access as possible. It is these processes that I have found the most interesting, both intellectually and personally.
<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-752" title="James Wang" src="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2009/07/james-wang.jpg" alt="James Wang" width="140" height="165" />James Wang (Economics and Philosophy, 2010)— I transferred from the University of California-Berkeley to move from a more traditional business-focused education to one with an emphasis on various aspects of social enterprise. I am deeply interested in integrating various means of private enterprise with socially focused ends—a pursuit that has drawn me to microfinance and ultimately, this fellowship.
When working on this project, there have been times where our work loses some of its romanticism. When we're simply sifting through reams of data looking for what appear to be insignificant metrics, it often becomes difficult to appreciate the true significance of what we are doing. After all, these metrics we are researching are, when put on a page, just numbers. How important is the exact number of clients this insurer in Nigeria has, anyway? What possible significance can there be in the depository rates of Indian rural banks?
One of the greatest takeaways from this project is to realize that these statistics we are compiling are not merely cold numbers. To us, a "number" can just look high or low—for someone else in these countries, it is the crushing fee on a savings account or mandated interest rate cap that bars them from a loan. From these numbers, we are beginning to tell a story of financial need in these countries. We are taking a first step, however small, in advancing a far larger cause. It is this deeper purpose that drives me through the tedious task of sorting through hundreds to thousands of pieces of data—usually with far more noise than signal. My hope is that by working with ACCION on this project, we will truly be able to breathe life into these numbers, and make a difference in the lives of the people that lie behind them.
<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-753" title="Chris Kendig" src="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2009/07/chris-kendig.jpg" alt="Chris Kendig" width="140" height="165" />Chris Kendig (Economics and Philosophy, 2010)—Hello, my name is Christopher Kendig and I am a Dartmouth undergraduate majoring in economics and philosophy.  This summer, I am working as a member of the Paganucci Fellows program, which is creating financial access scorecards for ACCION and the Center for Financial Inclusion.  I became interested in the program because it seamlessly combines applied economics and socially beneficial enterprise, two topics that I am passionate about.
Throughout the first four weeks of my fellowship, one of the most interesting aspects has been seeing just how many different parties are invested in the goal of improving financial access. The Paganucci team has already had the privilege to meet several individuals who are working to improve financial access through the creation of microfinance NGO’s or the development of commercial finance. The incredible breadth of experience and diversity of vision demonstrated by these individuals has been extremely impressive, and strongly supports the idea that financial access is a concept that has appeal across large swaths of both the societal and ideological frameworks. Intensive research on our target countries, such as Brazil and Kenya, has further demonstrated this point, as a tremendously diverse group of institutions has helped to provide us with financial access data.  Governments, central banks, NGO’s, commercial banks, and a variety of other organizations have all provided valuable knowledge and information for our study of financial access.  All of these organizations seem to be enthusiastically behind the growth of access to quality financial services despite their vastly different institutional goals and compositions.   Overall, the first several weeks of this program have been a fascinating tour of the tremendous number of individuals and organizations that are working to help expand financial access.
Stay tuned for comments from the remaining two fellows…
For more information, <a href="http://bit.ly/FI2020signup">sign up for updates</a> from the Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign.
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Meet the Paganucci Fellows

&gt; Posted by Kelley Mesa
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-472" title="Peru" src="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2009/05/peru.jpg" alt="Peru" width="325" height="256" />The latest edition to the Consumer Protection Library provides an overview of the legal and regulatory for consumer protection in Peru.
Here’s the executive summary:
As one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America, Peru has experienced remarkable and sustained economic growth since the early nineties. The economic changes Peru has experienced during this time have directly affected its consumers. Consequently, Peru has strived to strengthen its consumer protection framework. The enactment of a Consumer Protection Law in 1991 pushed consumer protection into the spotlight for the businesses and people of Peru.
<ul>
 	<li>Peru’s General Law of the Financial and Insurance Systems includes statutes that strive to protect clients through provisions demanding privacy and avoid over-indebtedness of the financial services client.</li>
 	<li>The Consumer Protection Law for Financial Service Clients establishes a strong framework that calls for transparency, ethical staff behavior, privacy of client data and mechanisms for redress of grievances.</li>
 	<li>SBS, Peru’s Banking Superintendent, seeks to minimize consumer grievances through preventative measures, while INDECOPI and DCF are among the agencies providing mechanisms for the redress of client grievances.</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1641">&gt; Read more about consumer protection in Peru</a>
<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1415">&gt; Check out all the country profiles in the library</a>
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New Consumer Protection Country Profile - Peru

&gt; Posted by Kelley Mesa
The issue of client protection isn't new. It's been long discussed throughout the industry, specifically the need for an industry-wide code of conduct. Over the past several years, consensus has emerged that providers of financial services to low-income clients should adhere to six core principles. These principles are what guide the Campaign for Client Protection.
<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1304">In the latest Center podcast</a>, the Center for Financial Inclusion's <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1297">Elisabeth Rhyne</a> and CGAP's <a href="http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.26.1339/" target="blank">Kate McKee </a>discuss the origins of the new Campaign, its importance and relevance at this moment in time, and the next steps they will take as the Campaign fully launches.
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New Podcast with Elisabeth Rhyne and Kate McKee

&gt; Posted by Kelley Mesa
In the latest issue of <a href="http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revistaweb/1960s/peacecorps/forster" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America</a>, Center Program Manager Cara Forster reflects on her experience administering a microfinance program while working as a Peace Corps volunteer in La Trinidad, Nicaragua.

Cara Forster in ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America

&gt; Posted by Kelley Mesa
<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1296#PaulH">Paul Hudnut</a> - Center <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1296">Faculty Council</a> member and co-director of Global Innovation Center for Energy, Environment and Health at Colorado State University - reflects on Elisabeth Rhyne's January 27 New York Times op-ed on microfinance's immitation-worthy sustainable banking practices in his post "<a href="http://bopreneur.blogspot.com/2009/01/scaling-back.html" target="blank">Scaling back (or forward)?</a>"

More on the "Distributed" Global Banking Grid...

&gt; Posted by Kelley Mesa
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-213" title="energy-links" src="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2009/03/energy-links.jpg" alt="energy-links" width="180" height="125" />We are pleased to release the first episode of the <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1304">Energy Links Podcast Series</a>, hosted by Center Senior Fellow <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1298">Paul Rippey</a>. In this first episode Paul speaks with <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1297">Beth Rhyne</a>, managing director of the Center for Financial Inclusion. Beth discusses the motivation for the project and the progress of an initial pilot project to put affordable solar lamps in the hands of rural entrepreneurs and households.
The <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/Page.aspx?pid=1304">Energy Links Podcast Series</a> is brought to you by the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and the <a href="http://www.accion.org/page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.microlinks.org%2fev_en.php%3fID%3d17068_201%26ID2%3dDO_TOPIC&amp;srcid=1304&amp;erid=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Academy for Educational Development FIELD Project</a>, with the generous assistance of the <a href="http://www.accion.org/page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.usaid.gov%2f&amp;srcid=1304&amp;erid=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United States Agency for International Development</a> (USAID) and the <a href="http://www.accion.org/page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wgf.org%2f&amp;srcid=1304&amp;erid=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wallace Global Fund</a>. Your comments and questions are welcome. Please send them to <a href="mailto:EnergyLinks2009@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EnergyLinks2009@gmail.com</a>. And, stay tuned for new episodes in the coming weeks.

Kelley Mesa

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