> Posted by Anne Hastings, Manager, Microfinance CEO Working Group
The CEOs of eight leading global microfinance networks – Accion, FINCA, Freedom from Hunger, Grameen Foundation, Opportunity International, Pro Mujer, VisionFund International, and Women’s World Banking – made six significant commitments at the Microcredit Summit Campaign’s Partnerships Against Poverty Summit last week in Manila. These eight CEOs make up the Microfinance CEO Working Group. Together they represent more than 250 retail microfinance institutions in 70 countries globally and provide financial and often non-financial services to more than 40 million families.
Here are the commitments:
1. Client Protection: Encourage all affiliates to progress toward Smart Campaign certification and be on a pathway toward certification by the end of 2014.
2. Pricing Transparency: Motivate our affiliates to commit to pricing transparency and integrity by agreeing to publish their pricing data using standard methodologies, such as those developed by MicroFinance Transparency, in order to allow investors and clients to make informed decisions.
3. Social Performance: Promote the Social Performance Task Force’s Universal Standards for Social Performance Management among our affiliates and commit to supporting their compliance.
4. Outcomes: Share the research we each have done on outcomes with one another and with the industry and encourage our affiliates to report outcomes relevant to their goals and objectives.
5. Global Appeal: Encourage our affiliates to sign the Global Appeal for Responsible Microfinance as an outward symbol of their commitment to the principles embodied in the above initiatives.
6. Investors: Encourage our affiliates’ equity/debt investors to promote the same five initiatives.
In addition, the CEOs committed to reaching out within the next six months to all 250 of their affiliates to encourage each of them to join in helping to meet these commitments.
Imagine the impact this could have on the microfinance sector worldwide!
For more on the Microfinance CEO Working Group, a collaborative effort to support the positive development of the microfinance industry, click here.
Have you read?
The Universal Standards, One Year Later
Support the Global Appeal for Responsible Microfinance!
Microfinance CEOs: Smart Campaign Certification is a “Clear Step” Toward Responsible Microfinance