Microfinance Conference: Wholistic Approach to Poverty Eradication Through Microcredit — The Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI) in partnership with the Mindanao Microfinance Council (MMC) will hold a conference themed ‘Beyond Microcredit: A Wholistic Approach to Poverty Eradication’ in Davao City in the island of Mindanao on July 29-30, 2010.
This is the second conference in a series organized by MCPI and initiated late last year in Cebu. The conference is designed to promote advocacy to help microfinance enhance capabilities to provide more assistance to the poor. Because microfinance gives out loans as low as P8,000.00 to P10,000.00 without collateral.
Microfinance is now expanding its services to include not only entrepreneurial loans but also insurance and legal services for the poor. More than half of a million borrowers have been benefitted by micro-finance. Payment is 99 percent.
This second conference organized in partnership with the Mindanao Microfinance Council (MMC) will pick up where the first conference left off, deepening discussions on the most interesting topics previously touched on and exploring new areas of conversation. Among the subjects to be taken up are microinsurance, disaster risk reduction, renewable energy financing, microhousing, value-chain financing, agricultural microfinance, client protection, operating in difficult locations and social performance management.
MCPI is a network of 44 institutions working towards the rapid development of the microfinance industry in the Philippines. The 45 institutions include 36 practitioners and 9 service providers. MCPI has forged local partnerships with government agencies and institutions such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Department of Finance-National Credit Council, National Anti-Poverty Commission, People’s Credit and Finance Corporation, Land Bank of the Philippines, and the National Economic and Development Authority.