We believe in the power of enterprise to reduce global poverty.
Association Development CoP
SEEP's Association Development Community of Practice focuses on advancing the field of microfinance through association leadership. The team supports national and regional microfinance associations around the world by strengthening their operational, technical, and financial capacity through peer-to-peer learning and exchanges, capacity assessments, strategic planning, management training, thought leadership, and product development. For more information on the Association Development Community of Practice and its initiatives, please visit SEEP's Learning Initiatives. To see the tools and resources for microfinance associations, visit Network Development Exchange.
Bintou Ka-Niang, Director
Ndeye Absa Gueye, Program Manager
Absa is involved in the Association Development Community of Practice working as a program manager in the Responsible Finance through Local Leadership in Sub Saharan Africa program.
Absa has worked on Social Performance Management for the last 3 years (2009-2012) within CAURIE-Micro Finance and the Senegal Microfinance National Network (APSFD) in the MISION Africa Project. She mapped out the SPM promotion plan in Senegal and facilitated trainings and capacity building. She established contacts with other microfinance actors and organized promotional activities in Kenya and Senegal. She supported the SPM implementation system in17 MFIs in Senegal and trained different microfinance actors in Africa. She has been trained in Client Protection Principles by the SMART Campaign, and piloted a poverty assessment tool (Progress out of Poverty Index-PPI) with the Grameen Foundation.
In her previous experiences, Absa worked with different NGOs and programs to support rural communities’ development through microfinance for poverty alleviation. She is familiar with project environments and the microfinance field. Absa hold a Project Management diploma in Senegal (1998-2001) and a Masters degree in Urban Planning and Policy Design at the Polytechnic of Milan – Italy (2005-2007). She studied English at the King Institute College in London from 2007 to 2009 from which she holds an Advanced English Level Diploma.
Martha Keller, Program Assistant
Martha provides the Financial Services team with programming support, and also works on translations, relationship management, publication of online and printed tools, and event planning. Prior to her work with the SEEP Network, Martha held positions at a financial services law firm and a biotechnology company. Martha received her B.A. in French and Middle Eastern Studies from Wellesley College in 2009.
Mariana Marinho, Senior Program Manager
Mariana is Senior Program Manager, Association Development Community of Practice. She supports SEEP's efforts to satisfy members' needs, advance microenterprise development practices, and improve its organizational sustainability. Before joining the Products and Services team, Mariana was part of the Member Affairs and Global Communications team, where she restructured membership processes and managed the implementation of SEEP's customer relationship management system. Mariana also supported the Associations Development Community of Practice in the development of innovative tools to improve systems, capacity assessment, and benchmarking of microfinance associations. Prior to SEEP, she worked as a senior management consultant for Instituto de Desenvolvimento Gerencial in Brazil, United States, and Canada.
Deena Burjorjee, Senior Advisor
Deena Burjorjee is an independent consultant who has worked to support the development of pro-poor financial sectors for over 15 years, 10 of which have been spent as a project manager and technical advisor for the United Nations supporting financial sector projects. Deena also worked with SEEP as a senior technical advisor under the Citi Network Strengthening Project (2008 – 2010) to develop and pilot test a range of technical tools to support the development of sustainable microfinance associations, and continues to advise government and donor agencies on a range of financial inclusion issues.
