Facilitators

Association Development Community of Practice

Deena Burjorjee - Senior Advisor

Social Performance Working Group for Associations

Nancy Samy, Sanabel
Zahra Khalid, Pakistan Microfinance Network
Kenlor Howells, REDCOM
Davy Serge Azakpame, AFMIN
Ewa Bankowska, Microfinance Centre

Gender Working Group

Lisa Kuhn Fraioli, Freedom from Hunger

Enterprise Development Community of Practice

Margie Brand - Senior Advisor

Health and Microenterprise Development Working Group

Ann Gordon, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA)
Bobbi Gray, Freedom from Hunger

Market Facilitation Initiative

Luis (Lucho) E. Osorio-Cortes, Practical Action

Financial Services Community of Practice

David Myhre - Senior Advisor

Financial Services Working Group

Terry Isert, American Refugee Committee

Savings-led Finacial Services Working Group

Eloisa Devietti, Oxfam America
Candace Nelson, Consultant

Innovations in Youth Financial Services Practitioner Learning Program

Jennifer Denomy, MEDA

Youth and Financial Services Working Group

Jennifer Gurbin-Harley, MEDA
Rossana Ramirez, Freedom from Hunger

Poverty Outreach Working Group

Jan Maes, Consultant
Margaret E. Richards, Consultant

 __________

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. 

social performance working group for associations

Nancy Samy – Regional Facilitator for the Middle East and North Africa , Deputy Executive Director, Sanabel

Nancy joined Sanabel in 2010 as the network's deputy executive director. Her responsibilities include managing the network's Social Performance Management project and operational issues. Nancy has 12 years of experience in working with USAID-funded projects, NGOs, foundations, and the private sector. During the last five years, Nancy has been working specifically in project management, human capital development, and capacity building and training.

Zahra Khalid – Regional Facilitator for Asia, Social Analyst, Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN)

Zahra is responsible for PMN's Social Performance, Consumer Protection, and Financial Education Initiatives, and has been closely involved in these initiatives since 2009. She has a research background, primarily on the microfinance sector in Pakistan. She holds a BSc (Hons.) in Business with majors in International Finance and Investments.

Kenlor Howells – Regional Facilitator for Latin and Central America, Board Member, REDCOM

Kenlor served as president of REDCOM for four years, and has been an active member of the organization's board of directors since 2002. He has several years of experience with advising private investors. For 11 years he was executive director of ADAPTE, a microfinance organization that works with the poor in Costa Rica. Kenlor studied at the University of Costa Rica as well as other institutions, and holds degrees in law, administration, and finance.

Davy Serge Azakpame – Regional Facilitator for Africa, CEO, Africa Microfinance Network (AFMIN)

Davy has served as AFMIN's CEO since 2007.

Ewa Bankowska – Regional Facilitator for Eastern and Central Europe, Program Manager, Social Performance Management Program, Microfinance Centre

Ewa manages action research projects on social performance innovation and customer protection for Microfinance Centre in Poland. She works with a wide range of stakeholders on developing and pilot-testing new tools and solutions, setting standards, and documenting the experience of practitioners in attempts in delivering on microfinance promise in the CEE and NIS regions and beyond. With a background in market research, her previous professional experience covered marketing research in the banking sector and market analysis for the B2B service global alliance. Ewa holds an MSc in Quantitative Methods and Information Systems from Warsaw School of Economics and a postgraduate diploma from Warsaw University in psychology of consumer behavior.

GENDER WORKING GROUP

Lisa Kuhn Fraioli, Vice President, Latin America, Freedom From Hunger

Lisa has over 12 years experience in microfinance and 15 in Latin America. She joined Freedom From Hunger in 2005 as technical advisor in microfinance, providing technical assistance and training to microfinance organizations throughout Latin America. Since then she has launched offices in Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador, and expanded partnerships in the region from eight to over fifty. Currently, Lisa supervises all programmatic activity in Latin America. She also serves on the steering committees of the Imp-Act Consortium and the Latin American Network for Gender Justice in Economic Development. Before joining Freedom From Hunger, Lisa worked as a gender and microfinance specialist for Opportunity International, specializing in product design and research. She has also worked for FINCA International. 

Enterprise development Community of Practice

Margie Brand – Senior Advisor

Margie is an internationally experienced development professional, project manager, trainer, facilitator, curricula developer, international development consultant, and entrepreneur. Born and educated in South Africa and now based in Washington, D.C. Margie specializes in livelihood and economic development with a specific focus on the cross-cutting areas of climate change, natural resource management, and food security. Margie has worked in over 20 countries; designed and managed over five large development programs ranging from under $1 million dollars to $16 million in size; trained over 4,000 trainers and master trainers; developed microenterprise, microfinance, sustainable development, and entrepreneurship curricula independently and as part of a team, which have now been translated into over 15 languages and used in over 35 countries worldwide; worked in building the capacity of development organizations in over 10 countries; and has presented her learning and experiences at international conferences in over 50 settings. Among others, Margie founded EcoVentures International, a
non-profit organization specializing in economic and enterprise development as it relates to natural resource management and climate change.

HEALTH AND MICROENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT WORKING GROUP

Ann Gordon, Senior Consultant and Project Manager, Market Linkages Department, MEDA

Ann has an extensive background in rural development and leadership experience in the entrepreneurial, non-profit, and government sectors. Ann's over 17 years of experience in project-based management, including research, design, implementation and evaluation across various agriculture, agri-food, and health-related value chains, has taken her across North America and internationally. Her role at MEDA has included the management of market development projects and activities in Afghanistan, Tanzania, and Pakistan, as well as a number of consultancies in other countries where MEDA is active. Some of Ann's latest contributions to the sector can be found in the area of value chain training and mentoring, as well as a recent publication by the World Bank on understanding gender and value chains in Afghanistan.

Bobbi Gray, Research and Evaluation Specialist, Freedom from Hunger

Bobbi joined Freedom from Hunger in 2004. She leads research and evaluation efforts for Freedom from Hunger and works closely with the organization's partners to determine solutions for assessing and measuring the impacts of Credit with Education and other program interventions, including feedback of this information to stakeholders for decision-making. She is also specifically looking at how to help partners develop robust social performance management systems whereby organizations put their social mission into practice. Bobbi helps oversee the ongoing project to develop, test, and document the food security scaling for use by our partner organizations to assess poverty levels of their clients and changes in poverty over time.

MARKET FACILITATION INITIATIVE

Luis E. (Lucho) Osorio-Cortes, International Coordinator of the Markets and Livelihoods Program, Practical Action

Luis's work at Practical Action focuses on three main areas: technical support to the country/regional teams on participatory market systems development and facilitation; sustainable and effective learning systems within the organization and market systems; and international networking and influence to create an enabling environment for the program. Luis has been a fellow of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in two different programs. He has a degree in International Cooperation and Development Projects and an M.Phil. in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex) where he focused mainly on value chains, certification, innovation systems and social networks.

Financial Services COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

David Myhre– Senior Advisor

For more than 25 years, David has worked to promote sustainable, equitable development, primarily in Latin America. From fall 2008, as Director of Microfinance at the MasterCard Foundation, he helped launch a grantmaking program to extend financial services to the poor in Africa. In mid-2010, he returned to his primary interests in Latin America as a consultant on migration and development, financial inclusion and strengthening rural communities. David previously served as Program Officer (2001-2006) and Senior Program Officer (2006-2008) for Development Finance and Economic Security in the Ford Foundation’s Office for Mexico and Central America, based in Mexico City. His grantmaking focused on promoting rural microcredit and savings programs, as well as the strengthening of microfinance networks. 

FINANCIAL SERVICES WORKING GROUP

Terry Isert, Senior Technical Advisor, Economic Opportunities for the American Refugee Committee International

Terry has more than 11 years of experience in enterprise development, microfinance, youth employment, and poverty lending, focusing on women and their families. He has worked on more than 15 projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He has managed microfinance institutions, supported microenterprise development programs as a technical advisor, and consulted to international development organizations in the US and overseas. Terry has considerable experience in cross-cultural relationships and practices and currently manages ARC's global portfolio of economic opportunity programs in seven countries spanning Africa to Asia. 

SAVINGS-LED FINANCIAL SERVICES WORKING GROUP

Eloisa Devietti, Program Associate, Savings for Change, Oxfam America

Eloisa is responsible for liaising with Oxfam's regional offices and supporting regional staff with program monitoring and logistics. Her work focuses mainly in Latin America, specifically in Guatemala and El Salvador. She holds a graduate degree from Boston University in International Relations.

Candace Nelson, Independent Consultant

Candace serves as a consultant to Microfinance Opportunities, the Aga Khan Foundation, and the SEEP Network. She works mostly in financial education and savings groups, designing curricula, conducting trainings of trainers, and carrying out case study research.

INNOVATIONS IN YOUTH FINANCIAL SERVICES PRACTITIONER LEARNING PROGRAM

Jennifer Denomy, Director, Youth and Financial Services, MEDA

Jennifer leads programming that prepares young people for successful entrepreneurship and employment. She manages projects in Egypt, Morocco, and Afghanistan, supporting non-formal education and workplace safety initiatives for working youth. Prior to joining MEDA, Jennifer worked as the pedagogical manager of a teacher training centre in Germany. She also developed and field-tested a set of textbooks for BRAC's Nonformal Primary Education Program in Bangladesh.

YOUTH AND FINANCIAL SERVICES WORKING GROUP

Jennifer Gurbin-Harley, Project Leader, Youth and Financial Services Department, MEDA

Jennifer is a microfinance practitioner with five years of experience in youth-focused programming and qualitative research methodologies, including market research as well as monitoring and evaluation. At MEDA, she manages long-term projects, supports business development activities, and delivers short-term consulting services in the areas of youth and financial services programming. Prior to her work with MEDA she was involved with health promotion and education initiatives in Thailand and Zambia.

Rossana Ramirez, Director of Youth Microfinance, Freedom from Hunger

Rossana has 12 years of experience in linking financial services to low-income communities, training, technical assistance, and assessments. Her primary areas of expertise at Freedom from Hunger include integrated financial services and financial education focused on youth, market research, and social performance management. Rossana has extensive experience with project management and qualitative analysis.

POVERTY OUTREACH WORKING GROUP

Jan Maes, Independent Consultant

Jan has served as a consultant to a number of organizations, including Women's Trust, Habitat for Humanity International, PACT, CARE USA, and the International Finance Corporation. He has extensive experience with monitoring and evaluation, MSME training, technical assistance, and grant-making to indigenous organizations in developing countries.

Margaret E. Richards, Independent Consultant

Margaret Richards is an education and learning expert with nine years of experience working across development sectors to facilitate and improve the way organizations and individuals teach and learn. She is a facilitator of SEEP's POWG where she works with MED professionals around the world to improve the way financial services are delivered to the ultra-poor. She is a trainer, e-learning developer, M&E specialist, mathematics professor and Ironwoman triathlete. She has lived in Korea and Micronesia and worked in most regions of the world.