Workshops

Learn more about the 5 different tracks!

Wednesday, November 7                                                   Thursday, November 8
Morning Session 11:00-12:30                                         Morning Session 11:00-12:30

Wednesday, November 7                                                   Thursday, November 8                            
Afternoon Session 2:00-3:30                                         Afternoon Session 2:00-3:30

Wednesday, November 7
11:00-12:30 PM 

Effective Economic Strengthening for the Ultra Poor Affected by HIV
Targeted at implementers, this participatory workshop provides a framework and resources to assist economic strengthening (ES) practitioners to tailor their activities to the needs and constraints of ultra-poor HIV-affected households. A panel of ES and HIV specialists from three organizations discuss strategies to enhance current programming and overcome barriers. Through a small group activity, workshop participants will begin putting these tools and approaches into action.

Power point available here.

Technology Innovations for Savings Groups: Improving Program Cost-Effectiveness
The very poor have limited low-quality access to financial services and limited capability to manage household and business finances. Integrating technology innovations into Savings Group programs can ensure greater financial inclusion of the poorest by decreasing program costs and increasing program efficiency and quality. This workshop explores technology innovations for Savings Groups currently underway by Freedom from Hunger and CARE including e-training, m-training and mobile collection of financial and social performance data. Participants who attend the workshop will see demonstrations of technology innovations appropriate for Savings Group and other microfinance programs and explore together their advantages and disadvantages.

Power point available here.

 ICT as Development Enabler: New Tools and Learning from Africa
Curious how to effectively use ICT to enable more inclusive, scalable, and sustainable agricultural development? This workshop draws on learning from work conducted by FHI360, ACDI/VOCA, Action for Enterprise, and Grameen AppLab. The workshop will profile four recent initiatives in Africa: development of a low-cost video toolkit for agriculture extension, a case study of ICT-enabled, private-sector led outgrowing and input supply models, mobile apps for M&E, and an innovative ICT-enabled agriculture extension social enterprise - the Community Knowledge Worker Initiative.  The workshop will include opportunities to interface with technologies.  

Power points available here: Sean Paavo Krepp, Henry Panlibuton

The Application of the DCED Standard to Strengthen Results Management 
This session introduces participants to the DCED Standard, a Standard that has been developed to capture and promote good practices in results measurement of private sector development programming. The session provides an overview of the key elements of the Standard, how they have been effectively applied and offer participants the opportunity to practice applying aspects of the Standard themselves.  At the end of the session participants should have a good idea of how the Standard might be useful in their programs.

A New Take on Capacity Building for Market Facilitation
The success of market development programs lies heavily in the hands of Market Facilitators who often lack the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed. The four grantees of the USAID funded New Partners in Value Chain Development Program pilot tested an innovative approach to capacity building with the Market Facilitation Mentoring (MFM) Program, in which learning takes place on-the-job and through mentoring.  The Mentors help guide the learning process, ensuring that trainees learn, practice, reflect upon and apply lessons learned. Join us to learn how the program can be effectively utilized by diverse organizations in a wide variety of settings.

Power point available here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday, November 7
2:00-3:30 PM

 New Frontiers in Building Savings Groups and Leveraging Their Capacities for the Poorest 
This workshop presents two alternatives to building Savings Groups (SGs) that serve the ultra-poor. Trickle Up’s program, which specifically targets the poorest with SGs in combination with other trainings, mentoring and asset transfers, is contrasted with Catholic Relief Services’ Private Service Provider model, which works through fee-for-service agents who do not restrict their SG-building efforts to the poorest. The session also explores innovations by the International Rescue Committee to help SG members build and then use savings to cope with shocks that would otherwise plunge them into deep poverty. Audience members will discuss the different models and formulate their own recommendations for participation by the poorest.

Power point available here.

Client-led Approaches to Designing Sustainable Savings Products for Youth
MEDA and WWB will facilitate a panel to discuss the internal and external challenges and successes of savings product development.  MEDA’s Responsive Product Development approach is based on building strong institutional capacity in order to better deliver new products. WWB works with its partners to build the business case for youth savings; to ensure institutional alignment for new financial products; and then to design, test, and implement financial products based on in-depth client research with a focus on women and financial inclusion. MEDA and WWB will illustrate the challenges and benefits faced in these approaches through detailed case studies of partner financial institutions' experiences launching youth savings products.

Contextualizing Innovation: Technology-Enabled Microfinance in Zambia, Haiti,  and Nicaragua
There are many opportunities for MFIs to see efficiency gains from new technology-enabled delivered channels.  At the same time, the electronic payments landscape varies widely between countries and many are yet to have a viable agent network and widespread customer awareness. Yet, worldwide, MFIs are eager to reap the benefits of payment innovations, even in less developed markets.  This workshop presents case studies from Zambia, Haiti, and Nicaragua, with a focus on the tools they have used to assess partners, costs, opportunities and risks, with representatives from three of MEDA's partners: Zoona, Fonkoze, and MiCrédito, respectively.   The workshop will encourage the audience to share their own experiences, and will forgo presentations to ensure a full discussion.

 What Have We Learned About Savings Groups? Impact Findings and their Implications for Program Design and Delivery
Savings groups (SGs) are spreading rapidly around the world.  Their adoption by a growing number of INGOs and local organizations points to an ever more urgent need to fully understand the impacts of this methodology.  This workshop presents the findings from randomized control trials (RCTs) and other impact evaluations from CARE, Oxfam/FFH, CRS and the IRC, and challenge the audience through quizzes and interactive discussions to analyze how these findings can inform their own programming.  Panelists conclude by sharing their experiences with implementing this impact research.

Power point available here.

 Linking Health and Market Development for the Poor
Collaboration of market development and health sectors is needed to more effectively integrate programs and interventions and improve health market performance to advance sustainable health outcomes.  This workshop examines some examples of how microfinance and enterprise development practitioners are working across sectors to link clients to sustainable, cost effective, health interventions resulting in reduced deaths from malaria, increased access to water and sanitation, and improved capacity of health providers serving the poor. It also facilitates further learning and knowledge about overcoming challenges and improving practices in the integration of health and economic strengthening approaches, ultimately improving health strategies.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Thursday, November 8
11:00-12:30

More than Just Measuring Poverty - Using Data to Strengthen Products and Delivery Channels
This workshop explores the advantages of making evidence-based decisions regarding the design and rollout of products and interventions for the poorest. It presents the Grameen Foundations’s new Advanced Data Analysis curriculum which complements the Progress Out of Poverty Index (PPI), using illustrations from its application with CARD of the Philippines. It also shares the Fundación Paraguaya’s innovative “traffic light” approach to measuring client poverty and discusses how the traffic light informs techniques that FP staff use to motivate and empower ultra-poor clients. Participants will have an opportunity to apply the workshop’s lessons to the field contexts facing their institutions.

Power points available here: Fundación Paraguaya, Grameen

To Save or Not to Save: Overcoming Behavioral and Institutional Barriers
Drawing on behavioral economics and experience working with fifteen formal and informal financial institutions, Freedom from Hunger, Making Cents, New America Foundation and Save the Children set out a framework for understanding and mobilizing savings in hard to reach populations. In particular, the panelists seek to shine light on the psychologies and cognitive skills that motivate and block saving, current practices in “nudging” savings, and balancing innovation with existing institutional practices. The panel uses thought-provoking questions, open dialogue, and group discussion so that participants can more readily relate lessons learned to their own experiences.

 Unpacking Mobile Financial Services: Partnerships, Products, and Agent Networks
Developing the right strategy to enhance the reach of mobile financial services in poor and rural areas and expand the range of financial services that can be accessed over these platforms is challenging. This workshop aims to unpack key components of a successful strategy to build or link into mobile financial services, including partnerships, products, and agent networks. Using a case study and guided by experts in the field, the workshop leaves participants with a nuanced understanding of what it may take to successfully deploy and use a mobile financial services offering.

Power point available here.

 Review of Data Driven Decision Making Tools for Microfinance
The future success of microfinance will depend on the ability of microfinance service providers, networks, and funders to properly assess their markets and make sound decisions.  New, data-driven tools and analytic approaches promise to help the industry make better decision in the future and thus lead to improved economic and social outcomes within the industry.

Power points available here: Microfinance Opportunities, MicroSave, MIX, Nathan Associates

 Engaging the Private Sector: Models, Challenges, and Lessons
Partnering with the private sector is central to enterprise and market development. However, there are different models of engaging with the private sector such as: mobilizing them as donors; supporting more inclusive supply chains; marketing products and services to the bottom of the pyramid; or promoting new technologies and business innovation. This workshop - based on the experiences of Swisscontact, CSISA, CARE and Karisimbi Partners - discusses these different engagement models and identify challenges, risks and key success factors for each model. The workshop concludes with a harvesting of common issues and areas for further action learning and research.

Power point available here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Thursday, November 8
2:00-3:30

The Ultra Poor Graduation Model: Lessons in Impact and Scale-Up

This workshop will present recent findings from rigorous impact evaluations of programs for the ultra poor in Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, and Honduras, along with lessons in program implementation and scale-up from Haiti. The pilot programs are part of a CGAP-Ford Foundation-sponsored program to replicate and test BRAC’s Targeting the Ultra Poor program, a carefully sequenced set of services for the ultra poor, including consumption support, productive asset transfer, livelihood training, savings services, and healthcare. The “Graduation Model” is designed to enable ultra poor households to build livelihoods, assets, and reach food self-sufficiency. Innovations for Poverty Action is conducting randomized evaluations of graduation pilots in seven countries, including Ethiopia, with the Relief Society of Tigray, while Fonkoze is now scaling their graduation program in Haiti.

 Getting the Savings Behavior You Want: Lessons from India
While initial uptake of the savings program at Cashpor (an MFI in India) is robust, we are seeing an increase in dormancy.  Behavioral economics shows that traditional methods of incentives and financial education are not yielding the results needed to ensure customers are actively saving. In this session, Grameen Foundation and ideas42 actively engage participants in understanding the most relevant psychologies that matter when designing savings products. We share examples of innovative products that have used behavioral concepts in their design and end the session discussing how participants can use this approach in their own programs.

 Mobile Insurance Technology: A Microinsurance Game-Changer for Developing Markets
Mobile insurance (m-insurance) technology is transforming microinsurance delivery in developing markets. MicroEnsure has reached 4 million clients and grown by 20 times its initial size in 2 years through collaborating with mobile network operators (MNOs), insurers and facilitation partners across 5 developing countries. In spite of the company’s rapid outreach, effective m-insurance delivery is a challenging pursuit which requires flexible solutions, clear incentives to all involved parties, and a holistic understanding of the microinsurance market and evolving mobile technologies. This workshop highlights the key players and innovations in thought and technology necessary to offer m-insurance on a massive scale.

Power point available here: presentation, survey results

 The Role of M&E in Understanding and Effecting Change in Market Systems
Value chain projects commence implementation knowing much less than they might like about the complex and evolving social, market and environmental systems in which they work, and their information becomes out of date quickly. Uncertainty is an inevitable feature of value chain development. Effective projects adopt iterative learning approaches with monitoring and evaluation at their heart to improve their effectiveness over time and results in the long-run. In this session, the members of the GROOVE Learning Network - CARE, Practical Action, CHF and Conservation International - and Swisscontact will draw on the experience of their organizational change initiatives to facilitate a session where participants explore what change looks like in social, market and environmental systems and how best to adopt evidence- and learning-based approaches to achieve sustainable impact at scale.

 Helping Impoverished Farming Communities to Help Themselves:
Innovative Methods for Developing Farmer Skills and Accessing Profitable Markets

A majority of poor households are in rural areas with over 70% relying on agriculture for income. They represent a huge unsatisfied demand of smallholders needing extension services and access to markets. Three development organizations (ACDI/VOCA, CARE, Practical Action) have implemented solutions that build the capacity of rural communities to deliver extension services and to access markets. ACDI/VOCA shares lessons from implementing Sell More For More in East Africa. CARE/Practical Action presents results from use of the PAT/Kamayoqs methodology in Peru. This highly interactive workshop invites participants to share opinions through the use of ‘clicker’ response devices.

Power point available here.