Symbiotics NewsWatch #204, 03 April 2012

Apr. 03	Co-operatives as the Key to Responsible Microfinance  The poor and the poorest have a right to be serviced affordably, appropriately and accessibly, reads the Millennium Development Goal campaign named end poverty 2015. Source: Microfinance Focus
Mar. 29	Microfinance to Reach Rural Poor with ADB Loan to Partner Banks ADB will help entrepreneurs, micro and small enterprise owners and poor households access financial services in the central and western regions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with a CNY130 million loan facility to partner banks to help them build their wholesale lending capacity to microcredit companies (MCCs). Source: Asian Development Bank
Mar. 29	BlueOrchard Finance and BlueOrchard Investments have decided to pursue their activities separately in the future With the strategic goal to responsibly build on their core competencies, BlueOrchard Finance (Fixed Income) and BlueOrchard Investments (Private Equity) have decided that each company will pursue their activities separately in the future. Source: BlueOrchard
Mar. 28	Is Sustainable Local Development a Persuasive Alternative to Microfinance? Milford Bateman has made a cogent case for community-based financial institutions that prioritise sustainable local solutions. Source: The Guardian Poverty Matters Blog
Mar. 28	Africa: Can We Achieve Financial Inclusion Faster in Bank-led or Mobile-led Markets? A few weeks back Bill Maurer (of IMTFI) and I wrote a short piece for the PYMNTS.com website’s end of year round-up of issues in the payment space. In it we predicted domestic payments in Africa was a neglected topic, likely to come up more often in the future. Source: CGAP
Mar. 28	ILO: 500m People Access Micro-insurance Covers The International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Micro-insurance Innovation Facility has put the number of low income earners covered by various forms of micro-insurance products at 500 million. It made this confirmation in its 2011 annual report that was released to the public recently. Source: This Day Live
Mar. 27	Microfinance: Why Care About Institution Building?  David Roodman's book, Due Diligence, shapes today's public conversation about microfinance. Time magazine, The Washington Post and others, have picked up on the book and its message. With, as his subtitle says, an impertinent but serious, approach, Roodman's book attempts to answer a basic question: Does microfinance work? Source: The Huffington Post