Youth Portal for the Latin America and the Caribbean

Gender and rural microfinance in Africa

Over the last decades, the governmental and non-governmental sector in Africa made important efforts to facilitate access of the rural poor to financial services, in particular through microfinance. Although the majority of microfinance organizations are also targeting women, in the current process of innovation and expansion of rural finance, gender dimension has not been always taken into account.

In the framework of the Regional Capacity-building and Knowledge Management for Gender Equality Programme, FAO-IFAD and PROCASUR launch the Learning Route: Gender and rural microfinance – New approaches, services and products in Africa, a practitioner-to-practitioner training in order to increase awareness about gender differences in services and products, as well as strengthen women’s access to micro financial services. The Learning Route (Uganda, 12 to 20 March 2011) will sensitize and train a selected group of key practitioners of the rural microfinance industry in the South on how to scale-up best practices, the solutions available today in the rural finance sector and increase the understanding of gender issues.

A Learning Route on Gender and Rural Microfinance

This Route´s objective is to identify and analyze main obstacles, opportunities and strategies in the design and implementation of Gendered Rural Microfinance Programmes in order to reduce the learning costs of policy makers, MFI staff, partners and beneficiaries involved and contribute to the empowerment of stakeholders. .

This objective will be achieved through face-to-face learning in the field, taking innovative rural development initiatives in Uganda as a source of knowledge.

Objectives of the Learning Route

The main objective is to identify, analyze and think jointly the main obstacles, opportunities and strategies for the design and implementation of Gendered Microfinance Programs in order to reduce the learning costs of policy makers, MFI staff, partners and beneficiaries involved, and to expedite the execution of Gendered MF programs through stakeholders’ empowerment.

The specific learning objectives are:

   1. To identify innovative and successful Microfinance Gendered Delivery Models with scaling-up potential
Dates and locations

The Learning Route will be carried out between March 12 and 20th, 2010, travelling across various districts and communities in Uganda.

Before and after the Learning Route it will be mandatory for participants to take part of the on-line activities for thematic induction and peer to peer support.

Participants’ profile

Rural microfinance practitioners interested in participating are invited to apply by February 1st, 2011. The selection committee will give preference to:



Basic English comprehension is required.

Inscription and Queries

The training fee is USD 3000 per participant which includes all the technical and operational services required within March 12th to the 20th such as:

    * ·
    * · Technical and operational assistance before, during and after the training
    * ·
    * ·
    * · Aerial and terrestrial transportation inside Uganda, including airport pickup and delivery
    * · Pedagogical materials
    * · Travel insurance from March 12th to 20th .

   Early application is encouraged; deadline is February 1st, 2011.



For more information please e‐mail or call us

Diana Puyo, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it dirección de correo electrónico está protegida contra robots de spam. Necesitas activar JavaScript para poder verla

Fred Iga Luganda, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it dirección de correo electrónico está protegida contra robots de spam. Necesitas activar JavaScript para poder verla

Ariel Halpern, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it dirección de correo electrónico está protegida contra robots de spam. Necesitas activar JavaScript para poder verla

Phone: + 56 2 341 63 67

Web: www.procasur.org

We will be pleased to assist you!

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