GRASSROOTS NEWS
Grassroots represented at the “18th Microcredit Summit”.
Anna Kanze of Grassroots team will be speaking at a session on “Frontier Social Investing: Putting Impact First” at the Microcredit Summit on Frontier Innovations in Financial Inclusion (March 14-17, 2016 in Abu Dhabi, UAE). This Microcredit Summit will focus on microfinance and financial inclusion strategies with a greater emphasis on impact investing. Read more about the other speakers attending the Summit, here. Each year, the Microcredit Summit attracts ~700 attendees, including microfinance practitioners, funders and investors, corporations, government policymakers and regulators, advocates and support organizations, global development agencies, and researchers from the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. The learning agenda will guide and facilitate discussions on how these actors can contribute to the success of the post-2015 Global Goals for Sustainable Development, the 2020 Universal Financial Access goal, and the World Bank 2030 goals.
GIIRS gives excellent rating for IFIF
We are pleased to announce that the India Financial Inclusion Fund (IFIF) and its portfolio companies have completed the GIIRS rating for 2015 and received an excellent rating. Many thanks to the IFIF companies and the B Lab team for their support throughout the rating process!
GIIRS highlights Prospero’s performance
The Prospero Microfinanzas Fund and its nine portfolio companies have completed the GIIRS rating process for 2015. Based on our strong performance on the impact assessment, Prospero will be highlighted during the SPTF Social Investor Meeting on March 3. Congratulations to our portfolio companies for their performance!
SPTF Social Investor Meeting and Impact Investing Returns
Paul DiLeo and Anna Kanze will be attending the Social Performance Task Force Social Investor Working Group Meeting in New York on March 2-3. Paul will be joined by Bjoern Struewer, CEO of Roots of Impact, and Giselle Leung, Director at the GIIN, to discuss “Measuring Returns and Setting Return Expectations”, and the importance for impact investment of providing evidence of real financial returns achieved, setting return expectations, and measuring not just financial but also social and environmental returns. This discussion is part of a series of commentary and articles on the subject. See here for an article by Paul and articles and commentary from other industry leaders collected by the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR).
Africa Board Fellows (ABF) program on governance
Paul DiLeo and Anna Kanze are continuing their engagement as subject matter experts for the multi-year ABF program to strengthen MFI governance in the region. Paul and Anna will lead a webinar in April on how Directors can help management set and oversee institutional strategy. Paul will then return to Capetown in May for the third in-person seminar for Fellows.
Financial Inclusion Equity Council
Amit Brar of Grassroots will attend the FIEC meeting in Amsterdam in April 12-13 on behalf of Grassroots and Caspian Impact Investment Adviser.
