FAU-DDRN-DFM - 1-day seminar

FAU-DDRN-DFM - 1-day seminar

Monday 19th November 2012, 09.00-17.00

Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, Frederiksberg

Room SPs03 (Ground floor, room 03, Ernest & Young Auditorium)

Can the private sector reduce poverty?

The role and impact of ‘Markets for the poor’ approaches and microfinance

Poverty reduction used to take centre stage for governments and donor agencies. However, along with a shift towards private sector responsibilities, new approaches to poverty reduction have popped up. Among those approaches, involving the private sector through ‘Markets for the poor’, ‘Pro-poor Growth’ and ‘Microfinance’ have received substantial attention and funding.

Though some progress has taken place in some parts of some countries, poverty continues to be a central feature in many countries and inequality continues to grow. So, apart from a few celebrated examples like China and Vietnam, limited progress seems to have taken place.

In order to discuss what the contributions and shortcoming of involving the private sector have been, the Association of Development Researchers in Denmark (FAU – www.fau.dk ) in collaboration with the Danish Development Research Network (DDRN – www.ddrn.dk ) and Danish Forum for Microfinance (DFM – www.mikrofinans.dk ) would like to invite researchers, practitioners and other interested for a 1-day seminar.

Program – Monday 19th November 2012:

09.00-09.45:         Registration (and coffee and tea)

09.45-10.00:         Welcome, by Søren Jeppesen (Chairman of FAU & CBS) and Christian Kruse (Chairman of DFM Board)

10.00-11.00:         1st Plenary session, by Ruth Stewart (Universities of London and Johannesburg), 'Is microfinance the solution to anything? The evidence for (and against) its contribution to poverty reduction' & Discussion

11.00-11.30:         Break, coffee, tea and water

11.30-12.30:         2nd Plenary session, by Frank Lusby (Action for Enterprise, USA), ’Collaboration with the private for Pro-poor market development)

12.30-13.30:         Lunch (served outside room SPs03)

13.30-13.45:         Introduction to the afternoon & Working groups, by Arne Wangel (Chairman of DDRN and DTU)

13.45-15.45:         Group sessions (2 groups with focus on different issues related to the the key notes and key themes (Group 1: Peter Blum Samuelsen (DFM) & Frank  Lusby, Group 2: Arne Wangel (DDRN) & Ruth Stewart) – coffee, tea and refreshments will be served

15.45-16.45:         Plenary (short presentation of group work issues and joint debate on key themes)

16.45-17.00:         Wrap up, by Søren Jeppesen and Arne Wangel

Registration:

Participation is for free with refreshment and lunch included, however, registration is needed as the number of seats is limited. You register through emailing to FAU (fau@diis.dk), no later than Friday 9.11. 12 o’clock noon.

Sponsors:

The seminar is sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Danida.

The other organizers were:

 FAU (the Association of Development Researchers in Denmark),

DDRN (the Danish Development Research network) and

DFM (the Danish Forum for Microfinance).

For further details, see the slides by the two international keynote speakers Frank Lusby and Ruth Stewart here or contact Assoc. Prof. Søren Jeppesen at sj.ikl@cbs.dk