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16 - Money for the money-less: what developments for microfinance?

Best Practices to help people having no access to traditional loans materialise their projects.

For a large part of the world population, excluded from the usual circuits, micro-finance is often the only solution. It takes on different forms – transfers from migrants, micro-insurance, micro-savings, micro-credit – and has existed for a very long time in one form or another. But micro-finance seems to be expanding, and is even becoming institutionalised. It is estimated that 180 million people in 130 countries have already had recourse to these micro-credits, modest loans initiated and followed up by specific associations and organisations, to which we can now add a number of banks and even the internet, a platform for exchange between micro-savings and micro-loans.
Micro-credit is booming, but it also has its cynics, who would like to see micro-enterprises financed through equity financing rather. Micro-equity financing rather than micro-credit? Whichever the case, it is still micro-finance. And even if it is not a universal solution, it must at least be given the credit for working.

14h30 - Cross perspectives of young people on microfinance around the world, leaded by:

Thomas RICOLFI - Project Manager - Reporters d’Espoirs (France)

One member of each following association:
AsieMut - Latitude responsable - Terre à l'An Vert
Benoit LAPOINTE - Office Franco-Québecois pour la Jeunesse (Canada)
One student from: Lycée technique de Nkolbisson de Yaoundé (Cameroon)
Céline RENKIN - Haute Ecole Libre de Mosane (Belgium)

15h30 - Plenary session: Special Guest: Youssou N’DOUR (Senegal) Testimony from a committed international artist.

A singer-songwriter and musician, Youssou N’DOUR, named “African Artist of the Century” in 1999, is an artist and entrepreneur committed to great humanitarian causes.

He created Youssou N’Dour Foundation in 2003, as part of his commitment to sustainable development in Africa. It is dedicated to vulnerable populations and children in particular. In 2008, Youssou N’Dour launched BIRIMA, a microcredit organisation supporting project developers who cannot have access to credit because they do not have guarantees of property ownership.

An icon of Africa, he was listed in 2007 Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People.

16h15 - Round table:

Youssou N’DOUR - Founder & Abdoulaye DIENG - Director - Birima, micro-credit organization (Senegal)

The great King Birima spoke little but always honored his word, and his people greatly respected him. His code of honor inspired the idea of Birima, a new microcredit scheme supported by Youssou N'Dour.
In Birima, the bond between lender and borrower is the bond of trust.
Birima helps the people of Senegal start their own businesses and develop small enterprises.

Download their PowerPoint presentation: Powerpoint Youssou N'DOUR / ABDOULAYE SAW

Olivier BARRAU - President - Alternative Insurance Company (Haïti)

In Haiti,more than half of the inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day, and three quarters live on less than two dollars a day. Thus, only between 250,000 and 300,000 people there can afford a standard insurance coverage. Alternative Insurance Company, headed by Olivier BARRAU, was created in Port-au-Prince to enable deprived inhabitants to afford insurance coverage.
AIC is already covering 50,000 Haitians and plans to reach 300,000 of them within 5 years. Olivier BARRAU’s company is supported by Bill and Melinda GATES Foundation as well as the ILO (International Labour Organization).

Download his PowerPoint presentation: Powerpoint Olivier BARRAU