CEMS Magazine | May 2011
WRITER: Cleo Biron CEMS Student Board representative, LSE The London School of Economics & Political Science
CEMS Club London instrumental in bringing insight into Microfinance On 4th March, a group of over 150 students and practitioners all sharing a common interest in microfinance gathered at the Old Theatre on Houghton Street. Organised by the LSESU Sustainable Investments Society and CEMS Club London, with the assistance of non-financial partners LSESU Microfinance Society and The Student Initiative, this marked the first ever student-run Insights into Microfinance Conference at the London School of Economics. This conference brought the attention of numerous high-profile speakers, from around the world, all well-versed in the field of microfinance: from Malcolm Harper, a leading UK academic in enterprise development, focusing on microfinance, to Marcus Fedder, a co-founder of Agora Microfinance Partners LLP, Eduardo Carlos Ferriera from Brazil, the CEO of Microinvest, to Sean Thorninn, Deputy Head of Development at Amret Microfinance Institution in Cambodia, along with LSE students past and present, through a round-table discussion on how current students could get involved with microfinance.
Three panel discussions to get to the root of the issue The structure of this conference consisted of three panel discussions, concluding with the aforementioned roundtable discussion. The first panel focused on the Commercialisation of Microfinance. The second panel discussion dealt with Microfinance Investment Vehicles (MIVs). The third panel aimed to answer whether Microfinance is meeting its social objectives. For a long time, social benefits and gains were assumed to be an automatic result of microfinance. In today's changing environment where the sector is facing more criticism, there is a need to peel back microfinance to its fundamental core.
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From the discussion, it became apparent that it is very difficult to measure social impact on a standardised scale. There will always be differences in the way MFIs want to make an impact and the indicators they use to measure this. Issues of reverse causality and control of variable became a limiting factor in the way MFIs measure impact. Overall, the event was deemed a great success for all parties involved! CEMS was glad to sponsor such a pioneering type of conference and associate itself with such social initiatives.