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 microfinance. The majority of microfinance organizations are also targeting women. However, in the current process of innovation and expansion of rural finance, gender dimension have not been always taking 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 to increase awareness about gender differences in services and products and strengthen women´s access to micro finance 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 and solutions available today in the rural finance sector and increase 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-fac

 e learning the field, taking innovative rural development initiatives in Uganda as source of knowledge.

Moreover, the Learning Route pursues the following specific objectives:
1. To identify innovative microfinance services successfully customized to the needs of rural men and women.
2. To exchange lessons on strategies to introduce microfinance services addressing gender differences.
3. To understand environment conditions that enable or prevent the financial empowerment of the rural poor.

Application

Rural microfinance practitioners interested in participating are invited to apply by February 1st, 2011. The selection committee will give preference to:
1. IFAD and FAO professional staff and consultants from Africa and Latin- America.
2. Representatives of microfinance institutions.
3. Representatives of rural women’s and farmers’ organizations.

Costs and scholarships
The training fee is USD 3000 per participant and includes all technical and operational services required. All participants have
to pay for their travel expenses to and from Kampala, Uganda.
Organizers established a Scholarship Fund that will cover partially the fee of those that cannot ´t afford it completely.
Interested candidates are invited to apply accordingly.
More information
interested in receiving the application form and detailed information on the Learning Route application process, scholarships
and other related issues, please write to Mr. Ariel Halpern and Mr. Fred Iga Luganda to the following email address:mailto: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .