Nepal is hosting a world summit on Microfinance on February 14-16 as the country continues its long battle to expand and consolidate the service delivery institutions.
The main output of the summit will be the joint declaration and an action plan for building a strong and inclusive microfinance sector. The three-day long conference — the first of its kind in Nepal — has a slogan 'Reaching the Poorest of the Poor for Sustainable Income'.
"Microfinance is an effective tool for poverty alleviation," said Dr Harihar Dev Pant, chairman of the National Steering Committee, adding that the summit is intended to facilitate a broader dialogue between the stakeholders and create a common understanding among them, including policymakers and politicians to make micro finance a priority issue in the national development strategy.
The participants will discuss their experiences and jointly decide on the future course of microfinance in Nepal that has over 3,600 microfinance institutions providing services to roughly one million families.
According to Dr Pant, Nepal has an ambitious target of reaching out to poorest of the poor that is bottom 20 per cent.
Some 300 participants — policy makers, practitioners, rural development, micro-finance development and commercial banks and cooperatives and representatives, NGOs and INGOs — from around the world are taking part in the summit.
The first Micro finance summit was held in Washington in 1997.
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