Welcome on PlaNet Finance Middle East website!
The workshop "University Meets Microfinance @ Leibniz Universität Hannover" on June 17th and 18th gathered around 80 interested students from 20 universities in Europe, microfinance practitioners and researchers. Among the speakers were experts from the GTZ, Oikocredit, Planet Rating, PlaNet Finance and CERISE, who presented Social Performance frameworks and measurement tools; William Pariente, a professor researching at the MIT Poverty Lab, who shared theory and application of Impact Measurement methodologies; and PhD- and Master students from different European universities who presented their research approaches to the subject. The workshop was organized by PlaNet Finance and the Institute for Money and International Finance of the Leibniz Universität Hannover and supported by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Union and Ernst & Young. All workshop presentations are available at www.universitymeetsmicrofinance.eu
Begun in 2002, the partnership between PlaNet Finance & the energy company GDF Suez will be extended to 2013.
GDF SUEZ is currently involved in three of PlaNet Finance’s programs.
- Entreprendre en Banlieue: an initiative promoting microbusinesses in rundown outer areas of France’s main urban centres. Its aim is to raise awareness among local unemployed adults and to support them in exploring opportunities for setting up their own microbusinesses.
- FinanCités: provides equity finance to enable small businesses in deprived areas which have been going for at least a year to develop and grow.
- Microfinance & Energy: aimed at enabling disadvantaged groups to access
and develop renewable energy sources and to support sustainable energy use. The program was developed in China and Brazil between 2006 and 2009 and will be rolled out in Morocco and Egypt in 2010.
GDF Suez is also backing the development of a European microcredit internet platform. Known as MicroWorld, it promotes social responsibility by allowing web users to help entrepreneurs in the southern hemisphere to develop their microbusinesses by offering them financial support.