MDI-Southern Africa Course Descriptions
Facilitators: Michel Adjibodou and David Miller
CED is a holistic way of fostering sustainable development at the grassroots within regions around the globe. This two day session will bring into focus why we are motivated to do development work and some of the core principles and practices of creating community based and owned initiatives to fight poverty and build equity. According to the Centre for Sustainable Community Development, “CED is both a new vision of community development and a new direction for the practice of development. The vision and direction of CED are combined and reflected in the work of those who are practicing a CED approach to change. CED may take different forms from one community to the next, but the CED approach does have some common principles, processes, strategies and tactics. CED integrates ends and means in a principled way. CED principles are grounded in a belief in the capability and responsibility of people to undertake community-based and community-directed economic initiatives for the good of all community members and for the planet.”
Course Objectives
As a result of participating in this course, participants are expected to gain greater understanding of:
• the impact of social exclusion upon the economy of a community,
• the basic principles of community organizing
• the link between social movements, and institutional change for development.
• the basic critical skills necessary to develop strategic CED intervention.
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Choose from one Track from the following:
Facilitator: Grace Oloo
Successful navigation of the ship through the economic turbulence will require that both middle and senior management of organizations understand, monitor and control financial performance and risks that attend the daily operations of their institutions. This module, therefore, introduces tools that enable managers to understand, monitor and control all phases of performance; assess and control different risks and consequently create performance monitoring reports that assess their progress in achieving sustainability and other key goals.
By the end of the Training Participants will:
Acquire a general understanding of Planning for microfinance institutions and value of financial management as a key monitoring and evaluation tool for sustainability.
Course Objectives
Specifically participants will be able to:
• Acquire an understanding of planning for a sustainable microfinance Institution.
• Define each key financial statement and the portfolio reports for Microfinance Institution and identify the components, purpose and importance of these financial statements.
• Define and explain financial ratio analysis and the key questions that it answers
• Articulate each of the financial operating efficiency group of ratios ,calculate and demonstrate an understanding on their use and desired trends
• Articulate each of the portfolio quality group of ratios ,calculate and demonstrate an understanding on their use and desired trends
• Define and describe the costs of loans from the borrower’s perspective: financial, transaction and opportunity costs.
• Identify key areas that they could make changes to minimize each of the above costs as a strategy for client retention.
• Define and articulate key performance areas for an efficient and effective Microfinance Institution
• Acquire a general overview of delinquency management for a microfinance Institution
Facilitator: Evans Maphenduka
This course concentrates on two managerial challenges microfinance institutions face. It identifies, describes and stimulates debate on the human resources issues of staffing and training, and performance management in a microfinance institution. It is designed for practitioners who want to more effectively manage their staff, and is, therefore, very practical.
The lessons utilize real-life situations and include presentations, case studies and group work.
Course Objectives:
• Design comprehensive job descriptions for different staff in a microfinance organization
• Identify and define different recruitment strategies
• Define and discuss the industry benchmarks for performance measurement
• Discuss the importance of developing a well- motivated staff to boost performance
• Design an incentive scheme for different staff levels in a microfinance institution to enhance productivity.
• Develop practical training plans for different staffing responsibilities in a microfinance institution
• Identify and discuss different mentoring strategies for field staff
• Define and discuss the available training tools and techniques for field staff
Course topics will include
• Hiring the right field staff and training strategies
• Designing winning performance management systems
• Motivation and compensation strategies (including incentive schemes)
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Facilitator: Ruth Dueck Mbeba
Risk and risk management are popular topics within the business world generally and the microfinance sector is no exception. The sector has developed rapidly in the past 30 years to meet the growing demand for a variety of financial services. As growth and complexity increase, so do the risks and challenges. This track is designed to provide the participant with an overall understanding of risk and risk management strategies for MFIs. It will identify major risks faced by an MFI and provide useful insights on how to mitigate these threats to the institution by discussing the development and implementation of appropriate strategies, processes and controls.
Course Objectives:
1. Gain an overview of the risks facing microfinance institutions.
2. Identify the role of board governance, internal controls and internal audits in the risk management framework.
3. Provide overall strategies of risk management in MFIs particularly for growth and change management.
4. Appreciate a market-led, customer-oriented approach to providing products and services in order to achieve the MFI’s objectives.
5. Recognize internal controls as the key mitigate for operating risks.
6. Present an approach for the design of an effective system of internal controls through preventive controls: people, paper (reporting), and money.
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Facilitators: Michel Adjibodou and David Miller
The manner by which information is collected, managed, stored, distributed and used has a direct impact upon the outcome of a program. It is this compilation of knowledge that becomes an essential resource for community-based development organizations. Its value is measured by the collective experience, information, awareness, learning, and skills of the members of an organization or community. A Knowledge Worker is someone who can effectively use this resource to define problems, identify priorities and select alternative strategies. This course will look at a variety of informational tools for building knowledge such as Wealth Mapping, Participatory Action Research, Photo Voice, Digital Story Telling, Qualitative and Quantitative Research, Electronic Media Messaging, Data Sourcing and Distribution, Blogging, Case Writing, Artifact Collection and others. It will pay particular attention to ways of making these tools available to local community-based organizations. By the end of the course, participants will have tested a few of these tools in a field assignment.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, it is expected that participants will:
• Gain a broad understanding of the concept of Participatory Action Research or Participatory Approaches in the context of CED
• Acquire greater understanding of various ethical issues in conducting research in communities
• Gain greater knowledge about participatory tools and techniques through practice, and how and when these techniques could be used
• Have the opportunity to gain greater insights about participatory research and program planning through sharing and discussing with colleagues and facilitators
• Practice better ways of doing participatory evaluation
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Facilitator: Lemmy Manje
This course will identify and assess various institutional options for the sustainable small enterprise development. The course will largely focus on small enterprise initiatives and interventions based on pure market facilitation principles. The course will also define and examine sub-sector and value chain approaches to small enterprise development which are appropriate examples for pure market development facilitation. Lessons learned will be drawn and shared using specific case examples. The sessions will make use of applied learning to real-world situations and include presentations, case studies and group work. The case studies include small enterprise development projects and programs that have been successful in improving the performance and competiveness of small enterprises as well as integrating them into productive markets. Participants will have an opportunity to learn and share on current thinking and practice on the subject matter and analyze the implications of the current trends for the future of promoting sustainable enterprise development. Participants will therefore are encouraged to bring cases and experiences to share and analyze.
Course Objectives
Course participants will
• Review and discuss the conceptual frameworks and components of sustainable enterprise development. • Define and discuss market development principles and practice for sustainable enterprise development.
• Analyze the challenges, successes, prospects and lessons learned in promoting sustainable enterprise development.
• Review the critical aspects on programming of sustainable enterprise development interventions.
• Define and use sub-sector and value chain research and upgrading tools.
• Define the strategic directions and future for promoting sustainable small enterprise development.
Practitioner and Donor Summit on Sustainable Enterprise Development in Southern Africa (Friday)
This one-day mini summit brings together practitioners, researchers, donors and relevant government representatives in Southern Africa to share and discuss experiences, practice and policy issues pertaining to sustainable enterprise development. Some of the main 'threads' that will be explored in this mini summit, through the consideration of practical experiences, include:
• Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Market facilitation through non-financial and financial services to promote and create sustainable enterprises.
• Making Markets Work for Small Enterprises: Combining competitiveness with pro-poor perspectives in integrating small scale enterprises in productive markets.
• Private Sector Engagement: Using large private sector firms for sustainable business support service provision and improved transactional relationships with small enterprises.
• Effective Value Chain Interventions Approaches; Strengthening and upgrading sub sector value chains with the greatest potential for sustainable small enterprise development. What have we learned so far on Value Chain Analysis and Upgrading in the context of Southern Africa? What methodologies and strategies are working?
Thematically, sessions will look at:
Promoting Sustainable Enterprise Development in Southern Africa; Practice, Challenges, Opportunities and Lessons Learned
Focus on small enterprise development projects and programs that seek to develop small enterprises in a sustainable manner by using various market facilitation interventions. The discussions include issues pertaining to project design, implementation, exist strategies, challenges and lessons learned. What is working? What is not working? The overall objective is to foster good practice on sustainable enterprise development among donors and development practitioners.
Improving competiveness, performance and participation of small enterprises in mainstream markets; Challenges, Opportunities and Lessons Learned
Focus on interactions of small enterprises in mainstream markets. What are the best ways of improving competitiveness of small scale enterprises? Discussions include case study on the positive and negative impacts of large chain stores and supermarkets on small enterprises. The overall objective is to influence Small Enterprise Development policy on creating of appropriate business environments for integration of small enterprises in mainstream or productive markets.
Summit Objectives
Participants will:
• be informed, and brought up to date, on new initiatives, emerging good practices, materials and analysis on the design, implementation and sustainable enterprise development projects and programs.
• make contact and network with a wide range of people working within small enterprise development.