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MDI-Ghana Course Descriptions
- Microfinance Essential Skills
- Pro-Poor Market Development (PPED)
- Community Economic Development (CED)
- Please be aware when selecting your Courses/Tracks that there are prerequisites for some of the choices
- You may select a different Track/Course for Week One and Week Two as long as prerequisites are observed
- While you may register for only one week of the Institute a two week enrollment is encouraged as the learning has been designed to be progressive building from day to day and week one through week two (and prerequisites may apply)
- All week One and Full Two Week registrants must attend the Full Day Introduction to Community Economic Development Opening Session on Monday March 31 and all Week Two and Full Two Week registrants must attend the Closing Session Full Circle Closing Session and Dinner on Saturday April 12
- Academic Credit students must attend the entire two weeks of the program in addition to completion of assessment and project work (see additional information below)
Courses taken in the MDI can be used to earn up to six academic credits toward the 39 credits required for a master's degree in Community Economic Development (CED) at Southern New Hampshire University. Fees are $200 for three academic credits and $400 for six academic credits. Please see additional details on the Enrollment and Costs page.
Southern New Hampshire University's School of CED, located in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA is the oldest graduate program of its kind in the United States. Those students who garnered academic credits through their participation in MDI courses and who seek a graduate degree can apply to the School of CED's low-residency Summer Intensive Program based in Manchester, NH Our fully accredited 13-month intensive master's degree program requires that students spend only two six-and-a-half week summer sessions in class in the United States; between summers they take courses online and carry out a project in their home communities. The program is designed to serve practitioners committed to social change and interested in gaining skills, forming networks and learning from the experience of others. For more information click here
- There will be field trips focused on microfinance and enterprise development projects each week of the Institute. See Course Descriptions and the Special Offerings page for more details.
- Panel discussions each week will focus on Savings Led Microfinance, Networks-Apexes and Government Role in Microfinance. See Course Descriptions and the Special Offerings page for more details.
- Each week evening dinner speakers will explore Community Based Microfinance, Global Climate Change and Rural Banking. See the Special Offerings page for more details.
After two weeks of learning in classes, panels and in the field we will come together for a final session on Saturday evening April 12 to share our reflections on what we have learned, what questions have been stimulated and how we want to move our work forward once we return home. A final celebratory meal will give participants and facilitators a chance to have fun, say farewell and make plans to stay connected as colleagues and practitioners once the institute has ended.
This track has been designed to offer both novice practitioners and those with significant experience opportunities to learn new skills, share their experiences and encounter the cutting edge issues confronting the Microfinance field today.
Tuesday April 1 Morning Session
Facilitator - Ms. Aba Quainoo
This module seeks to present an introduction to the origin of microfinance and the significance of microfinance to national economies and global financial flows. The module aims at introducing participants to the expected and actual impact of microfinance on poverty, the role of microfinance in poverty reduction, principles and philosophy of microfinance, regulation and supervision of microfinance, interest rate policies, microfinance donor Projects, and Gender and Microfinance. This module will also examine what is meant by development, especially in the rural areas of Africa. The development of microfinance institutions over the last two decades and a number of success stories have lent broad credence to the idea that microfinance is a mayor stimulus for development in the countries of the South, and a powerful instrument for combating poverty. However, is this idea borne out by the facts and the way in which the microfinance sector has evolved? Is microfinance adapted to all disadvantaged areas, including the most remote ones? Under what conditions can it be a tool for development and combating poverty in particularly disadvantaged rural areas? This module is an investigation of these questions.
Tuesday April 1 Afternoon Session
Facilitator - Ms. Aba Quainoo
Microfinance is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to the poor. People living in poverty, like everyone else, need a diverse range of financial instruments to run their businesses, build assets, stabilize consumption, and shield themselves against risks. Financial services needed by the poor include working capital loans, consumer credit, savings, pensions, insurance, and money transfer services. The poor normally address their need for financial services through a variety of financial relationships, mostly informal. Credit is available from informal commercial and non-commercial money-lenders but usually at a very high cost to borrowers. Savings services are available through a variety of informal relationships like savings clubs, rotating savings and credit associations, and other mutual savings societies that have the tendency of being erratic and insecure. This module examines the diverse microfinance methodologies that have evolved for meeting the financial access needs of the poor. Wednesday
April 2 and Thursday April 3 Two Full Day Sessions
Facilitator - Mr. Michael Spingler
The nature and potential consequences of business risks that MFIs face each day is becoming more complicated and of greater significance. The rate of client growth, the increasing complexity of product, delivery and information systems, the higher expectation of clients, donors and governments and increasing competition can affect organizing in ways for which mangers often find themselves unprepared. This course is designed to provide the participant with an overall understanding of risk management and how it is an integral part of the overall business plan of an organization. It will identify major risks faced by an MFI and provide useful insights on how to reduce these threats to the institution by discussing the development and implementation of appropriate strategies, processes and controls.
Friday April 4 Full Day Session
Facilitator - Mr. Jeffrey Ashe
Microfinance is a development success story with 93,000,000 borrowers worldwide, but what of the hundreds of millions who are too poor and too distant to ever be reached by MFIs. This course focuses on a burgeoning alternative microfinance model that shows how to reach those left out at scale and low cost. Instead loans delivered through increasingly sophisticated MFIs this “savings led” highly decentralized model takes the opposite tack. Thousands of informal saving and lending groups are trained to operate on their own with expansion driven by group leaders training new groups. Groups mobilize their own savings and lend it at interest with interest building the group’s loan fund instead paid to an external lender. The day long course will focus on Oxfam America's “Saving for Change” savings led experience in Mali, Senegal and Cambodia that the instructor designed and directs supplemented by case studies on similar initiatives he has written from Nepal (Pact), India (CRS) and Zimbabwe (CARE). The course will give an overview of the skills needed to launch similar initiatives with a brief look at how ROSCAS – tontines, susus, merry go rounds, etc. – operate and how savings led programs build on these traditions with simple training delivered by generalist NGOs. Students will be provided copies of the Saving for Change operational manuals, training protocols, MIS system and evaluation framework. In the afternoon session a panel of microfinance experts from Ghana will join Mr. Ashe to explore the community based microfinance in a Ghanaian context. Panelists in addition to Jeffrey Ashe will include Prof. William Steel, Mr. Jeffrey Ashe, Mr. Vincent King-Arthur, Mr. William Derban, Mr. Richard Appietu, Mrs. Aba Quainoo (facilitator).
Saturday April 5 Full Day Field Visit to Susu Collectors
(Description Forthcoming - also see Detailed description in Special Offerings)
Monday April 7 Morning Session
Facilitator - Prof. Kofi Awusabo-Asare
Microfinance, as a concept and practice, is expected to achieve the main objective of providing avenues for a group of people and individuals, who ordinarily would not have qualified for loans, to access financial services. As an approach, it is meant to provide clients with services. It is therefore important to know who the clients are, where they are located, their well being, and to understand their perceptions and motives for accessing financial services. Expected outcome
At the end of the course participants would have:
- Been introduced to the broad socio-cultural context of potential microfinance clients;
- Assessed the socio-spatial dimensions of potential areas for microfinance;
- Identified strategies for dealing with categories of clients for microfinance; and
- Been introduced to tools for measuring the social performance of microfinance institutions (MFI)
The course will examine the products available within the context of the background of potential clients of microfinance products. Among the issues to be discussed are the socio-economic structures available within communities, background of Ghanaians accessing microfinance services, perception of well being/concept of poverty, location as an element and perception towards use of finance. These issues will be discussed within the context of gender and the types of microfinance services that are available and the social missions of MFI. For instance, the type of financial services and disbursement targeting female and male farmers would be expected to vary from those targeting fishing communities.
Outline
Social mission of microfinance: belief that access to financial services can help improve the lives of clients; Among the question such a mission raises is the definition of the ‘poor’ and poverty, (subjective and objective measurements of poverty);
- Socio-demographic characteristics of population – age, sex, occupation, location; use of these indicators as measures of the outreach of programmes; Gendered and spatial dimensions of poverty in Ghana.
- Concepts and measures of well-being – socio-economic status (social indicators such as level of education, occupation and income); wealth quintiles and their implications for targeting. Measurements of poverty in Ghana in the last 15 years; Indicators used in and assessment of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategies;
- Concept of social performance and Social Performance Assessment (SPA) Tools: Dimensions of Social Performance (intent and design, internal systems and activities, output and outcomes; SPA Tools developed by Woller (2006); Tools for measuring success of MFI in fulfilling its social mission
Participants will be requested to bring along the Vision and Mission Statements of their Institutions
Monday April 7 Afternoon Session
Facilitator – Prof. William Steel
This course investigates trade-offs and strategies involved in pursuing the “dual bottom line” of social and financial objectives. Using a case study approach, the focus is on the objectives, benefits, risks and pitfalls of socially-oriented NGOs and other microfinance institutions taking a more commercial approach and becoming licensed for savings mobilization. Issues for commercial banks wishing to go down-market using microfinance methodologies are also considered.
Tuesday April 8 Morning Session
Facilitator - Ms. Aba Quainoo
Globally, microfinance has emerged as a leading and effective strategy for poverty reduction with the potential for far-reaching impact in transforming the lives of poor people. Microfinance can facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as National Policies that target poverty reduction, empowering women, assisting vulnerable groups, and improving standards of living. Since the beginning of government involved in microfinance in the 1950s, the sub-sector in some countries has operated without specific policy guidelines and goals. This partially accounts for the slow growth of the sub-sector, lack of direction, fragmentation and lack of coordination. Partly due to the lack of direction, there has not been a coherent approach to dealing with the constraints facing the sub-sector. Among the constraints are inappropriate institutional arrangements, poor regulatory environment, inadequate capacities, lack of coordination and collaboration, poor institutional linkages, no specific set of criteria developed to categorize beneficiaries, channeling of funds by governments agencies, lack of linkages between formal and informal financial institutions, inadequate skills and professionalism, and inadequate capital. Better coordination and collaboration among key stakeholders including the development partners, government and other agencies, could help to better integrate microfinance with the development of the overall financial sector.
This situation compels national governments in developing countries to formulated policy frameworks for microfinance in order to improve outreach, ensure the sustainability of the Institutions and the industry as a whole to achieve poverty reduction.
Topics for this Module
- Government’s Role in Microfinance
- Policy Framework for Microfinance
- The Role of Microfinance Stakeholders in Microfinance
- Institutional Arrangements for Sustaining Microfinance
Tuesday April 8 Afternoon Session
Facilitator – Prof. William Steel
Can the lessons from microfinance help solve the problems facing agricultural finance? Although the high risks and costs involved make financing agriculture especially difficult to do sustainably, examination of the lessons of both failures and successes leads to a number of principles that can be applied to design “agricultural microfinance” programs. These involve a combination of suitable methodologies, risk management, and institution-building.
Wednesday April 9 Full Day Field Trip MFIs and Their Group Clients
(Description Forthcoming - also see detailed description in Special Offerings) (Rural Bank, Savings and Loans Companies, Financial NGOs)
Facilitators: Ms. Aba Quainoo, Prof. William Steel, Dr. David O. Andah
Thursday April 10 Morning Session
Facilitator - Dr. David O. Andah
The course reviews various issues related to truth in lending and borrowers and lenders responsibilities. It will further discuss the SEEP’s framework for developing and implementation of pro-client approach to consumer protection. This covers the self –regulatory ethical responsibilities of the MFIs and consumer education of the clients on their responsibilities and rights to protect their interests.
Thursday April 10 Afternoon Session
Facilitator - Ms. Aba Quainoo
Generally, women constitute the majority of the poor in rural areas. They are however, economically active but it is believed that they are more disadvantaged than men in accessing financial services. This situation is related to their access to productive resources particularly farming land. Even where women have access to financial resources, they have little or no bargaining power in their relationship with the financial institutions. It is observed that in most cases, credit programmes that have targeted women were effective so long as the funding sources are available. The programmes are directly or in-directly supply driven and they have not, to an extent, developed the capacity of poor rural women to seek and access financial services on their own.
Financial Literacy Methodology - A financial literacy methodology has been developed using an inclusive approach that involves the larger community to engender support for the women, and financial institutions to establish mutually beneficial business relationships. The approach relates to knowledge and skills that are associated with the acquisition and use of financial services, entrepreneurial skills, financial skills, and empowerment.
Topics for this Module
- Rationale for the Financial Literacy Methodology
- Phase of the Methodology
- Business Development Services
Friday April 11 Morning Session
Facilitator – Prof. William Steel
This module examines ways in which legislation and regulation may facilitate or restrict microfinance institutions. Participants will investigate the advantages and disadvantages of special microfinance legislation from different viewpoints.
Friday April 11 Afternoon Session Panel Discussion
Networks & Apexes
(Description Forthcoming - also see Detailed description in Special Offerings)
Panelists: Dr. Andah, S. Attafi, E. Darko, CUA V.King-Arthur, E. Osei Bonsu, William Steel (Facilitator)
Saturday April 12 Morning Session Panel Discussion
Governments' Role in MF
Panelists: Prof Ernest Aryeetey, Nana Juaben Siriboe, -A Practitioner: ADRA/APED/ Apex Bank, David Andah (facilitator)
(Description Forthcoming - also see Detailed description in Special Offerings)
Track Overview
The Pro-Poor Enterprise Development Program (PPED) is a two-week course with a series of modules that prepares participants for all stages of PPED projects from basic concepts through research and market assessment, design and planning, and implementation. The course is suitable for managers, donors and practitioners who are involved in value chain, BDS or market development programs that target poor producers and entrepreneurs in the Africa region. The course introduces participants to basic principles and concepts of PPED including value chain and subsector analysis, support services, and market linkages. Tools and techniques for PPED projects are also offered, from market assessment through project design and implementation. Participants learn how to identify opportunities and overcome constraints that hinder microentrepreneurs and smallholder farmers from being profitably involved in market activities. The course also enhances skills and knowledge in the design and development of well-functioning value chains which lead to “win-win” long-term relationships. Of particular relevance to the Africa region, the course develops participants’ capacity to incorporate cross-cutting themes into programs including HIV/AIDS, gender and M&E. The PPED course incorporates fieldtrips and a range of proven adult-learner teaching approaches including case studies, lectures, small group problem solving, plenary activities and participant presentations. It is taught by experienced practitioners with track records both in designing and implementing PPED projects, as well as in teaching and facilitating workshops in Africa and around the globe.
The specific learning objectives of the three modules are:
Module One - Pro Poor Enterprise Development Principles and Practices
- Introduce participants to the basic principles of pro poor market development
- Familiarize participants with subsector and value chain analysis and selection
- Provide a practical grounding in information gathering approaches and tools, and their specific application to market development / value chain program design
- Offer hands-on opportunities for understanding and application of introductory learnings
- Introduce participants to constraints and solutions in PPED projects
Module Two - Designing And Planning PPED Programs
- Expose participants to solutions and interventions that have been used in a range of contexts to overcome constraints in market development / value chain programs
- Equip participants with methods for turning identified constraints into viable solutions
- Build skills in designing interventions that can achieve desired solutions and outcomes
- Gain confidence and practice in the design of innovative program interventions
- Develop participants’ capacity to incorporate cross-cutting themes into programs including HIV/AIDS, gender and M&E
Module Three - Implementation Strategies For PPED Programs
- Enhance skills and knowledge in the design and development of well-functioning value chains which lead to “win-win” long-term relationships
- Enable participants to analyze and understand the role of different stakeholders within value chains, and to overcome bottlenecks and other barriers
- Build participants’ capacity to evaluate the performance of the market development program especially its long-term sustainability after the program has ended
Week One PPED Course
Tuesday April 1 to Saturday April 5 Full Day Sessions
Module One
Foundational Concepts and Practices for Pro-Poor Value Chain Analysis and Market Development Programs (Includes Thursday Field Trip)
Facilitator - Ms. Linda Jones
This course will provide an overview of current market development theory and best practice: subsector selection, value chain analysis, support market assessment (including ‘BDS’ – Business Development Services) and intervention design. Participants will learn how to use market assessment tools to collect information and be introduced to the analysis and use of this information in program design. A two-day fieldtrip will provide practical experience and facilitate the learning of classroom teachings. Teaching tools will include case studies, exercises, interactive lectures and small group work. A variety of learning methods – instruction, observation, practice – will be utilized to provide hands-on experience and develop capacity in data collection, consolidation and analysis.
Learning Objectives
- Introduce participants to the basic principles of pro poor market development
- Familiarize participants with subsector and value chain analysis and selection
- Provide a practical grounding in information gathering approaches and tools, and their specific application to market development / value chain program design
- Offer a hands-on opportunity for understanding and application of introductory learnings
- Expose participants to solutions and interventions that have been used in a range of contexts to overcome constraints in market development / value chain programs
Week Two PPED Courses
Monday April 7 to Wednesday April 9 Full Day Sessions
Module Two
Tools and Techniques For The Design and Planning of Innovative Programs with Sustainable Results
Facilitator - Ms. Alexandra Snelgrove
Prerequisite: Week One or permission of instructor. Building on the basic concepts, market research and value chain analysis skills acquired in the prerequisite course, participants will develop capacity in the design and planning of innovative PPED programs with sustainable results. Participants will become familiar with a range of concepts, strategies, and presentation tools.
This will include:
- Learning a methodology for comprehensive problem analysis and problem trees
- Utilizing problem analysis to create a logical framework analysis (LFA)
- Developing program activities and workplans
- Selecting appropriate and achievable indicators at the output, outcome, and impact level
- Understanding results-based program design
- Mainstreaming cross-cutting themes
Teaching methods will include: case study analysis, team and individual problem solving, brainstorming sessions, exercises Takeaway guides and toolkits will facilitate application in the field.
Learning Objectives
- Deepen participant’s exposure to solutions and interventions that have been used in a range of contexts to overcome constraints in market development programs
- Equip participants with methods for turning identified constraints into viable solutions
- Build skills in designing interventions that can achieve desired solutions and outcomes
- Gain confidence and practice in the design of innovative program interventions
- Develop participants’ capacity to incorporate cross-cutting themes into programs including HIV/AIDS, gender and M&E
Thursday April 10 to Friday April 11 Full Day Sessions
Module Three
Programming Approaches, Value Chain Models and Implementation Methodologies
Facilitator - Ms. Rose Mwaniki
Prerequisite: Week One or permission of instructor. During this course, participants will be taken through market development structures and strategies that promote viable value chains with specific reference to producer group’s formation, management and their subsequent linkage to lead firms both local or export. The course will demonstrate that effective market development strategies are critical for generating both economic growth and poverty reduction. Specific topics to be covered include: Core philosophy for market development initiatives; Determination of competitive strategies that integrates smallholder producers within sustainable value chains; Identification of key players to provide market support services to enable producers to upgrade; Development of “win-win” commercial and mutual relationships along the supply chain and its implications on long-term competitiveness; and Defining different exit strategy options to ensure long-term sustainability. Teaching tools include case studies, group exercises, plenary discussion and lectures.
Learning Objectives:
- Enhance skills and knowledge in the design and development of well-functioning value chains which lead to “win-win” long-term relationships
- Enable participants to analyze and understand the role of different stakeholders within value chains, and to overcome bottlenecks and other barriers
- Build participants’ capacity to evaluate the performance of the market development program especially its long-term sustainability after the program has ended
Saturday April 12 PPED Morning Field Trip - TBA
Week One CED Courses
Tuesday April 1 to Wednesday April 2 Full Day Sessions
Facilitator – Mr. Paul Rippey
This course will challenge participants to confront the anticipated effects of climate change, peak oil and the "resource curse", looking at both best and worst case scenarios. It will urge participants to incorporate these scenarios into planning and management of development interventions, and will argue that strategic plans that fail to incorporate these impacts are probably out of touch with reality. It will do this by reviewing information from the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Reports, and will include an adapted version of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth slide show. It will look into the work of David Orr and Jared Diamond for the principles that can allow us to develop sustainability. Participants will examine the definition of sustainability, "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". The course will ask participants to think broadly about the impact boundaries of projects they are involved in. Finally, the course will allow participants to deconstruct what is meant by "triple bottom line" through analyzing case studies of two development interventions.
Thursday April 3 to Saturday April 5 Full Day Sessions
Facilitator - Dr. Martin O’Reilly
The module begins with an assessment of what the participants regard as 'development work' as seen through the prism of their experience with NGOs as board members or as senior management staff. Then we will explore the different models of development work – pros and cons. We then focus on the meaning of 'good governance' and how its importance has grown in recent years, especially with regard to the roles and functions of boards. The next topic tackles the subject of a how best to understand organizations, especially with regard to benchmarking and setting standards of excellence. Finally we will examine how to distinguish good NGOs from bad ones, and an exploration of what is meant by 'change management' and how one goes about improving things. An underlying subtext to the course is assisting participants to consider ways to devise an agenda for action plan for 'making their good better and their better best'! Throughout the course, each day will have both a theoretical and a practical basis, in that we will review important organizational development principles and apply them specifically to NGO organizations.
Week Two CED Course
Monday April 7 to Saturday April 12 Full Day Sessions
Facilitator – Prof. Michel Adjibodou
Community Economic 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.”(from Centre for Sustainable Community Development).
In this six day intensive course we study the ways and means of building strong community-led strategies for development. We will begin by examining Social Change and Community Organizing and then will explore Development Theory and Principles and Strategies of CED. With this foundation we will then look at the Project Life Cycle and CED Data Collection. The final three days will be an opportunity to practice these newly acquired skills through a Practicum of Designing, Implementing and Evaluating CED projects