Microfinance Week - Luxemburg - Guidelines

This document introduces the issues and topics that will be discussed during the Microfinance Week held at Luxembourg during October 17 - 19, 2005.

Providing the agenda of the Microfinance Week, the paper states that the discussions will revolve around:

• Farmers' requests which have to be described with greater precision (access to financial services);
• Financial products which would have to be adapted to such requests;
• Existing financial aid structures for farmers ( efficiency, management);
• Involvement of rural organizations;
• Financing of the rural IMF, existing and future facilities.

The document then provides an overview of the subjects that will be discussed during the week:

• Rural financing/agricultural financing;
• Interest rates;
• Securities;
• Medium term credits;
• Individual or collective credits;
• Savings and new products;
• Insurance;
• Cooperation with Farmers' Organizations (FO) among others.

Finally, the document discusses:

• Access to funds offered as free of charge loans by NGOs that could be converted into donations after a period of observation;
• Access to alternative sources which are not necessarily cheaper than refinancing through regular banks, but easier to access;
• Access to refinancing by specialized banks, by banks which recycle the lenders funds or which are associated with other MFIs;
• Clearing systems between Urban and Rural units managed by the same MFI.