Inquiry
In November 2010 the APPG on Microfinance announced that we would be undertaking an inquiry into the role of microfinance in tackling extreme poverty and the way in which donors such as the UK Government should seek to contribute to the microfinance field.
The final report on the inquiry has now been published. There are two versions of the report:
- An 8-page summary report
- The full 60-page in-depth report
We have received two responses from the Government to the report:
- A letter from Alan Duncan MP, Minister of State for International Development, acknowledging the 'extensive parliamentary inquiry' and 'comprehensive report'.
- An 'official-level' response, which thanks the group for 'a clear, concise and insightful report on the role UK’s role in supporting microfinance worldwide' and provides responses to each of the report's main recommendations.
The APPG plans to hold a debate in Parliament to discuss the report findings and the Government response. More information will be available shortly.
The Inquiry received written evidence from 25 people and organisations, and also held three oral evidence sessions in the House of Lords. More information and links to many of the submissions and the notes from the oral evidence sessions are below.
The Inquiry's terms of reference can be found here.
The report was launched at an event in the House of Commons on Wednesday 8 June 2011 from 12:30-1:30pm. Full details are available here.
Oral evidence sessions
Wednesday 23 March 2011
Panellists:
Professor Thankom Arun, Lancashire Business School
Dr Kate Maclean, King's College London
Professor Paul Mosley, University of Sheffield
Notes from the session are available here.
Tuesday 29 March 2011
Panellists:
Rosalind Copisarow
Maude Massu, CARE International
Roger Witcombe, Opportunity International
Claire Innes, Department for International Development
Notes from the session are available here.
Monday 4 April 2011
Panellists:
Sukhwinder Arora, Oxford Policy Management
Marcus Fedder, Agora Microfinance
Chris Bold, CGAP
Notes from the session are available here.
Written submissions of evidence
An initial summary of the written submissions is available here.
In addition, the following submitters have given us permission to publish the full evidence they provided:
- Milford Bateman, Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
- Nigel Biggar, Grameen Foundation
- Ian Boyd-Livingston
- Maren Duvendack, School of International Development, University of East Anglia
- Marcus Fedder, Agora Microfinance
- Deborah Foy, Opportunity International
- Nathanael Goldberg, IPA
- Malcolm Harper
- Karishma Huda, Brac Development Institute
- Asadul Islam, Monash University
- Artiful Islam, Muslim Aid
- KG Karmakar, NABARD
- Geoffrey Kebbell, Maxwell Stamp
- Michaela Kelly, Plan
- Kevin Kennedy, ClearCape
- Kevin Kilty, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
- Richard Leftley, MicroEnsure
- Paul Mosley, Sheffield University
- Ben Ovio, ENDIP
- Peter Ryan, MicroLoan Foundation
- Carolina Sanchez, Coffey International Development
- Tom Sanderson, Five Talents
- Anton Simanowitz, Institute of Development Studies