BOSTON, MA – Savings Groups 2013 Conference sponsors Oxfam America, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The MasterCard Foundation will partner with the SEEP Network to assemble stakeholders in the savings groups community to highlight how the model can evolve into more than just savings and credit groups, serving as a catalyst for financial inclusion and social cohesion in the poorest regions of the world.
The event will serve as a platform for conference Advisory Committee members Aga Khan Foundation, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Freedom from Hunger, Oxfam America, PLAN, and USAID will launch “50 by 2020,” an initiative expanding savings groups membership globally from 6 to 50 million by 2020.
WHO:
- Henriette Kolb, ceo, Cherie Blair Foundation
- Henry Mbgatuta, Ugandan assistant commissioner for microfinance
- Experts from Aga Khan Foundation, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Freedom from Hunger, Oxfam America, Plan International, and USAID
- Foundations, financial service providers, bilateral and multilateral agencies, microfinance institutions, international and local nongovernment organizations, and practitioners
WHAT: Two-day conference with panel discussions on the financial and social impact of savings groups and a vision for the future. For full agenda and additional information visit: www.oxfamamerica.org/sgconference
WHEN: March 4-5, 2013
WHERE: Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel, 900 Orme Street Arlington, VA 22204
WHY: Savings groups (SGs) provide access to basic financial services to rural poor people, mostly women, worldwide and provide members a secure place to save and have easy access to loans. SGs stabilize income, increase household financial assets and decrease vulnerability to financial and other shocks. They are a simple, transparent, cost-effective and sustainable means of providing financial services to the poor. This conference will highlight how SGs have positively affected financial inclusion, literacy, health, humanitarian response, and gender violence and serve as a launch pad for an expansion of SGs globally.
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Oxfam America is a global organization working to right the wrongs of poverty, hunger, and injustice. We save lives, develop long-term solutions to poverty, and campaign for social change. As one of 17 members of the international Oxfam confederation, we work with people in more than 90 countries to create lasting solutions.
