13 Feb 2025
Join e-MFP & FiF UK in London on March 4 for an in-person panel on financial inclusion for refugees, featuring the 2024 European Microfinance Award winners!
Advancing Financial Inclusion for Refugees & Forcibly Displaced People - How the financial inclusion sector can - and must - serve the world’s displaced people
When: March 4th, 2025, 6:30-8:00pm (followed by a Reception)
Where: Alumni Lecture Theatre, Senate House, SOAS, University of London, Malet St, London, WC1E 7HU
Since 2016, e-MFP and Financial Inclusion Forum UK (FIF UK) have co-hosted an annual event on the topic of previous year’s European Microfinance Award). Once described by a luminary of the sector as “the Nobel Prize of Microfinance”, the EMA was established in 2005 by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade to promote innovative microfinance initiatives. It is organised jointly by the MFA, the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg (InFiNe) and e-MFP.
Focusing on a different topic each year (and with a €100,000 prize for the winner), the EMA serves two parallel goals: rewarding excellence, and collecting and disseminating the most relevant practices for replication by others. In 2024, the topic was “Advancing Financial Inclusion (FI) for Refugees and Forcibly Displaced People (FDPs)”, seeking to highlight organisations active in FI and helping FDPs build resilience, restore livelihoods, and live with dignity in their host communities. The FI sector has an enormous and important role to play in supporting refugees and other FDPs, meeting their complex financial and non-financial needs across the various phases of displacement, and working with host country communities, policymakers and other actors to address the barriers FDPs face – and that financial organisations face in serving them.
EMA 2024 was won by RUFI, with Al Majmoua and Faten as runners up. Insights and profiles of these three finalists, as well as the seven other semi-finalists selected from 49 applicants, are presented in the Award publication, which will be presented at this session.
To explore this topic, glean insights from the award publication and discuss challenges and best practices seen in the 2024 Award process, this event will involve a panel comprised of:
Ed Fraser (Moderator) - a collaborative humanitarian consultant with a particular focus on the economic recovery of displacement affected people. Ed supported the e-MFP team on the design, development and evaluation process for the EMA 2024;
Yengi Lokule - Financial services expert and CEO of RUFI, the 2024 EMA Winner. RUFI, founded in South Sudan in 2008 and expanded to Uganda in 2016, is a refugee-led financial institution providing loans, business training, and advocacy to support forcibly displaced persons and host communities;
Sam Mendelson - Financial Inclusion Specialist at e-MFP, member of the Award implementation and evaluation teams and lead author of the annual Award publication. He is also a former board member of FIF UK;
Suzanne van Ballekom - Digital Financial Inclusion & Women’s Economic Empowerment Deputy Global Team Lead at UN World Food Programme (WFP) and board member at FIF UK; and
Deborah Foy - former Global Executive Director of Opportunity International, consultant to the 2024 EMA team and member of the 2024 EMA High Jury.
We hope you can join us in London on 4th March for what will be a fascinating and dynamic discussion - and please stay for the reception after!