A Roundtable Discussion on Alternative Approaches to Microcredit
March 5th, 2008
March 12, 2008 @ Open Book
1011 Washington Ave. South. Minneapolis, Minnesota
10:00 AM- 12:30 PM
This dialogue will be a discussion among Twin Cities community members about how to effectively engage in ethical and sustainable microcredit work. This discussion will be centered on three projects seeking to develop alternative microfinance models. First, Kasia Paprocki and Jason Cons will share the Goldin Institute’s findings and recommendations from our extended research work on understanding microcredit from the perspectives of recipients. We will focus directly on our recent research in rural areas in Banglaldesh. Second, Joe Selvaggio will discuss his innovative MicroGrants program, which provides grants of $1000 to poor people with potential to help them acquire the necessary assets to make new starts or begin new entrepreneurial ventures. Third, Chingwell Mutombu will discuss her work with the First Step Initiative, which has initiated a microcredit program in DR Congo that emphasizes the creation of market linkages to ensure markets for recipients’ entrepreneurial ventures. After these brief presentations we will engage in a round-table discussion with attendees about the need and strategies for providing ethical and sustainable microcredit programming and engage in a debate about how both donor communities and programs can cooperatively create such programs.
Please RSVP to kasia@goldininstitute.org or call 312.951.1691; or contact us to learn more about this event or the Goldin Institute’s Improving Microcredit Project.
Presenters
Jason Cons M.S. - Goldin Institute Director of Research and Project Design
Jason is a doctoral candidate in Development Sociology at Cornell University. In 2006-7, he was a Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellow while conducting fieldwork in India and Bangladesh on the India-Bangladesh Border. He worked closely with Goldin Institute partners in Bangladesh to design and execute the Improving Microcredit Project and is currently engaged in analysis of the findings and planning and developing subsequent phases of this work.
Kasia Paprocki - Goldin Institute Research Associate
As part of Kasia’s studies at Hampshire College, she designed an alternative microcredit model and spent six months in 2006 in Dhaka, Bangladesh working to implement this program. In 2007, she returned to Bangladesh to direct the Improving Microcredit Project. She continues to work on analysis, outputs, and developing parallel projects around the world. In the year 2000, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota awarded Kasia the Twin Cities’ International Citizen’s Award for her work against child labor.
Joe Selvaggio - Founder and Executive Director of MicroGrants
Joe founded MicroGrants in 2006. He is also founder of Project for Pride in Living, a nonprofit organization promoting self-sufficiency through housing, training and resources as well as the founder and executive director of the One Percent Club, an organization promoting philanthropy among the wealthy. Joe has a distinguished 40-year career as a bridge between the affluent and low-income people. Joe’s mission with MicroGrants is to connect the affluent with the low-income by offering a service to those who want to give and connecting them to a recipient who can utilize a microgrant efficiently and productively.
Chingwell Mutombu - Founder and Executive Director of First Step Initiative
Chingwell is driven by her commitment to and vision for social justice. Throughout her professional career, she has worked on issues affecting disenfranchised communities both nationally and internationally. Her diverse background includes the founding of a consulting business which she currently runs, and her work as an advocate for human rights. Currently, she chairs the Multicultural Endowment Fund at the Saint Paul Foundation. A former Philanthropy Fellow at the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, Chingwell is a graduate of Luther College and holds two Master’s degrees from Seton Hall University in Public Administration and International Relations.
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