Rural Finance Knowledge Management

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Quick Links to the Primary Activities:

Capacity Building for IFAD-Supported Projects and Programmes

Action Research with Partner Institutions

Promotion of Rural Finance Policy Dialogue

Sharing of Knowledge in Best Practices and Management

Capacity Building for IFAD-Supported Projects/Programmes

A range of activities will be conducted, aimed at strengthening the skills and management capacity of IFAD-supported rural finance programmes in the region. Support will be based on specific needs assessment of the projects from the programme managers, UNOPS portfolio managers, and IFAD CPMs. Activities will include:

Development of rural finance community of practice network. An e-mail-based rural finance community of practice network, involving IFAD-supported projects, CPMs, UNOPS Portfolio Managers and other interested institutions, this has been initiated. This encouraging experience will be built upon in the forthcoming phase: discussion on key rural finance issues among practitioners will be promoted and facilitated, and the scope for the development of a dedicated website/portal will be explored. An interactive site has been adopted for the programmes/ projects and service providers in Eastern and Southern Africa. The intereactive site will also be a resource centre for rural finance with linkages to the various other resource sites. Through this site the programmes/projects and service providers can be able to post their experiences on the site and discuss critical implementation issues. The documentation of experiences is valuable information that can also be shared to wider audience.
Thematic workshops - The rural finance thematic network will be conducted annually. The first thematic workshop will take place in Nairobi, Kenya on 27th -29th July 2005. The thematic workshop has incorporated field trips to complement the plenary discussion. The IFAD knowledge management partners and others who have valuable experiences will be invited to share their experiences especially those involved using cutting edge technology and innovative rural finance delivery methodologies.
MIX Market. The IFAD/MIX Market initiative which aims to improve reporting by rural finance projects has already been presented to the programme managers (at the Regional Implementation Workshop). In collaboration with PT, the RF Specialist will look to assist interested rural finance institutions to participate in the MIX Market. Currently IFAD is in the process of undertaking a Mix Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. Initial data has been collected from three institutions in Uganda (UWESO), Kenya (UWFT) and Tanzania (RFSP). For the Kenyan and Uganda institutions the study they are ready to report to the Mix market but for Tanzania it was agreed that the SACAs be federated into an apex in order to centralize the data collection. In the next phase other countries in the region will be introduced to the mix market.
Back-stopping visits. Carrying out of short back-stopping visits to rural financial-related projects and programmes by the RF Specialist and, where appropriate, specialised consultants. Such work will be conducted in close collaboration with the CPM. The activity will not only focus on local capacity building, but it will also, and additionally, provide a basis for identification both of key issues requiring further research, and of learning points and experiences that can be shared with the managers of other projects in the region. An action research agenda will be developed around the issues emerging from the field visits and experiences of the programes/project. The findings of the action research will be shared during the thematic workshops and posted on the interactive site for other programmes/project to learn from them.
Consultant Database. The RF specialist will develop a database of consultants within the Region who can provide relevant services to IFAD-supported projects and IFAD. The database of consultants will be availed on the web based interactive site as a resource for the programmes, CPM and UNOPS portfolio managers. The project will collate the database from existing databases of UNOPS and Partners in the region.