MICROFUTURE
Future proof microfinance for social inclusion
Project summary
Microfinance describes financial services targeting people with difficulties accessing credit for new businesses. It can promote social inclusion, entrepreneurship, employment and sustainable development, but only if public policy is able to address some of the common development challenges.
Today, microfinance must become "future proof". This means reaching all potential beneficiaries, regardless of social demographics, harnessing digitalisation and operating in synergy with the grand challenges: recovery, climate change, gender-smart investing & social inclusion. This requires a synergic territorial network, ancillary support services, targeted credit and better institutional capacity of non-bank, socially focused microfinance providers.
MICROFUTURE groups a partnership of public authorities keen to achieve our overall objective: to use interregional learning to improve public policy frameworks supporting microfinance, ensuring that we future-proof microfinance provision by learning from COVID and adapting to new policy and market requirements. We seek to increase public capacity to provide future-proof microfinance and expect improved policy frameworks to increase quality labour market opportunities.
Our partners, spread across Europe, all share the commitment to microfinance as a tool for social inclusion and see the need for a more robust system. Each has different experiences to share. Specific priorities cover social enterprises, students, rural areas, most socially excluded people and exploiting opportunities in high-potential sectors.
Advisory partner, Yunus Italy Foundation, will guide us through an interregional approach that runs from a “MICROFINANCE FULL IMMERSION, to FUTURE-PROOFING MICROFINANCE, ascertaining what a future-proof microfinance system looks like and how to achieve it, to MICROFUTURE TERRITORIAL IMPACT, using interregional learning to implement policy improvements that consolidate the future-proof microfinance system in each territory.
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What will this project change
This project will:
- Improve public policy frameworks to support microfinance.
- Ensure microfinance provision is future-proof by adapting to new policy and market requirements.
- Increase public capacity to provide future-proof microfinance.
- Enhance quality labor market opportunities through better microfinance systems.
- Promote social inclusion, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development.
- Foster interregional learning and collaboration.
- Target social enterprises, students, rural areas, and socially excluded groups.
- Utilize digitalization and address grand challenges like recovery, climate change, and gender-smart investing.