Announcement: Regional Rural and Agricultural Finance Thematic Conference in Harare, Zimbabwe 10-12 June 2015
The
African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (AFRACA) and International
Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD) grant project the Rural Finance
Knowledge Management Partnership (KMP) in East and Soutehrn Africa (ESA) wish to announce their joint Regional Rural and
Agricultural Finance Thematic conference on the theme: “regional experiences on
knowledge sharing and networking in rural and agricultural financing”, to
be held in Harare, Zimbabwe on 10-12 June 2015. The hosts of the conference
include; the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, CBZ Holdings Ltd. and AgriBank Zimbabwe.
The conference will bring together approximately 200
participants from IFAD-funded projects in ESA and West
and Central Africa (WCA), AFRACA member institutions, Development partners,
Agricultural Investors, regional knowledge networks, farmer organizations, and
other stakeholders within and outside the continent on a platform to reflect on
knowledge management practice in the rural and agricultural finance field in
the last 10 years.
The conference will focus on how knowledge sharing and
networking has contributed to the development of appropriate, scalable, and sustainable rural finance systems in Africa
that are needed to secure food security, improve rural livelihoods, and achieve
economic growth. It will explore the
extent to which new knowledge and lessons from the new successes in rural
finance are disseminated, transferred, and deployed in advancing rural
finance.
Furthermore, it will look at
the various knowledge sharing and networking models/initiatives implemented by
IFAD and other partners, and what role they have played in contributing to the
rural finance in the region. An important focus will also be on what challenges, lessons, and best practices has emerged oover the years in as far as knowledge sharing and networking is concerned; and how KM practice can be furhter strenghtened for the benefit of development.
KMP is a 10 year old project financed by IFAD. It is designed to simultenously tap inot and build its intellectual capital in advancing the field of rural finance. The partnership brings together collaboration and synergies that exists between various institutions involved in the promtion of rural finance in Africa. these include; IFAD suported programmes in ESA and West and Central Africa (WCA), AFRACA, AGRA, FAO, GIZ, CGAP and IFAD itself. This partnsership has since been institutionalised in ESA.
The KMP grant whose Phase III comes to a close in 2015, will be sharing its 10 years of experience in the promotion of rural finance in ESA. It is expected that the inputs from this conference will be used to define a new vision and strategy for KMP's Scale-Up Phase.
You can make confirmation to participate in the conference online on our website www.ruralfinancenetwork.org
We look forward to meeting you in Harare Zimbabwe in 10-12 June 2015.
Miriam Cherogony
KMP Coordinator