PRESIDENT'S PAGE

May 2008

Dear WWB supporters and friends-

This past month has seen a number of exciting developments at WWB, but there is one that I am especially proud of. In mid-April, we unveiled the results of a much anticipated study that tracks the impact of the formalization of microfinance institutions on poor women entrepreneurs. Increased interest in microfinance as a profitable business opportunity holds both great promise as well as great challenges. Original research done by WWB finds a troubling trend: while the absolute number of women being served by microfinance is going up (because more people are being served overall), as microfinance institutions commercialize, the percentage of women being served relative to men is actually decreasing.

This finding reaffirms our concerns regarding the possible effects of commercialization on mission drift and reinforces our belief that a concerted focus on serving poor women clients is more important than ever. To this end, WWB continues to offer training, products and services to help microfinance providers as they transform, to ensure that women remain a central focus of their efforts.

You can view the complete study, Microfinance Transformations and the Double Bottom Line and also read an article about it that appeared on TIME magazine's website.

The same day that we released the study I had the pleasure of speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) here in New York with Roshaneh Zafar, President of Kashf Foundation (Pakistan), a WWB network member. At CFR-as in our study-Roshaneh shared her experiences at Kashf to shed light on some of the challenges that microfinance providers face in transforming. An audience member from Acumen Fund captured the CFR discussion nicely in his blog entitled, "The Commercialization of Microfinance: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly".

Another exciting first at WWB this month was the kickoff of the WWB LEADers program, which we have established to build awareness about the power of microfinance to alleviate poverty by engaging high-level executive women to act as ambassadors and advocates for WWB. This month, six women-including a managing director from Bear Stearns and an executive director from JP Morgan-went to the Dominican Republic to visit our network member, ADOPEM, and see first-hand the work being done there. I know from my own experience how powerful it is to meet the dedicated staff and especially the clients of a microfinance provider. My thanks to all the fantastic women who participated in the LEADers visit to ADOPEM and are now committed to helping raise WWB's profile here at home.

One thing that never ceases to strike me about the microfinance industry is its tremendous potential for growth. On April 22nd, I attended a seminar in Buenos Aires on bank entry into the microfinance sector hosted by WWB, the Federation of Latin American Banks (FELABAN) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the oldest and largest regional bank in the world. The objective was to present microfinance as a profitable business opportunity for commercial banks in Argentina, where three million micro-entrepreneurs do not have access to basic financial services. The keynote speaker was Her Royal Highness Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, whose presence as a representative of the United Nations Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors demonstrates the importance of collaboration and information-sharing between established members of microfinance and those just entering the industry. The potential for microfinance in Argentina is enormous, but when you look at Latin America as a whole it is truly staggering.

Please keep your eyes on this space to learn about more exciting happenings at Women's World Banking.

Warm regards,
Mary Ellen Iskenderian