Microfinance Conference Report on Financial Services To Rebuild Livelihoods In Aceh

This document provides an overview of the proceedings of the conference held in Banda Aceh. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs' National Committee on the International Year of Micro Credit organized the event. The participants were from four major stakeholder groups:

• Financial institutions (including banks and cooperatives);
• Donors/ investors;
• International non-governmental organizations (NGOs);
• Technical assistance providers.

The goals of the conference were to:

• Unite the stakeholders;
• Gather data on their activities;
• Troubleshoot the growth of Aceh financial services;
• Plan for collaboration and partnerships to enhance performance and reduce duplication.

The participants were taken through various exercises that included:

• Understanding microfinance in Aceh;
• Identifying the best practices in microfinance for Aceh;
• Constraints to microfinance;
• Developing action plans to meet the objectives of the conference.

Based upon the exercises, the participants recommended that there was a need to:

• Meet regularly to exchange data, information, and indicators of outreach;
• Gather and share indicators of performance;
• Engage in an immediate capacity building program for management, product development and basic credit management knowledge;
• Develop market linkages.