POWG Newsletter: 1 October 2010

Hello everyone –

Welcome to another POWG newsletter. The fall has brought with it lots of opportunities for us so see below for some ways to get involved and provide your feedback. More details on each of the items and events below can be found by scrolling down.

Action Items:

• Sign up for new SEEP Community and POWG website!
• Poverty Innovation Series – facilitator?
• Poverty Tools Guide: sink or swim?
• Literature Review: start bookmarking potential pieces to review!

Upcoming events:

• MicroLINKS Speaker’s Corner on October 5-6Why Integrate Microfinance with Health Services ?
• EMMA Training in Washington on October 18-22

Sign up for new POWG and SEEP Community website!

We are happy to announce that SEEP Community (www.seepcommunity.com) on the NING platform is finally open for business. The POWG us one of the first WGs to open its site and we hope you will sign up right away. Some content is still being added but you’ll find some general POWG information and some discussion forums ready to roll.

Go to http://seepcommunity.com/group/povertyoutreach and request permission to join (which we will grant you right away). It is a very easy sign-up which you can complete in less than 1 minute. Unfortunately, even if you already signed up at the site we made several months ago (also hosted on NING) you’ll have to sign up for this one separately as we can’t transfer you over. If you have any troubles with this, email us.

It is important that you sign up ASAP, because we want to start communicating with you from the website rather than by e-mail .

Poverty Innovation Series on Data Use : Thanks to Jo Sanson, Bobbi Gray, Natalie Domond, and Radhe Bista for stepping up to the plate. We’re currently negotiating dates to hold the initial forum discussion, live presentation and feedback session, and follow up and summary.

--> Action Item: Does anyone want to facilitate the discussion? We could use one or two people to summarize the forum-based discussions, help write up focus questions for the live discussion, and draft a write up of the entire effort at the end.

Poverty Tools Guide : This project is nearly dead in the water. Unless people show interest in compiling information of pros/cons, to compare different poverty measurement tools and methodologies, we’re going to put this one away for another time.

--> Action Item: Let Margaret know if you want to get this going or drop it!

Literature Review
--> Action Item: Start tagging documents and adding them to our delicious account (online bookmarking tool). To start, let’s build a list of articles, books, etc we might want to include on a review focused on poverty outreach, measurement and data usage (let’s keep it broad for now). Let’s set a goal of having each POWG member share at least ONE link to a resource related to poverty outreach and financial services by October 29. The members who contribute the most (in quantity and substance) will be considered for being featured prominently on our website!

--> Action Item: Go to the NING site and view the discussions section for instructions on adding to the literature review database.

MicroLINKS Speaker's Corner, October 5-6, Why Integrate Microfinance with Health Services?

Register on-line here! (you need to be registered with MicroLINKS first)

Join this two-day Speaker's Corner on integrated programming, facilitated by Microcredit Summit and Bobbi Gray of Freedom From Hunger. HAMED will also participate in this discussion. The first day of the Speakers Corner discussion will explore the important client-level questions around integrating health and microfinance services. Discussion questions will include:

· What examples are there of organizations integrating some sort of health service with their financial service offering? What examples do we have of public health initiatives integrating microfinance?

· Why might MFIs be compelled to offer a more financial-related health protection service and what would be the perceived benefits/challenges?

· What else would you like to know or share regarding client-level impacts and benefits when provided an integrated product (financial services and health protection services)?

The second day of discussion will revolve around the costs, benefits and impact on MFIs of investing in integrated health and microfinance initiatives. Discussion questions will include:

· Can skeptical organizations ever be turned into believers? What do you think about the proposed role of MFIs to provide or link to health protection services?

· What are some examples of quantifying indirect benefits to MFIs? Do you feel it’s possible, or have you have experiences to suggest that this type of indirect benefit would be possible?

· What is needed to increase the numbers of MFIs and health care organizations working together? How can these initiatives achieve scale?

· What questions or concerns are still left to be addressed? What barriers or opportunities do health care organizations feel exist to working with MFIs .

EMMA Training in Washington on October 18-22

Register online here !

EMMA – Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis Toolkit – has been used by humanitarian staff to better understand and make use of market-systems . It adds value to established humanitarian practices in diverse contexts because EMMA tools are adaptable, rough-and-ready, speed-orientated processes designed to reflect the information constraints and urgency of decision-making required in the first few weeks of a crisis. Therefore, the EMMA process is intended to be integrated flexibly into different organizations’ response planning.

EMMA results have already been used to guide interventions in several countries – most recently in response to the emergencies in Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan. For more information visit the EMMA website .

This is an advanced training, designed for people who have already shown leadership in their organizations, and it has received an overwhelmingly positive response from those who have taken it. The training is appropriate for those who have limited market analysis experience, or those who want to use their market analysis skills in new ways.

Registration is closing on October 8th so take this opportunity to be a part of this dynamic, growing tool improving market-oriented humanitarian emergency response around the world.

For inquiries about EMMA and EMMA training, please contact: Ben.Barrows@theirc.org or +1 646 200 1328

If you have any announcements to make for our next newsletter (scheduled for mid October), let us know!

Best wishes,

Margaret and Jan