ADFIAP and the Connecticut, U.S.A.-based Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) met at the ADFIAP International Headquarters on May 10, 2011 to explore areas of cooperation in training, capacity-building and research on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), particularly on improving access to finance of this sector. IPA’s Mr. Michael Ingram, Ms. Faith McCollister, Ms. Sarah Craig and Ms. Megan McGuire held discussions with ADFIAP Secretary General, Mr. Octavio B. Peralta and ADFIAP Consulting (AC) Group Head, Ms. Cora Conde.

IPA https://www.poverty-action.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to discovering what works to help the world’s poor and is led by a team of researchers including some of the most recognized names in development economics, many holding faculty positions at universities such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, and LSE. Research findings and lessons learned are then disseminated to policymakers, practitioners, investors and donors around the world, allowing IPA to work with relevant stakeholders to bring successful programs to scale. One of its current thrusts is in the area of SME research and capacity-building.

For its part, ADFIAP has been in the forefront of advancing SME development finance, being an important element of its four-point mission that also includes environmental finance, social finance and good governance. The Association has spearheaded the setting up of the SME Finance Initiative https://www.smefi.com/ in 2005 as a knowledge cum business network that puts together development banks, other specialized financial institutions and development organizations in different countries to discuss and address specific issues in the financing of and other support services to SMEs. The Association’s ADFIAP Consulting (AC) group has also developed its own SME Lending Business Management System that provides banks and financial institutions with a holistic capacity-building tool to scale up and enhance access to finance to SMEs.