This first edition of the Award, aims at collecting and exchanging knowledge and skills on the international trends, issues and excellences in the field of microfinance.
Three awards of €50,000 each have been established and will set up an endowment fund to create further projects or to expand projects already underway. These are:
- an “Italy Award” for institutions which offer microfinance services in Italy;
- an “International Award” for institutions which offer microfinance services outside the European Union;
- a “Europe Award” created in association with the European Microfinance Network for microfinance institutions working in Europe.
In short-listing candidates, the international award committee applied a number of criteria that together characterise outstanding microfinance performance. The fifteen selected institutions, five for each award, are believed to be advancing the microfinance good practices frontier by presenting methodologies, approaches and products which transform traditional practices and introduce valuable elements for the economic and social development of their microfinance clients. |
