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CERMi News
May 2, 2012
CERMi is proud to announce that Ritha Sukadi Mata, one of its researchers, successfully defended her PhD thesis on "Microfinance and Remittances" at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on April 30, 2012.
Congratulations to her!
April 16, 2012
Victoria van Lennep, a final-year undergraduate student at SBS-EM was awarded a "Students Positive Awards" and a congratulation certificate from the jury for her Master thesis in microfinance, titled "Transformation of Microfinance NGOs into regulated institutions", under the supervision of CERMi Co-director Prof. Marek Hudon.
In addition, another student under Prof. Marek Hudon's supervision, Patricia Diez Ticio was awarded the First Prize for her Master thesis on degrowth and sustainable development.
The Student Positive Awards reward the best Master theses in positive economics, which includes issues of fair trade, social economics, ethical finance, "green building", responsible tourism, sustainable mobility, societal entrepreneurship, environmental technologies, simple living, local currencies and other new approaches of economics geared towards the social and environmental challenges of our time.
March 22, 2012
Discover our 7th CERMi Newsletter (March 2012)!
What you'll find in this edition :
- CERMi's most recent news
- Coming events at CERMi
- Recent events at CERMi
- Information from our members
- Recent publications by CERMi members
March 14, 2012
CERMi and the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) co-organised, on March 14, 2012, a roundtable on
"The future of microfinance in Vietnam"
in the presence of HRH Princess Mathilde of Belgium.
During this roundtable, we discussed recent developments in the microfinance sector and the emerging trends of this sector in Vietnam. More specifically, the financial and social performance of the Vietnamese MFIs and the new regulatory framework were addressed.
The discussion was chaired by Prof. Marek Hudon (ULB, CERMi) and Mr. Pierre Dulieu (BTC) with representatives of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP), the Vietnam Microfinance Working Group, TYM (leading Vietnamese MFI), the State Bank of Vietnam, and the ILO.
November 29, 2011
Former PhD student (now Associate Researcher) Anaïs PÉRILLEUX has received a scholarship from the Belgian American Education Foundation (BAEF) a couple of months ago and is now carrying out a one-year post-doc research at Yale University, under the supervision of Prof. Timothy Guinnane.
CERMi (Centre Européen de Recherche en Microfinance / Center for European Research in Microfinance), draws together researchers, involved in microfinance activities in developing countries, from the Centre Emile Bernheim (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles) and from the Warocqué Research Centre (Université de Mons). The CERMi also collaborates with the European Microfinance Programme.
Microfinance provides financial services, including credit, savings and insurance, to poor customers with little or no access to the traditional banking sector. It has come to be regarded as a very important component of strategies aimed at reducing poverty. Over the last decade, the microfinance industry has experienced rapid growth creating a constant demand for new knowledge to help guide its development.
CERMi, which is part of the Académie Wallonie-Bruxelles, was created with the goal to become an active participant in this process. It aims to study the management of a wide range of microfinance financial institutions, represented by NGOs, cooperatives and commercial companies. Thanks to an interdisciplinary approach, CERMi hopes to make substantive contributions to the body of knowledge on microfinance which will help the industry deal more effectively with its future challenges.
From a microeconomic and managerial perspective, CERMi is undertaking research on institutional aspects including governance and risk management of microfinance institutions, as well as the concept of a client-driven approach toward the development of financial services and products. From a macroeconomic and sociological point of view, CERMi focuses on matters of regulation and local government policy, as well as the roles played by central banks and international donors. Links between microfinance and the traditional banking sector are also analysed, and throughout this research, special attention is given to ethical considerations that are specifically relevant and critical to the evolution of the microfinance industry.
