OUR SERVICES

Training

Conferences and seminars

The RAFAD Foundation organises regular seminars and training workshops on various topics in ethical financing and solidarity: harnessing local resources, microfinance risk management, bank guarantees, funding MFI's, etc.

Training for negotiation with local banks

RAFAD offers support and technical advice to MFI's and cooperatives to ease their financial access to local banks and to help establish long term commercial relationships with them.

Training sessions run by our consultants help MFI's to draw up applications for financing which respect the banks' technical and financial rules, and assist them in negotiations.

Centres of local expertise

Following its principle of engaging local resources for development, the RAFAD Foundation helps to transfer technologies and skills by setting up local centres of expertise in Southern countries. By training locally recruited experts, RAFAD tries to keep its projects compatible to the needs of local organisations.

Decentralization of FIG

With a grant from the FGC (Fédération Genevoise de Coopération), RAFAD has begun decentralizing FIG's activities by training local consultants in each of the countries it operates, who are then responsible for the study and follow-up guarantee requests and for the establishment of regional offices.

As part of this project and in partnership with the IAF (Inter American Foundation), the program FIGAL (Fondo de Garantía América Latina) was launched in Nicaragua in 2005.
It consists of a local guarantee fund of $US 1 million based in Managua which aims at strengthening the relations between local Nicaraguan banks and MFI's. Thanks to FIGAL guarantees, MFI's in Nicaragua have been able to obtain funding from local banks for the first time.

Regional Technology Center

Using its unique experience of Microfinance IMS, the RAFAD Foundation has begun to create local teams of consultants able to provide computer consulting for MFI's.