Online Course Details and Application Form

Community-Based Member-Owned Microfinance
Taught online for 16 weeks beginning February 24 and running through June 15, 2012.

Spring session postponed, keep checking this website for new dates for this online course.

This course provides member owned microfinance practitioners with current methods, case studies, peer dialogue, and a relevant field assignment to deepen their understanding and improve practice.

Applicants must have at least two years experience in community managed microfinance groups such as savings groups, village savings and loans associations, self-help groups, cooperatives and financial associations. Policy makers, donors and other key stakeholders may also apply, with the understanding that the course would provide them with a deeper perspective on practitioner issues and operations.

Quotes from former participant:

"The course has been very useful to me. Inasmuch as I have had countless years in working with organizations promoting savings-led microfinance, I have never been in class to get the theoretical grounding that the participation in this very practical course granted me."

"The research question that I chose was directly related with what I was doing. After the course, after my research, we changed the model that we were using. Very, very helpful."

Facilitators

Nanci Lee with invited guest facilitators.

Nanci Lee has more than 15 years experience in microfinance, most of which has been focused on savings groups and self-help groups. As an adult educator, action-researcher and consultant, she has worked in Africa and India on issues of savings group financial management, governance, financial literacy, social performance and standards development.

Anuj Jain was one of the early pioneers in the savings group work with CARE. He has over 20 years of senior management, policy and facilitation experience and is the senior Coady fellow, Microfinance and Development at the Coady Institute.

Other guest facilitators with considerable field experience will join the course for specific subject areas.

Course Objectives

 After completing this course you will have:

• Situated member-owned microfinance within the broader models of microfinance;
• Analyzed and explored strategies for improving outreach and product development;
• Practiced a hands-on organizational learning assignment on a relevant issue;
• Analyzed the opportunities and challenges related to networking and linkages of groups;
• Identified strategies for ensuring member ownership and good governance;
• Practiced financial management and identified key issues in financial sustainability;
• Analyzed different case studies of member-owned microfinance worldwide.

Beyond these objectives, the course is designed to allow participants to tailor learning to their concerns. There will be opportunities to raise and debate issues of particular concern to their contexts and organizations. Peer exchange, including guest facilitators, ensures wide-ranging perspectives and experiences.

To Apply

Download and complete the application form (192 Kb doc)

Cost of Tuition: $CDN 1600.

Applications for courses and scholarships are processed as they are received. Early applications and enrolment are strongly encouraged.

Special efforts are made to enable women, Aboriginal peoples, candidates from remote/rural locations and disabled peoples to attend.

For more information, contact:

The Admissions Office
Coady International Institute
St. Francis Xavier University
PO Box 5000
Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
B2G 2W5

Fax: 902.867.3907
Email: coadyadmit@stfx.ca