Microfinance sector development
As a complementary activity, the Foundation openly and in a non-profit manner develops initiatives that contribute towards the development of the microfinance sector, particularly in the area of improving human capital and good corporate governance. This is done by using a cooperative approach, with strategic alliances with institutions that share similar objectives.
In 2012, in order to promote the transformation of the microfinance sector, the BBVA Microfinance Foundation:
- Prepared a Universal Corporate Governance Code aimed at microfinance institutions, as well as a guide to adopt the principles of Good Governance for MFIs. These two documents have become a reference in the microfinance sector.
- Entitled more than 1,669 managers specialized in microfinance through its “Microfinance Specialist Training Program”.
- Trained more than 200 board members of microfinance institutions in good governance through its «Workshops in Corporate Governance for MFIS»
Human Capital
The BBVA Microfinance Foundation operates within different aspects of training to improve the human and institutional capital in the microfinance sector. For this reason, it has signed an agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2009, to carry out a “Training Program for experts on Microfinance”, whose aim is to entitle experts on microfinance, and so, it will reduce the current shortage of professionals in the sector, which is an obstacle to its expansion and growth.
The Training Program for experts on Microfinance has been developed in partnership with the National Distance Education University (UNED) and prestigious local universities and institutions. It gives each student a broad knowledge of the microfinance sector from an economic, business and social perspective, which is specialized and adapted in each case to the profile of the low-income population that they will have to assist. The Program may be taken in two forms, online and face-to face, and it grants a double diploma.
From its beginning in 2009 to its conclusion at the end of 2012, the Foundation trained more than 1,669 microfinance specialists through several courses hold in Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Panama.
Ruth Téllez