The Microfinance gateway, the independent knowledge platform of the Consultative group to assist the poor (CGAP), which GRET has coordinated since it was created, has been renamed FinDev gateway.
The Microfinance gateway has become a key reference for information on microfinance worldwide. Since it was created almost 20 years ago, it has established a strong regional presence through its website in four languages – English, French, Spanish and Arabic – meeting the specific needs of various regions in the world.
Why change name?
Today the gateway is way more than just a knowledge repository for microfinance practitioners. It is an interactive platform for sharing knowledge that reaches a diverse audience through publications, blogs, webinars, communities of practice and events, covering a broad range of subjects that go way beyond traditional microfinance. Although microfinance professionals are as loyal as ever to the gateway, it now has a more diverse palette of users, including financial service providers, technological businesses, investors and researchers working more broadly on financial inclusion.
Why FinDev Gateway?
FinDev for “Inclusive finance for development”. This name expresses the significant contribution of financial inclusion to achieving the Sustainable development goals. The results of the survey conducted among visitors to the platform showed that “FinDev” was easy to remember and pronounce in the majority of languages. As the term “Gateway” is an important part of its original name, it was decided to retain it.
How is FinDev Gateway different?
FinDev Gateway is still facilitating access to publications, news, events and job offers. However, the most pertinent information for practitioners often comes from personal experience, and not from an online repository. So FinDev Gateway increased the means to identify and share concrete knowledge from practitioners via various supports.
The Gateway Webinars launched last year are a significant example of this. Participants’ comments show that they appreciate being able to learn from their peers worldwide. Guest speakers are very receptive to their audience’s questions and comments, which often inspire new ways of thinking and generate ideas on how to improve their know-how. In the space of one year, over 20 organisations shared findings, new tools and data via these on-line conferences.
Similarly, the FinDev Gateway blog provides inclusive finance professionals with a dedicated space enabling them to share ideas and the findings of their work. Since its recent launch, numerous contributions were received, covering a broad range of subjects. Interviews with experts – making it possible to better understand and share practitioners’ knowledge – were also included in this new forum.
Partners, such as the European microfinance platform (e-MFP), the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF), Sanabel, the Accion Centre for financial inclusion (CFI), the community of practice on women’s financial inclusion, etc., are an integral part of the community that has grown around the FinDev Gateway, and of its strategy for sharing knowledge. These partnerships made it possible to establish a strong presence at regional and world events, which is an effective means of gathering new knowledge and making it available to those who are unable to attend.
How does FinDev Gateway enable sharing of knowledge?
The publishers of the English-language website and the three regional platforms in Arabic, French and Spanish are targeted at audiences in the Arab world, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Each platform keeps its members informed of the latest news in the sector via bi-monthly bulletins that reach almost 20,000 readers worldwide. 30,000 people also follow the Gateway on social media.
