craig_churchill at email.
01-19-2001, 12:17 PM
To:****** The Microfinance Community
[b]From:** Martin Connell
[b]Re:*******Changes at Calmeadow
[b]Date:** January 20, 2001
As many of you are aware, in response to the continued evolution of the microfinance industry, and to our challenge of remaining an effective catalyst for the sector’s development, Calmeadow is in the process of a major reorganization, which includes the closure of our office in Washington DC.* While we consider various options for our future, many of our current activities and projects are being wound down or moved to new homes.* I want to take this opportunity to update you on the status of Calmeadow initiatives.
[b]International Advisory Services: For the past several years, Calmeadow has focused its international advisory activities on Africa to help create demonstration models of sustainable microfinance.* We have worked on numerous short term consulting assignments across the continent, developed long term associations with several successful organizations such as Small Enterprise Foundation (South Africa) and PADME (Benin), and established a network of relationships with microfinance professionals across Africa.*
Given our desire to maximize our impact on the commercialization of the sector, and ACCION’s recent decision to expand into Africa, we decided to pool resources and collaborate more closely.* We will maintain our current projects and presence in the field, but we will not be participating in new initiatives.* To that end, Victoria White and Alfred Nicayenzi are splitting their time between ACCION and Calmeadow for the next several months, after which time they will join ACCION’s Washington office.
Vulindlela: Calmeadow’s joint venture in South Africa to create a for-profit consulting firm specializing in development finance is proceeding well thanks to the hard work and dedication of the firm’s two primary partners, Barbara Calvin and Peter Rousos, and their strong staff.* Vulindlela now has 5 professional staff including Petronella Chigara and Sam Mathole in Harare, and Sovanhu Chianike in Johannesburg.* Barbara Calvin will remain a Calmeadow employee (based in Toronto but spending 50% of her time in Africa) for the next year and then she will join Vulindlela full-time.* If you want more information about Vulindlela’s services please contact vulindlelaho@icon.co.za (vulindlelaho@icon.co.za) or bcalvin@calmeadow.com (bcalvin@calmeadow.com).*
AfriCap: It has been long in development, but this investment fund for African microfinance institutions will become operational later this year.* Calmeadow’s Stefan Harpe has been driving this initiative and he will stay on as an employee of the fund management company for the first few years.* Calmeadow will own and operate the fund management company as well as invest directly in the Fund.* For more details on AfriCap, Stefan can be reached at sharpe@calmeadow.com (sharpe@calmeadow.com).
ProFund: As one of the four founders of ProFund, Calmeadow is proud of its role in creating the first microfinance investment fund.* Calmeadow does not plan any change to its role in ProFund, which means continuing to be a shareholder and I will remain as the Chair.**
MicroBanking Bulletin: The MicroBanking Bulletin came to Calmeadow from Bob Christen two years ago.* During its stay at Calmeadow, we have significantly raised the profile of the publication, nearly doubled the number of participating institutions, and upgraded the quality of the content.* Now we are returning the project to Bob.* At the end of January, Geetha Nagarajan and Isabelle Barres, the Bulletin staff members, will be moving their voluminous file cabinets into an office next to CGAP.* There they will enjoy the advantages of being close to CGAP personnel, while maintaining a clear operational separation to ensure the confidentiality of the Bulletin database and records.* The last issue of the Bulletin published by Calmeadow will be coming out in April.* New contact information for the Bulletin will be made available shortly.
Other Research Activities: For the past several years, Calmeadow has been a major contributor to the research agenda of the microfinance industry, including recent USAID/MBP work on microinsurance (Brown and Churchill) and disaster preparedness (Nagarajan and Brown), contributions to MicroFinance Network publications on transformation (White) and customer loyalty (Churchill), our own publications on individual lending (Churchill) and market research (Lee), and the development of Calmeadow’s financial management training materials featuring the Balancing Act Accounting Game (Ledgerwood, Moloney et al).*
We are in the process of winding down these activities and we will close Calmeadow’s Washington office at the end of January.* Warren Brown has already joined ACCION in Somerville (wbrown@accion.org (wbrown@accion.org)) and Craig Churchill (craig_churchill@msn.com (craig_churchill@msn.com)) will be leaving later this month to work as an independent consultant in the short term.* The only major activity remaining on our research agenda, “The History of PRODEM” is a superb document written by Cheryl Frankiewicz, which we will publish it later this year.* All of our publications and training materials are available through PACT (books@pactpub.org (books@pactpub.org)) and some are also available from ACCION (publications@accion.org (publications@accion.org)).
Resource Centre and Knowledge Bank: For more than a decade, Calmeadow accumulated microfinance information, catalogued it, and made it available to the public.* Because those resources were in Toronto, however, our famed Resource Centre didn’t benefit the broader microfinance industry.* With the increasing availability of the Internet, we moved toward a virtual library model—the Knowledge Bank—which was going to be linked to local resource centres in developing countries.* Coincidentally, CGAP launched its Microfinance Gateway, making our effort basically redundant.* We have subsequently closed the Knowledge Bank operation.*
The key people from Calmeadow’s Knowledge Bank project are now working elsewhere: Nanci Lee, the Project Manager, works for CARE in Mozambique, and Susannah Cameron, the Canadian Information Specialist, is working for the Riverdale Community Loan Fund in Toronto.* We are donating our books, journals, training manuals and other microfinance resources, along with our database, to the Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (coady@stfx.ca (coady@stfx.ca)).
Support to Local Networks: We have been working closely with several local networks of microfinance institutions—such as GHAMFIN (Ghana), the Microfinance Center (Eastern Europe), ALAFIA (Benin), ZAMFI (Zimbabwe) and CDC (Bangladesh)—to help them launch and manage resource centres (the Knowledge Bank project) and to establish performance standards (an extension of the MicroBanking Bulletin).* Some of Calmeadow’s local network activities are now being supported by SEEP, including the development of a performance standards toolkit that will enable networks to perform a Bulletin-like function at the local level.
MicroFinance Network: Calmeadow was a founder of the MicroFinance Network, an association formed in 1993 of leading microfinance institutions committed to scale and sustainability.* The Network’s long-standing membership includes luminaries such as BRAC and ASA (Bangladesh), BRI (Indonesia), BancoSol and PRODEM (Bolivia), Fundusz Mikro (Poland), K-Rep (Kenya), and ABA (Egypt).* Calmeadow has served as the institutional sponsor of the Network since 1996.*
Because of the other changes at Calmeadow, we have resigned our role as institutional sponsor, which is prompting the Network to identify an alternative institutional home or structure.* Through its conferences, publications and informal networking opportunities, the MicroFinance Network has been, and hopefully will continue to be, an incredibly valuable contributor to the microfinance industry.* I wish the Network, its staff and its members success as they move into the next stage of the Network’s evolution.
Domestic Loan Funds: Calmeadow has also been involved in Canadian microcredit since the late-80s, including several action research projects and three microloan funds.* After more than a decade of experimenting, our efforts to create a viable loan fund in Canada have proven (to us at least) that it is highly unlikely that a standalone minimalist fund will ever become self-sufficient (without perpetual subsidization).* Consequently, we’ve pursued an alternative model of linking a microcredit project with a full-service financial institution.* The assets of* Calmeadow West in Vancouver were* sold to VanCity Credit Union a couple of years ago.* The assets of Metrofund in Toronto, previously the largest microcredit program in Canada, were recently sold to Metro Credit Union.* Unfortunately we did not find an appropriate home for Calmeadow Nova Scotia and therefore we are in the process of winding that project down.* We are now documenting our experiences, in particular “The Metrofund Story”, which will be made available on our website (www.calmeadow.com (http://www.calmeadow.com/)) in the coming weeks.
With the reduction in operating activities and staff, Calmeadow is considering various options for its future, including becoming an investment holding company to focus on managing our holdings in ProFund, AfriCap, Vulindlela and others.* This could be supplemented by providing additional resources to support key interventions or innovations.* While we may be less visible in the near term, we have every intention of maintaining a role that will add value to the continued development of a commercial microfinance industry.
We expect that our website will be updated by mid-February, 2001. After that date we will keep you updated with our evolving plans as well as with reports now being completed.
*<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list
[b]From:** Martin Connell
[b]Re:*******Changes at Calmeadow
[b]Date:** January 20, 2001
As many of you are aware, in response to the continued evolution of the microfinance industry, and to our challenge of remaining an effective catalyst for the sector’s development, Calmeadow is in the process of a major reorganization, which includes the closure of our office in Washington DC.* While we consider various options for our future, many of our current activities and projects are being wound down or moved to new homes.* I want to take this opportunity to update you on the status of Calmeadow initiatives.
[b]International Advisory Services: For the past several years, Calmeadow has focused its international advisory activities on Africa to help create demonstration models of sustainable microfinance.* We have worked on numerous short term consulting assignments across the continent, developed long term associations with several successful organizations such as Small Enterprise Foundation (South Africa) and PADME (Benin), and established a network of relationships with microfinance professionals across Africa.*
Given our desire to maximize our impact on the commercialization of the sector, and ACCION’s recent decision to expand into Africa, we decided to pool resources and collaborate more closely.* We will maintain our current projects and presence in the field, but we will not be participating in new initiatives.* To that end, Victoria White and Alfred Nicayenzi are splitting their time between ACCION and Calmeadow for the next several months, after which time they will join ACCION’s Washington office.
Vulindlela: Calmeadow’s joint venture in South Africa to create a for-profit consulting firm specializing in development finance is proceeding well thanks to the hard work and dedication of the firm’s two primary partners, Barbara Calvin and Peter Rousos, and their strong staff.* Vulindlela now has 5 professional staff including Petronella Chigara and Sam Mathole in Harare, and Sovanhu Chianike in Johannesburg.* Barbara Calvin will remain a Calmeadow employee (based in Toronto but spending 50% of her time in Africa) for the next year and then she will join Vulindlela full-time.* If you want more information about Vulindlela’s services please contact vulindlelaho@icon.co.za (vulindlelaho@icon.co.za) or bcalvin@calmeadow.com (bcalvin@calmeadow.com).*
AfriCap: It has been long in development, but this investment fund for African microfinance institutions will become operational later this year.* Calmeadow’s Stefan Harpe has been driving this initiative and he will stay on as an employee of the fund management company for the first few years.* Calmeadow will own and operate the fund management company as well as invest directly in the Fund.* For more details on AfriCap, Stefan can be reached at sharpe@calmeadow.com (sharpe@calmeadow.com).
ProFund: As one of the four founders of ProFund, Calmeadow is proud of its role in creating the first microfinance investment fund.* Calmeadow does not plan any change to its role in ProFund, which means continuing to be a shareholder and I will remain as the Chair.**
MicroBanking Bulletin: The MicroBanking Bulletin came to Calmeadow from Bob Christen two years ago.* During its stay at Calmeadow, we have significantly raised the profile of the publication, nearly doubled the number of participating institutions, and upgraded the quality of the content.* Now we are returning the project to Bob.* At the end of January, Geetha Nagarajan and Isabelle Barres, the Bulletin staff members, will be moving their voluminous file cabinets into an office next to CGAP.* There they will enjoy the advantages of being close to CGAP personnel, while maintaining a clear operational separation to ensure the confidentiality of the Bulletin database and records.* The last issue of the Bulletin published by Calmeadow will be coming out in April.* New contact information for the Bulletin will be made available shortly.
Other Research Activities: For the past several years, Calmeadow has been a major contributor to the research agenda of the microfinance industry, including recent USAID/MBP work on microinsurance (Brown and Churchill) and disaster preparedness (Nagarajan and Brown), contributions to MicroFinance Network publications on transformation (White) and customer loyalty (Churchill), our own publications on individual lending (Churchill) and market research (Lee), and the development of Calmeadow’s financial management training materials featuring the Balancing Act Accounting Game (Ledgerwood, Moloney et al).*
We are in the process of winding down these activities and we will close Calmeadow’s Washington office at the end of January.* Warren Brown has already joined ACCION in Somerville (wbrown@accion.org (wbrown@accion.org)) and Craig Churchill (craig_churchill@msn.com (craig_churchill@msn.com)) will be leaving later this month to work as an independent consultant in the short term.* The only major activity remaining on our research agenda, “The History of PRODEM” is a superb document written by Cheryl Frankiewicz, which we will publish it later this year.* All of our publications and training materials are available through PACT (books@pactpub.org (books@pactpub.org)) and some are also available from ACCION (publications@accion.org (publications@accion.org)).
Resource Centre and Knowledge Bank: For more than a decade, Calmeadow accumulated microfinance information, catalogued it, and made it available to the public.* Because those resources were in Toronto, however, our famed Resource Centre didn’t benefit the broader microfinance industry.* With the increasing availability of the Internet, we moved toward a virtual library model—the Knowledge Bank—which was going to be linked to local resource centres in developing countries.* Coincidentally, CGAP launched its Microfinance Gateway, making our effort basically redundant.* We have subsequently closed the Knowledge Bank operation.*
The key people from Calmeadow’s Knowledge Bank project are now working elsewhere: Nanci Lee, the Project Manager, works for CARE in Mozambique, and Susannah Cameron, the Canadian Information Specialist, is working for the Riverdale Community Loan Fund in Toronto.* We are donating our books, journals, training manuals and other microfinance resources, along with our database, to the Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (coady@stfx.ca (coady@stfx.ca)).
Support to Local Networks: We have been working closely with several local networks of microfinance institutions—such as GHAMFIN (Ghana), the Microfinance Center (Eastern Europe), ALAFIA (Benin), ZAMFI (Zimbabwe) and CDC (Bangladesh)—to help them launch and manage resource centres (the Knowledge Bank project) and to establish performance standards (an extension of the MicroBanking Bulletin).* Some of Calmeadow’s local network activities are now being supported by SEEP, including the development of a performance standards toolkit that will enable networks to perform a Bulletin-like function at the local level.
MicroFinance Network: Calmeadow was a founder of the MicroFinance Network, an association formed in 1993 of leading microfinance institutions committed to scale and sustainability.* The Network’s long-standing membership includes luminaries such as BRAC and ASA (Bangladesh), BRI (Indonesia), BancoSol and PRODEM (Bolivia), Fundusz Mikro (Poland), K-Rep (Kenya), and ABA (Egypt).* Calmeadow has served as the institutional sponsor of the Network since 1996.*
Because of the other changes at Calmeadow, we have resigned our role as institutional sponsor, which is prompting the Network to identify an alternative institutional home or structure.* Through its conferences, publications and informal networking opportunities, the MicroFinance Network has been, and hopefully will continue to be, an incredibly valuable contributor to the microfinance industry.* I wish the Network, its staff and its members success as they move into the next stage of the Network’s evolution.
Domestic Loan Funds: Calmeadow has also been involved in Canadian microcredit since the late-80s, including several action research projects and three microloan funds.* After more than a decade of experimenting, our efforts to create a viable loan fund in Canada have proven (to us at least) that it is highly unlikely that a standalone minimalist fund will ever become self-sufficient (without perpetual subsidization).* Consequently, we’ve pursued an alternative model of linking a microcredit project with a full-service financial institution.* The assets of* Calmeadow West in Vancouver were* sold to VanCity Credit Union a couple of years ago.* The assets of Metrofund in Toronto, previously the largest microcredit program in Canada, were recently sold to Metro Credit Union.* Unfortunately we did not find an appropriate home for Calmeadow Nova Scotia and therefore we are in the process of winding that project down.* We are now documenting our experiences, in particular “The Metrofund Story”, which will be made available on our website (www.calmeadow.com (http://www.calmeadow.com/)) in the coming weeks.
With the reduction in operating activities and staff, Calmeadow is considering various options for its future, including becoming an investment holding company to focus on managing our holdings in ProFund, AfriCap, Vulindlela and others.* This could be supplemented by providing additional resources to support key interventions or innovations.* While we may be less visible in the near term, we have every intention of maintaining a role that will add value to the continued development of a commercial microfinance industry.
We expect that our website will be updated by mid-February, 2001. After that date we will keep you updated with our evolving plans as well as with reports now being completed.
*<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
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