Advancing Financial Inclusion for Refugees & Forcibly Displaced People

Advancing Financial Inclusion for Refugees & Forcibly Displaced People

How the financial inclusion sector can - and must - serve the world’s displaced people

March 4th, 2025

6:30-8:00pm (followed by a Reception)

Alumni Lecture Theatre

Senate House, SOAS, University of London

Malet St, London, WC1E 7HU

Since 2016, the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) and Financial Inclusion Forum UK (FIF UK) have co-hosted an annual event on the topic of previous year’s European Microfinance Award). Once described by a luminary of the sector as “the Nobel Prize of Microfinance”, the EMA was established in 2005 by the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MFA) to promote innovative microfinance initiatives. It is organised jointly by MFA, the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg (InFiNe) and the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP).

Focusing on a different topic each year (and with a €100,000 prize for the winner), the EMA serves two parallel goals: rewarding excellence, and collecting and disseminating the most relevant practices for replication by others. In 2024, the topic was “Advancing Financial Inclusion (FI) for Refugees and Forcibly Displaced People (FDPs)”, seeking to highlight organisations active in FI and helping FDPs build resilience, restore livelihoods, and live with dignity in their host communities. The FI sector has an enormous and important role to play in supporting refugees and other FDPs, meeting their complex financial and non-financial needs across the various phases of displacement, and working with host country communities, policymakers and other actors to address the barriers FDPs face – and that financial organisations face in serving them.

EMA 2024 was won by RUFI, with Al Majmoua and Faten as runners up. Insights and profiles of these three finalists, as well as the seven other semi-finalists selected from 49 applicants, are presented in the Award publication, which will be presented at this session.

To explore this topic, glean insights from the award publication and discuss challenges and best practices seen in the 2024 Award process, this event will involve a panel comprised of:

• Ed Fraser (Moderator) - a collaborative humanitarian consultant with a particular focus on the economic recovery of displacement affected people. Ed supported the e-MFP team on the design, development and evaluation process for the EMA 2024;
• Yengi Lokule - Financial services expert and CEO of RUFI, the 2024 EMA Winner. RUFI, founded in South Sudan in 2008 and expanded to Uganda in 2016, is a refugee-led financial institution providing loans, business training, and advocacy to support forcibly displaced persons and host communities;
• Sam Mendelson - Financial Inclusion Specialist at e-MFP, member of the Award implementation and evaluation teams and lead author of the annual Award publication. He is also a former board member of FIF UK;
• Suzanne van Ballekom - Digital Financial Inclusion & Women’s Economic Empowerment Deputy Global Team Lead at UN World Food Programme (WFP) and board member at FIF UK; and
• Deborah Foy - former Global Executive Director of Opportunity International, consultant to the 2024 EMA team and member of the 2024 EMA High Jury.

We hope you can join us on 4th March for what will be a fascinating and dynamic discussion - and please stay for the receptions after!

Financial Inclusion Forum & e-MFP