Arc’s Managing Director Niki Armacost participated at this year’s University of Pennsylvania Microfinance Conference, the first undergraduate microfinance conference in the United States.
The annual conference explores the myriad of ways that microfinance has contributed to economic development in terms of product offerings and lending methods in the wake of increased government regulation and immigration crises. This year’s conference showcased the experiences of microfinance practitioners as they addressed their research, successes and challenges in the field. Niki Armacost discussed the impact Arc has made in empowering women in India and Haiti to take more active roles in their households and the financial and energy literacy program that Arc is developing in India.

Join us as at our second Commission on the Status of Women side event in New York on March 23 at 10:30 a.m. Organized in conjunction with USAID, this panel event will discuss “Access and Women’s Work: Women Entrepreneurs and Energy Financial Literacy”. Register at [email protected].

Arc participated at the 2017 Nepal Microfinance Summit held in Kathmandu, Nepal. Drawing on the impact that Arc has achieved in developing effective end-user financing mechanisms in India, Arc team members Aashish Chalise and Saurav Timilsina spoke on a panel moderated by Dr. Govinda Pokhrel and discussed their insight and experiences on energy financing and the critical role that microfinance institutions can play in this sector.

Aashish Chalise, far left, and Saurav Timilsina, far right, discuss energy financing insights.

Energy financing panelists (Aashish Chalise, second from left, and Saurav Timilsina, far right)

Arc participated at this year’s Lighting Myanmar conference, hosted by IFC. Speaking on a panel entitled “Energy Financing Experiences from India”, Arc team member Shrey Bairiganjan highlighted how Arc is supporting its partners develop effective end-user financing mechanisms in India and detailed Arc’s technical assistance approach. Providing data on low electrification rates in Myanmar, he presented data that can be used to support how microfinance institutions offer an effective gateway for delivering renewable energy systems at scale in Southeast Asia. Moreover, he discussed in detail how the MFI energy lending business models emerging in Southeast Asia and how MFIs can maintain financial solubility with two revenue streams.