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In light of the International Year of Microcredit and the increased demand for hard data, the workshop will convene a select group of experts in the fields of economic statistics and financial sector economics, from the International Financial Institutions and other key constituents to discuss what we know and what we need to know about the access of poor and low-income people, and their enterprises, to financial services. The objective will be to consider what data is available, what are the current and anticipated future data needs, where are the gaps, and to build agreement on the best way forward.
8:30 to 9:00 Opening Remarks:
Stanley Fischer (Vice Chairman, Citigroup &
President of Citigroup International and Chair of the
Advisors Group for the International Year of Microcredit
2005)
Kevin Watkins (Human Development Report, UNDP)
Moderator for Session A: Enrique V. Iglesias
(Inter-American Development Bank)
9.00 to 10:00 Surveying transactions at the bottom of the
pyramid
What happens on the ground? What are the market
segments? How is finance accessed? Where do
people put their money? – Moving beyond anecdotes.
10:00 to 11:00 Scope and limitations of existing data sources
Speaker: Patrick Honohan (World Bank)
Discussant: Robert Annibale (Citigroup)
11:00 to 11:30 Coffee break
Moderator for Session B: Alan Winters (World Bank)
11:30 to 12:45 Using quantitative cross-country data on access
What are the difficulties in comparing data across
countries? What type of data is needed to build a
systematic picture of the financial products and services
poor and low income people have access to?
Speaker: Thorsten Beck (World Bank)
Discussants: Raghuram Rajan (IMF);
Dean Karlan (Princeton)
13:00 to 14:00 Lunch
Moderator for Panel A: Carol Carson (IMF)
14:00 to 15:30 Panel discussion: What are the methodologies for
collecting hard data?
What are the pros and cons of different approaches,
including cost-effectiveness? How to ensure validity and
reliability? Sources and methods for data collection to be
discussed will include: household, enterprise, provider and
expert surveys.
15:30 to 15:45 Tea break
Moderator for Panel B: Stanley Fischer
15:45 to 17:30 Panel discussion: The way forward – towards an
action plan for better data
Panelists: Jerry Caprio (World Bank)
Suzan Suer (VISA International)
Stefan Ingves (IMF)
Kevin Watkins (UNDP) |
