The Multilateral Investment Fund, a member of the IDB Group, held ´Connecting MIF partners in Haiti´, a two day workshop on June 16th and 17th 2010 with 21 partner institutions and over 60 attendees to launch its Haiti Learning Community (LC) in Côte des Arcadins, Haiti.

MIF Learning Communities are a virtual and face to face means of interaction between project partners in a country or around a topic of interest. They can include not only MIF country specialists and project partners but also guest speakers, academics, micro entrepreneurs and business managers that use an online network to share knowledge, exchange lessons learned and expertise as a means to improve the design and implementation of their projects.

Learning Communities are part of a MIF´s knowledge and strategic communication initiative to improve the way the institution works and engages with its partners in the field. It enables the MIF to know first-hand its partners’ priorities, spot areas of opportunity, address common concerns and streamline administrative procedures. It is also an excellent way for partners at different stages of the project cycle to help each other by sharing information on consultants, evaluation firms, business and technical toolkits, spur debate and showcase their project results through multimedia. Currently, the MIF has country LCs in Uruguay, Argentina, Trinidad Tobago and Jamaica as well as thematic communities on dynamic entrepreneurship, technology, microfinance and local economic development to name a few.

With the ´Kombite FOMIN entre nous´, a name that mixes Creole and French and reflects the diversity of the MIF Haiti LC, the MIF has launched its tenth Learning Community.  With 21 institutional partners ranging from microfinance institutions, agribusiness SMEs and NGOs to garment and tourism associations, this community reaches over 1,000,000 beneficiaries in Haiti. Their ability to connect, strike new partnerships and deals will foster renewed access to economic opportunity in Haiti, mainly outside Port au Prince and in the rural areas.

The key idea behind LCs is that the MIF acts as a ´knowledge broker and hub’ of a large network of like-minded partners where by connecting the dots, success becomes ´success beyond us´. In other words, the MIF acts as a catalyst of private sector development by bringing to the table ideas, entrepreneurs and local knowledge that when combined can achieve scale and promote systemic change.

With sessions on the Haitian microfinance industry, the adaption of inclusive economic business models in priority sectors of the country’s economy, on ICT connectivity beyond Port au Prince and effective disaster management and prevention, the workshop mirrored the different interests of MIF partners in Haiti but also showed the tremendous potential for synergies and joint initiatives among them to ´build back better’ Haiti.

More information and workshop content can be found at http://haiti.mifcommunity.org/

The Multilateral Investment Fund, a member of the IDB Group, held ´Connecting MIF partners in Haiti´, a two day workshop on June 16th and 17th 2010 with 21 partner institutions and over 60 attendees to launch its Haiti Learning Community (LC) in Côte des Arcadins, Haiti.

MIF Learning Communities are a virtual and face to face means of interaction between project partners in a country or around a topic of interest. They can include not only MIF country specialists and project partners but also guest speakers, academics, micro entrepreneurs and business managers that use an online network to share knowledge, exchange lessons learned and expertise as a means to improve the design and implementation of their projects.

Learning Communities are part of a MIF´s knowledge and strategic communication initiative to improve the way the institution works and engages with its partners in the field. It enables the MIF to know first-hand its partners’ priorities, spot areas of opportunity, address common concerns and streamline administrative procedures. It is also an excellent way for partners at different stages of the project cycle to help each other by sharing information on consultants, evaluation firms, business and technical toolkits, spur debate and showcase their project results through multimedia. Currently, the MIF has country LCs in Uruguay, Argentina, Trinidad Tobago and Jamaica as well as thematic communities on dynamic entrepreneurship, technology, microfinance and local economic development to name a few.

With the ´Kombite FOMIN entre nous´, a name that mixes Creole and French and reflects the diversity of the MIF Haiti LC, the MIF has launched its tenth Learning Community.  With 21 institutional partners ranging from microfinance institutions, agribusiness SMEs and NGOs to garment and tourism associations, this community reaches over 1,000,000 beneficiaries in Haiti. Their ability to connect, strike new partnerships and deals will foster renewed access to economic opportunity in Haiti, mainly outside Port au Prince and in the rural areas.

The key idea behind LCs is that the MIF acts as a ´knowledge broker and hub’ of a large network of like-minded partners where by connecting the dots, success becomes ´success beyond us´. In other words, the MIF acts as a catalyst of private sector development by bringing to the table ideas, entrepreneurs and local knowledge that when combined can achieve scale and promote systemic change.

With sessions on the Haitian microfinance industry, the adaption of inclusive economic business models in priority sectors of the country’s economy, on ICT connectivity beyond Port au Prince and effective disaster management and prevention, the workshop mirrored the different interests of MIF partners in Haiti but also showed the tremendous potential for synergies and joint initiatives among them to ´build back better’ Haiti.

More information and workshop content can be found at http://haiti.mifcommunity.org/