3rd Annual Rural Development Conference

MILLA SA is hosting the 3rd Annual Rural Development Conference under the theme ‘Unlocking Rural Development Funding Opportunities and Linking Donors / Funders to Communities’ from 16-17 May 2012 in Cape Town.

The key topic of Rural development is one that will not go away until all imbalances created by past injustices and the current economic environment are adequately addressed to improve the standard living conditions of all citizens within the borders of third world countries.

The 3rd Annual Rural Development Conference is designed to bring together rural development practitioners, donors and all stakeholders involved in the funding of community and rural development projects. This event will demonstrate how the fund for Rural Development projects can be accessed and utilised by rural entrepreneurs.

This forum is intended to help link communities to funds and access to the funding opportunities available to translate their visions into action. A number of rural communities are not making sufficient progress as they are not well informed about where to go, who to contact and how to make contact in order to obtain the required assistance especially around funding issues and how to execute projects in their areas.

The 2012 Conference will address the key challenges in Rural Finance which include;

• How to build sustainable rural finance institutions with outreach to the rural poor?
• How to foster stakeholder participation including the poor in the development of rural finance policy?
• The role of state-owned banks and formal financial institutions in rural finance;
• How to extend the rural finance ‘frontier’?
• What sectors to prioritize for funding?
• Identifying important empirical issues in rural finance for future study;
• Discussing ways to improve funding quality as well as the communication, dissemination and use of funds;
• Exploring ways to foster dialogue and partnership among researchers at local, national, regional and international level;
• Devising ways on how to build a diversified and sustainable rural financial infrastructure;
• Promoting a conducive policy and regulatory environment for rural development.

Enquiries and Registration: 021 556 9253, Mobile: 079 199 0125, E-mail: rural@millasa.co.za.

For more about the 3rd Annual Rural Development Conference, refer to www.millasa.co.za/RDC_2012.

For more about MILLA SA, refer to www.millasa.co.za.