The African Microfinance Week (referred to as the SAM, based on the French acronym) is a major conference dedicated to the development of financial inclusion in Africa that takes place every two years.The most recent SAM took place from the 9th to the 13th October, 2017, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The main ambition of the SAM is to provide a unified African platform for exchange on the microfinance issues facing the African continent by bringing together all the professionals of the sector – investors, MFIs, researchers, banks, networks, innovators, governments and others. ​IPA is co-organized the Research Meets Africa conference, which took place on October 9th as part of the SAM.

On September 27-28, IPA Philippines Country Director Nassreena Sampaco-Baddiri presented at the Seamless Philippines 2017 conference in Manila.