In collaboration with the Reserve Bank of India, the SME Initiative hosted a conference that brought researchers together with practitioners from the Indian banking sector to discuss innovative, scalable solutions to the challenges that MSMEs face in gaining access to finance.The day began with SME Initiative affiliates and other leading researchers in the field sharing evidence on effective approaches to SME financing including relationship banking and appropriate incentives for credit officers using credit scoring models.

On March 16, took place in Lima, Peru, the “High Level Conference and Latin American Workshop on Impact Evaluation: theory and practice applied to water, sanitation, hygiene, management of hydro resources and irrigation”. The event was co-organized by the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, research center GRADE and Pacífico University. Francisco Dumler, Viceminister of Infrastructure and Sanitation of the Ministry of Housing and Jorge Mesinas, Secretary of Strategic Planning of the Ministry of Education of Peru opened the event. Jorge Mesinas presented the initiatives that the Ministry of Education has undertaken to institutionalize evaluation and learning.

On February 27, CGAP, IPA, J-PAL, and The World Bank hosted a day-long event that presented the latest evidence on the impact of microcredit, discussed the implications for policy and practice, and identified directions for future innovation and research. The event began with a presentation of findings from six randomized evaluations conducted in six different countries, followed by panel discussions with investors, donors, and service providers addressing the implications of these results for the industry.