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.

The SME Program held its Eighth Working Group meeting at the Sloan School of Management at MIT on September 29, 2016, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Using innovation to achieve efficient and impactful development outcomes requires pairing smart risks with evidence-based investment.“Evidence and Innovation” Day kicked off USAID's Global Innovation Week on Thursday, September 28, and showcased promising innovations that prove their impact, cost-effectiveness and potential to scale.It also featured new approaches to generating and utilizing results to increase development impact.