Gates Foundation Presents MIF Competition

Gates Foundation Presents the International Marketplace on Innovative Financial Solutions for Development (MIF) Competition

Date: Thursday, September 24 from 6-7pm
Location: 207 Warren, Columbia University

Orin Hasson, Associate Program Officer, Development Finance and Economic Policy at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will discuss the Gates Foundation's initiatives in development finance and discuss the upcoming International Marketplace on Innovative Financial Solutions for Development (MIF), to be held in Paris on March 4-5, 2010. The 2010 MIF, co-sponsored by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the World Bank, will be dedicated to innovative, smart, fine-tuned financial mechanisms for mobilizing, channeling, and spending funds dedicated to development.
A key feature of the MIF will be a competition to garner fresh ideas for financial solutions aimed at reducing poverty and sustainably improving livelihoods through addressing market or government failures. Grants will be awarded for up to five proposals in a two step selection process entrusted to a special jury. In the first phase, approximately 20 finalists will be selected to present at the MIF Conference in Paris, and the MIF will award up to five grants of up to $100,000 each.