SANABEL AT A GLANCE

SANABEL – The Microfinance Network of Arab Countries

May 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS About Sanabel

Sanabel’s Vision, Mission, and Objectives

Sanabel’s Membership

Benefits of Membership

Sanabel’s Key Activities

Sanabel Key Achievements in 2011

Sanabel New Partnerships

Sanabel’s Main Partners & Donors

Sanabel’s 10 Anniversary (Achievements from 2002 – 2012)

Future Activities in Maghreb Region

ABOUT SANABEL

VISION, MISSION & OBJECTIVES

VisionSanabel envisions all low income people in Arab countries with access to comprehensive financial services.  MissionSanabel advocates for growth, innovation, best practices & standardization of the microfinance sector in Arab countries.  Objectives1- Strengthen the capacity of MFIs through needs-based training, technical assistance and peer exchanges. 2- Advocate for a positive and conducive microfinance environment and for the inclusion of microfinance in the financial sector. 3- Promote microfinance best practices among stakeholders in Arab countries through transparency, standardization, peer learning and information exchange efforts. 4- Foster innovation in the microfinance sector by researching and highlighting leading trends in technological developments, product diversification and new financial services.

SANABEL’s MEMBERSHIP

Sanabel presently has 88 members from 13 different countries; namely, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.

It is estimated that Sanabel members are serving 2.8 million clients representing 90% of the total microfinance clients in the region.

Sanabel currently has four membership categories:

1)Full Member1

Institutional Criteria:1.Focus on lending to micro entrepreneurs;2.Located and operating in one or more Arab countries;3.Minimum of 2 years of operations as an MFI;4.Minimum of 5,000 active clients in countries with populations in excess of 8 million; a minimum of 3,000 active clients in all other countries with the exception of Lebanon and Palestine which should have a minimum of 2,000 active clients;5.Working to achieve full operational and financial sustainability;6.Committed to building transparency, evidenced by the annual submission of financial information to external auditors, the Micro banking Bulletin (MBB) and the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX).

1. 60% of Sanabel members are listed under full members category.

SANABEL’s MEMBERSHIP (cont’d)

2) Affiliate Member Institutional Criteria:

1.Focus on lending to micro entrepreneurs or be a national microfinance network;2.Located and operating in one or more Arab countries;3.Working to achieve full operational and financial sustainability;4.Committed to building transparency, evidenced by the annual submission of financial information to external auditors, the Micro banking Bulletin (MBB) and the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX).

3) Friends of Sanabel Institutional Criteria:

1.Individuals, banks, donors, technical assistance providers, trainers and non-MFI NGOs committed to the development of best practice microfinance Arab countries;2.Actively participating in the microfinance sector in Arab countries.

SANABEL’s MEMBERSHIP (cont’d)

4) National Network (New) Institutional Criteria:

1. Advancing Microfinance in the Arab region;2. Located and operating in one or more  Arab countries;3. Is representative of more than 50% of the microfinance sector in area(s) of operation (i.e. members

are serving more than 50% of active clients within the network’s area(s) of work);4. Focusing on activities that are results oriented;5. Working to achieve  full operational and financial sustainability;6. Committed to building transparency and benchmarking amongst microfinance networks

worldwide; evidenced by the annual submission of financial information to external auditors, Sanabel network, and SEEP Network.

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP

Affiliation with the leading best-practice MFIs in the region;

Discounted registration and scholarships for Sanabel's annual conference which is the largest gathering of microfinance practitioners, experts, donors, investors, and stakeholders in the region;

Discounts and a priority for the participation in Sanabel‘s Training of Trainers (TOT) workshops and trainings courses for microfinance practitioners;

Ability to disseminate the MFIs latest news through Sanabel’s newsletters and to participate in peer learning activities and exchanges;

An opportunity to create a profile on the MIX market and have it updated periodically to give donors, investors, and industry specialists an accurate view of the MFI’s performance;

Access to new projects and activities brought to the region for the first time such as Social Performance Management.

SANABEL’s KEY ACTIVITIES

Sanabel enjoys a unique position as a market facilitator providing the Arab microfinance industry with direct services in areas such as: networking, training, translation, research, and exchange of information using the primary languages of the region.

Sanabel serves as a catalyst and coordinating entity for the work of partner organizations in areas such as transparency and benchmarking, capacity building and in advocacy for the microfinance industry.

Sanabel’s Core Activities include:

o Training & Capacity Building

o Communications & Membership (www.sanabelnetwork.org )

o Annual Conference ( www.sanabelconf.org )

o Transparency & Research

o Social performance Management Project (SPM)

o Arabic Microfinance Gateway ( www.arabic.microfinancegateway.org )

SANABEL’s KEY ACHIEVEMENTS in 2011 Membership and Communicationso 6 new members from 6 countries joined the network in 2011, bringing up total membership to a total of

86 members in 2011.

o Sanabel officially re-launched its website with a new design and updated content.

o Sanabel successfully organized a breakfast/Iftar gathering for the first time for its members in Egypt and Yemen during the holy month of Ramadan.

Training and Capacity Buildingo Sanabel organized the first regional Management Crisis workshop tackling the current situation in the

Microfinance sector, entitled: “Managing the Crisis and Planning for the Future” on 20 - 21 November 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.

o Sanabel organized 6 training courses (3 TOTs and 3 TOMMs), and 2 workshops throughout 2011 in 3 Arab countries, delivered to more than 160 participants.

o Sanabel successfully organized a peer exchange program in Morocco in cooperation with “Centre Mohammed VI de Soutien a la microfinance Solidaire. The program was attended by 13 participants from Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Syria.

o Sanabel introduced and delivered 2 new training courses for the first time to the Region, namely; Youth-Inclusive Financial Services course (ToT & ToMM) in cooperation with Making Cents International (MCI) and Alexandria Business Association (ABA) and a course on Islamic Microfinance.

SANABEL’s KEY ACHIEVEMENTS in 2011 (cont’d)

Transparency and Researcho The Transparency department began the data collection process for the MSME Islamic Finance survey

in collaboration with CGAP, Al Baraka Bank and AFD (which is providing the financial support).

Arabic Microfinance Gateway (AMFG)o AMFG launched a special series of blogs on the new challenges and opportunities that were created by

the Arab Spring titled: “Microfinance and the Arab Spring: Challenges and opportunities” which is published on the CGAP website in English and the AMFG website in Arabic.

Social performance Managemento Sanabel successfully co-organized with SEEP Network four-day training on “Strategic Planning &

Governance”, in October, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. 12 participants representing the national networks in the Arab Countries.

Sanabel Annual Conferenceo Sanabel’s 8th Annual Conference, “Microfinance in the Arab Region: Challenges of the Past and

Opportunities of the Future”, was held under the patronage of H.E. Prime Minister Dr. Maarouf Al-Bakhit, in Amman, Jordan from June 7th – 9th, 2011, and was well attended by more than 500 participants and featured 70 speakers from the region and around the globe.

SANABEL’s NEW PARTNERSHIPS

Signing of MOU with CGAP: for a strategic cooperation in serving the microfinance sector in the Arab region. Some of the joint activities under this MoU include the issuance of a semi-annual MENA Update Newsletter that highlights the key developments and interventions in the region by donors and investors, Arab Spring Blogs series…etc

Signing of MOU with Centre Mohammed VI de Soutien a la microfinance Solidaire: for the provision of more effective support to strengthen the microfinance sector in the Maghreb sub-region (North Africa).

Signing of MOU with GIZ: to strengthening the regulatory framework in selected countries in the region (namely Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine) as well as providing technical assistance to Sanabel in the areas of strategy development, procedures and governance, and service provision.

Signing of MOU with Silatech: to provide youth savings initiatives for low-income youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

SANABEL’s MAIN DONORS & PARTNERS

Sanabel is Celebrating its 10th Anniversary

SANABEL’s KEY ACHIEVEMENTS from 2002 - 2012

Sanabel has been awarded the “Network of the Year Award 2010” from The Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network.

Membership and CommunicationsoIncrease in number of Sanabel members from 17 in 2002 to 88 members to date; of which 60% are full members;oPublication of periodic newsletter, annual report, and maintenance of Sanabel website;

Training and Capacity Buildingo Translation of 12 microfinance courses into Arabic;o Trained over 95 trainers (TOTs);o Trained over 1,500 microfinance managers (TOMMs).

Sanabel Annual ConferenceoHeld an annual microfinance conference from 2004 - 20011; oOver 500 individuals (including practitioners, policy makers, donors, experts, and investors from 26 countries) participated in the last conference which was held in Amman in June 2011;oThe Sanabel conference is the largest of its kind in the region.

SANABEL’s KEY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM 2002 – 2012 (cont’d)

Arabic Microfinance Gateway o Website launched in 2004 (partnership with CGAP);o Over 680 documents have been translated and posted on the site in addition to news items, jobs

and organizational profiles;o Website is visited by more than 8,800 visitors per month.

Transparency and Researcho Gather, analyze and publish data on Arab MFIs – through partnership with MIX (Number of Arab

MFI with profiles on MIX Market increased since 2003 to reach 75 MFIs in 2010; while the number of Arab MFIs participating in annual global benchmarks published in MIX MicroBanking Bulletin (MBB) increased from 6 in 2003 to 65 in 2010.)

o Sanabel has released “Arab Microfinance Regional Report” that analyzes the financial performance of the Arab region within the context of the existing funding structure and regulatory environment and also highlights key trends, achievements, challenges, and opportunities for the microfinance sector in the Arab region to all interested parties.

Social Performance Management (SPM)o First SPM TOT was conducted resulting in training of 8 Arab microfinance practitioners in SPM, of

whom 6 were certified;o SPM trainers conducted 3 training (1 in the French and 2 in Arabic) for 27 Sanabel member MFIs, of

which 13 MFIs has Social Audits conducted by the trainers.

THANK YOU