Professor M. A. Baqui Khalily, Department of Finance, University of Dhaka, and Team Leader, Access to Financial Services Project, InM, and Dr. Mahfuz Kabir, Team Leader, Assessing Financial Inclusion in Char and Haor Areas of Bangladesh study of InM, visited Japan during 24-25 July 2012 to attend the Fourth International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific 2012 (ISAP 2012).
The event was jointly organised by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the United Nations University – Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). The Forum is based on the global networks and research results developed by IGES and UNU-IAS, promotes diverse discussions in the context of sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific. It provides opportunities to promote information-sharing and strengthen collaborative efforts with experts and related organisations. This is considered even more important given the current disaster caused by the extraordinary earthquake and tsunami, and subsequent accidents that happened at nuclear power plants in north-eastern Japan.
Under the umbrella theme of Steering towards a sustainable and resilient future: Beyond Rio+20, ISAP 2012 focused on four timely issues to sustainable development – green economy, resilience, climate change and Rio+20 influences. Professor Khalily and Dr. Sadeque participated at the Panel Discussion Session of the event as panelists, and presented the overall scenario of microfinance, development and climate change in Bangladesh.
During the visit, an MoU was signed between InM and IGES with the focus of collaborative research, training, knowledge management, and other related activities.
Under this MoU, a scope for working in the area of climate change and development has been created for InM with a reputed international organisation.
InM and IGES agreed to a collaborative programme of research on the role of microfinance in building resilience and adaptive capacity to deal with climate change.
