Welcome address by Christoph Pausch, European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP)

Opening remarks by Geneviève Hengen, Deputy Director – Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs – Directorate for Development Cooperation

Opening Plenary: The Past, Present, and Future of Green Inclusive Finance: Ten Years of the e-MFP GICSF Action Group

If our sector were to have a topic of the year, then 2023 would be the year of Green. In this year's Financial Inclusion Compass, Green and Climate-Smart Finance came out 1st out of 15 future priority areas -- and by a huge margin, while climate change adaptation and mitigation was ranked 2nd out of 20 trends, just barely behind client protection -- a perenial top-scorer. Among e-MFP's calls for proposals for this year's Microfinance Week sessions, the topic brought out the largest number of proposals, setting the record for the most proposals received on any topic. But if 2023 is the year of Green Inclusive Finance, then 2013 was the year the idea was born, with the creation of the e-MFP Microfinance and Environment Action Group. Launched by a small group of e-MFP members, this group has had enormous impact across the sector, inspiring investors, donors, researchers and practitioners to add the environmental lens to their work. In 2021, the Action Group's Green Index -- first launched in 2014 -- became the foundation of the new Dimension 7 - Environmental Performance Management - in the Universal Standards of Social Performance Management, the first time a new dimension was added to the standards since their launch in 2012. The Green Inclusive and Climate-Smart Finance Action Group continues to guide the sector in this topic, most recently, with the launch of the Green Map in 2023. This plenary session will celebrate the contribution of the GICSF-AG to the sector, exploring both its early years, its current work, and also where it may head in the future. The session will feature both current and past leaders of the group, along with key members that drive the group's work.