Symposium on Africa: help, cooperate or invest?

Last Saturday November 16th 2013, the Symposium “Africa: help, coopertate or invest?” took place in Lugano, organized by Fosit and MIC.

It started off with an introduction to the topic by Prof. Veglio, president of FOSIT and professor at the university of St. Gallen, followed by a roundtable discussion. The guest speakers were Blandine Sankara (sister of the Thomas Sankara, President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 198, murdered 26 years ago.) Prof. Katharina Michaelowa (ETH) e Chrystel Ferret (SDC); moderated by Roberto Antonini (TSI).

In the afternoon, three different Atelier were organized. The pictures below refer to Atelier 2 on Microfinance.
The topic was introduced by Damiano (student at the University of St. Gallen), who gave an insightful overview on the status of microfinance in the world. I particularly like the visualization below, which maps the situations in which people need (micro-)loans or other financial products such as micro insurances, and what elese they normally do if they can’t get them from a bank.

Then Isabelle Dauner gave a talk on the topic of microfianance specifically in Africa, using a ‘analogue’ technique, drawing the ouline of Africa and then pasting different information, sldes, drawings and coloureful notes on the poster.