Incofin Investment Management, a Belgian fund management company, and the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), a public-private development bank founded in 1970, recently signed the fourth capacity development agreement stemming from their partnership that was launched in 2008 to strengthen a total of 14 microfinance institutions (MFIs) worldwide. Between December 2012 and June 2014, the new agreement will direct approximately EUR 162,000 (USD 211,000) to “support five [as yet unnamed] MFIs all over the world in which either Incofin’s Rural Impulse Fund I or II has invested.” The Rural Impulse Funds (RIFs) invest in rural MFIs through loans, equity investments and guarantees.

The new funding will be used for efforts intended to assist MFIs in the following areas: human resources including training programs on risk management and leadership; financial reporting; management information systems; lending methodology; development of lower-risk products; loans for assets that reduce environmental impacts; internal auditing; and the “development of social performance management tools.”