23-11-2010

Sanabel - The Microfinance Network of Arab Countries was awarded the "Network of the Year Award" by the Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network during its Annual Conference held in the United States of America from November 1 - 5, 2010.

Sanabel was chosen from among 57 microfinance networks representing regional and national networks from different parts of the world for its distinguished performance in the area of human resources and leadership as well as its achievements in the past year.

Mr. William Tucker, the Executive Director of SEEP, handed the award to Ms. Rania Abdul Baqi, the Executive Director of Sanabel, at the Global Network Summit Reception on November 4, 2010. 

Sanabel, founded in 2002, is involved in the development of the microfinance sector in the Arab countries. The Network supports innovation, best practices, and unified standards of the microfinance sector. The number of Sanabel's current members is 81 microfinance institutions from twelve Arab countries including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. Those members have so far supported more than 2.8 million borrowers or approximately 90% of microfinance clients of the Arab region. 

Sanabel is the only regional network that supports the Arab microfinance institutions. The Network was jointly created by seventeen founding members from seven Arab countries during a meeting held in Tunisia in 2002. The Network was announced in 2004 and was registered as a non-profit organization in Cairo.

SEEP is a global network that connects microenterprise practitioners from around the world in order to create practical tools, capacity building, and assist in setting up standards for a joint vision: Sustainable income for each and every household. Each year SEEP awards one of its network members for distinguished performance in one of the six areas of networks effectiveness. SEEP uses the Network Capacity Assessment Tool to measure performance in the following areas: Governance, operations, human resources, financial sustainability, external relations, and service delivery to members. SEEP launched the Network of the Year Award five years ago.   

The previous winners of the Network of the Year Award include Azerbaijan Microfinance Association (Azerbaijan), Pakistan Microfinance Network (Pakistan), ProDesarrollo Finanzas y Microempersa (Mexico), and Red Financial Rural (Ecuador).