They were speaking at the Third Regional Workshop on Microcredit Summit-2006 jointly organised by Plan Bangladesh, Credit and Development Forum (CDF), the Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh (FNB) and the International Network of Alternative Microfinance Institutions (INAFI) in association with The Daily Star at the Training and Resource Centre (TARC) of Brac in Jessore on Monday.

The workshop aimed at bringing up the voices from the grassroots MF organisations and expectations of Bangladesh from the Global Microcredit Summit.

Attended by the heads and the representatives of about 35 organisations, the participants highlighted the vital role of MF in Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and post regulatory environment with current discourse and way forward.

The speakers said there is a need for alternative fund sources, increasing capacity of the human resources of the sector, creating better cooperation between big and small scale MF institutions so that the small ones can go for scaling up and create more poverty impact.

Mid-level MFI leaders stressed the need for strengthening the poverty and social agenda in MF sector through improving outreach and enhancing the capacity of the sector and creation of second generation leadership.

Md Abdul Awal, director (Linkage) of CDF and Md Mohammad Tarequl Hoque, specialist, Family Economic Security Programme of Plan Bangladesh were present while Atiqun Nabi, executive director of INAFI Asia and INAFI Bangladesh acted as the moderator.

The workshop was the third of the series of five such exercises to be followed by a National Roundtable to be held in Dhaka next month.