EVENEMENTS
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08
SME FINANCE FORUM
Event
Avr. 08, 2021
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2021-04-07 20:00:00
2021-04-07 20:00:00
ADFIMI’s webinar: “Exploring the Role of Fintech in the Post-Covid World and How It Will Affect Finance Institutions”
ADFIMI, one of our industry partners, will hold a webinar on the topic of “Exploring the Role of Fintech in the Post-Covid World and How It Will Affect Finance Institutions” on 8th April 2021 at 10:30 Istanbul time (GMT+3).
Featured panelists:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mesut Karakaş – Associate Professor, Yıldız Technical University
Dr. Mesut Karakaş has accomplished Ph.D. studies in economics at Marmara University and obtained capital market activities advanced level license. Currently, Dr. Mesut Karakaş works as an associate professor in the department of economics at Yıldız Technical University. He is interested in financial markets, economic policy, and financial modeling.
Mr. Ökkeş Emin Balçiçek – CTO, Architecht Inc.
Mr. Balçiçek played an essential role in the Core Banking Transformation Program as an Enterprise Architect at Kuveyt Türk Participation Bank. He took the lead in establishing Kuveyt Turk’s Information Technologies R&D Center in Konya. He has been serving as CTO at Architecht Inc. with over 16+ years of IT experience, taking on entire digital organizations and leading them into the next phase of growth. As a digital technology executive, he has focused on modernizing financial technology, driving transformational change, and turning around underperforming organizations and technology strategies. He has been teaching “Fintech Management Class” for six years at Sakarya University.
Dr. Muin S. Öztop – Principal, Business Development, Data and Services at Mastercard
Dr. Öztop currently leads Mastercard’s Data & Services Business Development team covering twelve countries, including Turkey, CIS, and Israel. With 10+ years of experience in sales and delivery of consulting projects across the US, Europe, and Turkey, he led multiple digital transformation projects in the banking sectors. Before joining Mastercard, Muin worked as a project manager at The Boston Consulting Group’s New York and Istanbul offices. Dr. Öztop holds a Ph.D. Degree in Engineering from Columbia University and BSc. from Middle East Technical University in Turkey.
Read more information about this webinar here>
SME FINANCE FORUM
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Mars
30
SME FINANCE FORUM
Event
Mars 30, 2021
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2021-03-29 20:00:00
2021-03-29 20:00:00
Asia-Pacific Financial Forum Sustainable Finance Development Network Virtual Roundtable
Fostering Financial Sector Climate Leadership
As sources of financing for businesses, lenders and investors can have a very significant impact on efforts to promote alignment of business practices with specific goals. The role of socially responsible investing, impact investing and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in finance has grown as more and more investors and bank shareholders prefer to see their money used to finance enterprises and activities that are reflective of their social values. As the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have gained traction in recent years, ESG finance has become an important focus of attention among lenders, investors, financial industry associations, multilateral institutions, governments and regulators.
During their dialogue in 2020, APEC Finance Ministers welcomed ABAC’s recommendations on ESG finance. These included a call for a globally consistent and principles-based ESG taxonomy or set of standards that is flexible in approach and open to different speeds of adoption, as well as dynamic and taking into account the impact of evolving technologies. ABAC also called for an inclusive process of developing global standards, frameworks, principles and best practices. Ministers welcomed the proposal to establish a platform, the Sustainable Finance Development Network (SFDN), which has since been established and is now developing a roadmap to promote coherence of approaches to ESG finance among economies and strengthen the region’s role in the development of global standards.
This year, as part of its report to APEC Leaders and Ministers, ABAC aims to develop a set of Climate Leadership Principles that can help guide businesses in addressing climate change and establish a clearer vision about how a low-carbon future in the region could be achieved. Considering the huge role that lenders and investors can play in this process, this Roundtable will seek to identify principles for fostering financial sector climate leadership that can be incorporated into the ABAC Climate Leadership Principles, as well as concrete actions that can be taken to facilitate an effective role for lenders and investors in promoting sustainable business practices.
The SME Finance Forum CEO, Matt Gamser, will participate in the panel discussion: Financial Sector Leadership to Take the Climate Change Agenda Forward, on March 30th, 2021, at 21hs EST.
Speakers Line-Up
Moderator: Mr. Pablo Casaux, Sherpa, APFF Sustainable Finance Development Network; and Market Structure Strategist, Bloomberg
Ms. Helena Fung, Head of Sustainable Investment, APAC, FTSE Russell; and Co-Chair, Sustainable Finance Working Group, Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA)
Dr. Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum; and Chief Operations Officer, International Finance Corporation
Mr. Jeremy McDaniels, Senior Advisor – Sustainable Finance, Institute of International Finance
Mr. Masaaki Nagamura, Sherpa, APFF Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Network; Fellow and General Manager International Initiatives, Corporate Planning Dept., Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.; and Member, Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures
Ms. Vanessa Wang, Senior Managing Director and Head of Institutional Group, US, Amundi
Read more> https://www.apec.org/ http://www2.abaconline.org/
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SME FINANCE FORUM
ronyg@panapps.co
America/New_York
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Mars
25
SME FINANCE FORUM
Communities of Practice
Mars 25, 2021
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2021-03-24 20:00:00
2021-03-24 20:00:00
Risk Management Community of Practice (CoP) - 2021 Meeting on SME Lending
The Risk Management Community of Practice (CoP) is a Member-Only event and it aims to bring together professionals and risk management experts from member institutions of the SME Finance Forum to share their learning, experiences, and good practices examples with their peers. The scale and complexity of financial institutions and the pace of their financial transactions demand that they employ sophisticated risk management techniques and monitor rapidly changing risk exposures. At the same time, advances in IT innovation and solutions have lowered the cost of acquiring, managing and analyzing data, and have enabled considerable and ongoing advances in risk management at leading institutions. Financial institutions in emerging market countries are also increasing their focus on risk management in order to build more robust and sound financial systems, to remedy weaknesses that were exposed by the recent crisis.
The CoP collaborates through
• On-going email and LinkedIn group (this will be a closed member only group) exchanges among CoP members;
• A series of virtual meetings (WebEx) among members of CoP;
• Sharing and discussing specific case studies shared by both members and non-members;
• Exchanging relevant studies, articles and other publications on the topics;
• Where possible, participate in study visits to “good practice” institutions to learn from first hand experiences.
Who should participate in the CoP
• Senior executives working on or responsible for risk management or relevant areas from member institutions of the SME Finance Forum
Upcoming CoP Meeting
We are organizing the next CoP meeting for March 25th, 2021 on SME Lending, with the latest insights to promote intelligent SME lending decisions.
Using data to inform SME lending and risk management decisions has always had its challenges, now further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn from Experian, the global leader in data and analytics, about how SME lenders can use data to get a more complete view of applicants and meet compliance requirements, driving intelligent decisions throughout the process. You’ll also hear stories of how Experian is helping SME communities around the world get the resources they need during the pandemic.
Moderator
Rajeev Chalisgaonkar is the Global Head of Business Banking at Standard Chartered Bank. Rajeev has more than 23 years of experience in Corporate, Commercial and Retail Banking across diverse geographies including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India. Rajeev heads Business Banking for Standard Chartered Bank globally since April 2014. In his previous assignment, Rajeev was Head of Corporate Banking with Barclays Bank India and before that led the SME and Business Banking for Barclays Emerging Markets across 14 countries in Asia, Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Barclays, Rajeev worked for Citibank and Export-Import Bank of India holding leadership positions in Central Europe and India. Rajeev completed his MBA at IIM Calcutta. His academic achievements also include a Bachelor of Engineering (Metallurgical Engineering) from Malaviya National Institute of Technology, India.
Speakers
Mohan Jayaraman is the Managing Director for Southeast Asia and Regional Innovation at Experian. He leads the SEA business and heads up Experian’s innovation hub – Experian X Labs in the region. He holds the additional responsibility for the Business information business line, analytics and technology for the APac region. Mohan is a seasoned senior executive in the data and financial services space and has managed multi-market and vertical responsibilities in his 10-year tenure at Experian. He is a data science, machine learning and technology enthusiast with considerable experience working in consumer banking as well as the B2B business space. Mohan is the Experian representation on the Strategic Advisory Council for APIX, an initiative of the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN), a not-for-profit entity that was jointly formed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the ASEAN Bankers Association. It is a global, open-architecture platform that supports financial innovation and inclusion in ASEAN and around the world. He is also a board member of BIIA (Bureau industry body) and CompareAsia Group.
Steve Platt is the Group President, Business Information Services at Experian. Steve leads global strategy for Experian's Business Information Services (BIS) organization. In this role, Steve works alongside Experian's regional operating entities on growth strategies, minority investments and corporate acquisitions. Steve is committed to helping companies gain access to unique data assets, enhance it with analytics, incorporate it into their processes and use it to make each business interaction safe and profitable.
Discussant
David Snyder has over thirty years of experience analyzing and managing risk. He currently leads a team that evaluates the quality of credit risk management across Consumer and SME lines of business at one of the largest financial institutions in the United States. Additionally, he is concurrently pursuing doctoral research with City, University of London and collaborating with SME Finance Forum on a global study to determine key success factors for use of credit scoring for MSME lending. David has completed MBA, MSF and MPH in Epidemiology degrees. He lives with his family near San Francisco, California.
If you are interested in participating in our Community of Practice, register in Member Portal.
Read about 2020 Community of Practice Meeting in Singapore
Read about 2019 Community of Practice Meeting: Credit Scoring's contribution to MSME Loan Growth.
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SME FINANCE FORUM
ronyg@panapps.co
America/New_York
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Mars
18
SME FINANCE FORUM
Member Spotlight
Mars 18, 2021
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2021-03-17 20:00:00
2021-03-17 20:00:00
How to Finance Sustainable Supply Chain - Member Spotlight #3 with RootAnt
At the SME Finance Forum, we strongly believe that each and every member institution has a wealth of unique experiences in serving their MSME clients. Therefore, we introduce a new initiative, the Member Spotlight, to provide our member institutions a stage on which to share knowledge and experience, as well as specific products and services they consider relevant and useful for the global community of SME financiers.
The second edition of this new initiative is with member RootAnt.
RootAnt is a supply chain finance software company, creating and connecting enterprises and financial institutions for cheaper and greener financial services. With the mission of unlocking trillions in global supply chains in a sustainable manner, RootAnt leverages movable assets, such as receivables and inventories, to improve the working capital that could be used to grow SMEs. Headquartered in Singapore, RootAnt also has offices in China and Japan.
How to Finance Sustainable Supply Chain
Learn how banks can support the financing of SME on sustainable value chain
Supply chain finance is a key area where sustainable behaviors can be encouraged and incentivized. Embedding sustainability factors into supply chain finance assigns value to supply chain sustainability programs, and it provides incentives to suppliers down the value chain especially the SME suppliers. This has the potential to unlock hidden markets and create new revenue streams to banks, fundamentally transforming supply chain across the world. Real change must come from the top. Leading companies have since recognized that sustainability challenges within their supply chain present risks to business continuity, not just in the short term. As a result, most have supply chain sustainability programs in place to manage the environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in their supply chain. Though the effectiveness of these programs has been limited and largely based on supplier assessment and audit activities.
Hear from industry experts on the importance and potential of sustainable supply chain finance for APAC in the coming years, how collaboration plays a major role in the success and how SMEs can benefit greatly from the mainstream adoption of this program.
Moderator
Lechi Zhang is a consultant at the SME Finance Forum of IFC. He has extensive experience assisting various fintech and blockchain companies in devising their business strategies. Prior to IFC, Lechi worked briefly in investment banking and private equity. He holds a Master's degree in Financial Policy from Cornell University and has acquired certified skills of developing blockchain network from IBM.
Speakers
Rajeev Kannan is Managing Executive Officer, Deputy Head of Asia Pacific Division as well as General Manager, Corporate Banking, Asia Pacific Division of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). Prior to his current role, Rajeev was Executive Officer and Head of Investment Banking, Asia Pacific where he was directly responsible for the various wholesale and investment banking products since April 2016. Rajeev was also based in Tokyo for 4 years since 2012 as Executive Officer responsible for Global Structured Finance. Rajeev has over 25 years of investment banking, emerging market investing and energy & infrastructure sector experience globally. Rajeev is also a member of Board of Director of Clifford Capital Pte Ltd, Pierfront Capital Pte Ltd. and was conferred the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Distinguished Fellow Award in 2019.
Puneet Chaddha spent 29 years in Financial Services, nearly all of it with the HSBC Group, during which time he managed a number of different businesses. His last role was Regional CEO for HSBC Group’s asset management business in South East Asia. He currently advises the boards of Global Initiatives - a well established sustainability & data science company and RootAnt Global - a rising fintech star in the field of deep tier finance. He is also an Advisor to Bain & Co. An engineering and management graduate, Puneet also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Lincoln Yin is the founder & CEO of RootAnt Group, a Singapore HQ Fintech with branch offices in China and Japan. RootAnt launched the first digital transaction banking Neobank named BANCO in Singapore, focusing on Deep-tier supply chain finance, embedded with sustainable and green finance, to enable the entire value chain to "Go Green" and help SMEs in the enterprise ecosystems to access to cheaper, faster, easier financing services. Integration with alternative data from enterprise systems, customs, logistics, government, and powered by AI and Blockchain technologies, the digital banking solution improves transparency, traceability for financial institutions to protect fraud and improve risk management. Lincoln started his entrepreneur journey when he was 19 years old. He is a Global Shapers (an initiative of the World Economic Forum) and delegate at the G20YEA Berlin, also awarded the “Asia Fintech Leader” and “Fintech Leaders Under 30” at the Singapore Fintech Awards 2019.
For members, please register on Member's Portal.
A summary of the session will be posted on the blogs section.
For more information, please contact: Jessica Alfaro
The SME Finance Forum may collect, manage and share your information in accordance with Forum’s Privacy Policy (https://www.smefinanceforum.org/privacy). By confirming your registration to this webinar, you agree to allow the organizers to contact you as and when required for the administration of the webinar, for example, to let you know we have gone live with an event or to notify you about a service change. We will comply with our Privacy Policy with respect to your preferences and you will have the option to unsubscribe, this option can be found at the bottom of our emails. If you consented upon registration, some of your details may be provided to sponsors. If you are unsure about this, or if you wish to withdraw this consent after registration, please email to smefinanceforum@ifc.org prior to the webinar. For more information, see our privacy policy.
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SME FINANCE FORUM
ronyg@panapps.co
America/New_York
public
Mars
11
SME FINANCE FORUM
Event
Mars 11, 2021
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2021-03-10 19:00:00
2021-03-10 19:00:00
COVID-19 and Women Microentrepreneurs: A Path Forward
International Women’s Day Panel 2021
Member FINCA Impact Finance is organizing a panel discussion moderated by Andrée Simon, President and CEO. This year, on the week of International Women’s Day, they invite all of you who are passionate about gender equality and believe intentional outreach to women will be the foundation to rebuilding, to join them for a virtual panel and discussion on COVID’s effect on women and the road to recovery. FINCA will share the results of their research and response, but also to have an open conversation about how the Microfinance sector should respond.
Panelists:
Zar Wardak, Vice President & Division Director, FINCA Impact Finance
Mamie Kalonda, Directeur General, FINCA DRC
Scott Graham, Vice President, Research and Data Science
Lisa Kuhn, Social Performance Task Force
Event details: COVID-19 has blazed a path of destruction and devastation across the world, threatening to undo a decade of progress on poverty alleviation and financial inclusion. Women are at the center of this storm. Likewise, the pandemic posed unprecedented dangers to the health and safety of their households. At the same time, women’s livelihoods, which pay for necessities like food and school supplies, proved uniquely vulnerable to the economic disruptions occasioned by the pandemic. As a result, these disruptions can only worsen existing gender disparities, especially in parts of the world where women are already facing persistent barriers to equality.
As we emerge from the initial emergency phase of the pandemic, we believe that responsible financial institutions can smooth women’s pathway from crisis to recovery. Moreover, FSPs can even accelerate their progress towards financial health. These efforts will hinge on gender-intentional outreach initiatives, product and channel design, and women-focused digital financial inclusion. They are informed by our own crisis recovery efforts, along with global data that we have collected over the past year focusing on COVID-19, poverty and financial health.
REGISTER here>
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SME FINANCE FORUM
ronyg@panapps.co
America/New_York
public
Mars
11
SME FINANCE FORUM
Virtual Roundtables
Mars 11, 2021
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2021-03-10 19:00:00
2021-03-10 19:00:00
Virtual Roundtable Series #26 - Measuring the Impact of COVID-19 on Women Entrepreneurs
By invitation only
While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic differs by industry and country, there is one group that has been hit particularly hard across the board: women-owned small businesses. To create effective evidence-based mitigation measures, financial institutions need data, methods, and tools to measure the impact of the pandemic on women entrepreneurs.
On Thursday, March 11th, 2021, at 8 a.m. EST, we will hear from executives at Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), a collaborative partnership that seeks to address financial and non-financial constraints faced by women-owned SMEs in developing countries; FINCA Impact Finance, a global network of microfinance institutions and community-based banks; vCita, a fintech helping SMEs manage their business; and, the IFC, each of which will discuss how institutions are measuring the impact of COVID-19 on women entrepreneurs and the available tool to measure that impact during the pandemic.
What you will learn about
• What challenges do financial institutions face in collecting and analyzing gender-disaggregated data about the impact of the pandemic?
• What role can digital technology play in helping institutions assess the impact of the pandemic on women-owned businesses?
• What are the ongoing initiatives that help harmonize definitions and methods for measuring impact?
Host: Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum
Moderator
Jessica Schnabel is the Global Head of IFC’s Banking on Women business in the Financial Institutions Group. She is responsible for building IFC’s global investment business for financial institutions in emerging markets, to radically scale-up and improve financial services for women and women-led SMEs. She has led the team to invest over US$2.7 billion and provide solutions to over 100 banks and financial institutions in over 55 emerging market countries to build profitable financial and nonfinancial services for women customers. Building partnerships with public and private sector players, IFC’s Banking on Women business has been at the forefront of innovations such as the Banking on Women-Global Trade Finance Program and the Women Entrepreneurs Bond, action-oriented data analytics, and tangible financial and development results. Her prior experience in IFC includes a range of debt, equity, and balance sheet risk-management investments in commercial banks, private equity funds, and asset finance companies. Ms. Schnabel holds an undergraduate degree from Indiana University and a graduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies.
Speakers
Wendy Teleki is Head of the We-Fi Secretariat, which is housed in the World Bank Group. The Secretariat is responsible for supporting the We-Fi Governing Committee in the allocation and supervision of We-Fi funding as well as communications, advocacy, and learning focused on strengthening opportunities for women entrepreneurs in collaboration with the GC, Implementing Partners and other stakeholders. Ms. Teleki joined We-Fi in May 2019. Prior to that, Ms. Teleki worked with the International Finance Corporation leading numerous activities and initiatives focused on small and medium enterprise development in emerging markets around the world. This included several blended finance, investment and advisory programs, including IFC’s We-Fi program and the Global SME Finance Initiative. Wendy has an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business and an MA in International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Zar Wardak is FINCA Impact Finance’s Vice President & Division Director, where she leads the network’s operations in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan Kosovo and Tajikistan. Prior to becoming Division Director, Zar served as Regional Director for the Middle East and South Asia Region. Under Zar’s leadership, FINCA’s operations in the MESA region expanded to cover two full-service microfinance institutions and one bank, each of which now has more than 25,000 clients. FINCA Impact Finance has also become a catalyst for women’s economic empowerment in the MESA region. Zar previously served as CEO of FINCA Afghanistan. Prior to joining FINCA, Zar worked as a financial services industry consultant in Afghanistan and served as Regional Sales Integration Director for Citibank in Texas before that. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Business from Southwestern College in Kansas and a Master of Science in Peace Operations from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Zar also serves as Chairperson of the Afghanistan Microfinance Association and Chairperson of the Board for FINCA Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kosovo.
Adi Engel is the Chief Marketing Officer of vCita. She is responsible for leading vcita’s strategic thinking and global marketing objectives in supporting micro and small businesses on their journey to success and digital transformation. Coupled with her business acumen, Adi has a host of experience and customer-centric product knowledge, which she constantly brings into new, innovative, company-wide, initiatives that are guided by her passion for enabling the inclusion of the underserved. Driving a growth culture and mentality, Adi, together with her team, are helping to positively impact hundreds of thousands of small businesses around the world to build businesses they are proud of vcita. Championing digital inclusion and financial inclusion for SMEs, vcita is proud to be supporting the most #agile, #creative, and #resilient segment of entrepreneurs. Using its global footprint, vcita helps SME owners around the world manage the fundamentals of their day-to-day business - Money, Time, and Clients. By simplifying, automating, and creating bite-size learning opportunities, vcita support SMEs in digitalizing aspects of their business, freeing them up to focus on what’s important - creating great client experiences, and building sustainable businesses. vcita’s core belief is that we rise by lifting others.
Roshin Joseph is a Results Measurement Specialist with the Sector Economics and Development Impact Department of International Finance Corporation (IFC) - The World Bank Group. At IFC, Roshin leads ex-ante and ex-post development impact results measurement for private sector investment and advisory projects, and blended finance facilities focusing on financial institutions in Africa, Middle East and globally. He has 15 years of results measurement, evaluation, consulting, project management, and analytics experience in over 10 countries. Roshin joined IFC from the World Bank, and prior to his current role, was based in IFC’s Amman, Jordan office. He has also worked in the private sector as a business intelligence analyst and has held leadership and board member positions with NGOs. Roshin holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University and a Master in Business Administration from Georgetown University.
Extra Time with Speakers!
Want to learn more about an institution or speak directly with a panelist from the roundtable? Join our new Roundtable - Extra Time! This is 30-minute breakout session with one of the presenters from the roundtable. Microphones will be unmuted, and participants can speak more conversationally, and ask direct questions to the presenters. Each session will be chaired by a SME Finance Forum moderator. Link to join>
About COVID-19 Roundtable Series
In times of crisis, accurate and timely information is key. Sharing knowledge and practical experience are proven forms of investment that pave the path to success. With the purpose of helping our members build their own knowledge advantage, the SME Finance Forum facilitates activities and learning opportunities with the strategic approach of collecting and disseminating the best practices, while connecting SME finance experts and practitioners within our global network. Starting in late March, the Forum hosts weekly virtual roundtable sessions focusing on mitigation efforts used to cope with COVID-19, sharing those experiences in a continuous and real-time basis. Learn more>
A summary of the session will be posted on the blogs section.
For more information, please contact: Khrystyna Kushnir
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