This International Seminar was held from 28th May – 1st June 2012. The training took place in the Danube Delta. The Seminar focused on improving financial inclusion through Eastern Europe’s largest networks of Posts reaching out to deliver access to the many poor, un(der) banked and migrants.
The Seminar provided a unique chance for participants to exchange knowledge, information and experience in the challenges of expanding the role of Posts in the ecosystem of financial, digital and social inclusion in combination with breathtaking views on Europe’s largest and last natural preserved area of the Danube Delta with its unique biological ecosystems where rivers and sea meet in lagoons, lakes and marshes.
In 2011 remittances flows from, to, and within the region amounted to more than US$ 70 billion through formal channels, and an unknown but large amount through informal channels. Many of the recipients live in rural areas and need to spend hours on costly travel in cases where the post office is not the agent. Postal money orders represent nearly 2% of the flow and an increasing number of Posts have become agent for multiple money transfer operators. The seminar will look into the recent experiences and ways to further increase the role of rural post offices in delivery of remittances as a “quick win” opportunity.
The seminar features intense and interactive program:
- Real-life case studies about solutions and problems faced in building postal financial inclusion;
- Interaction with hands-on managers and executives in postal financial services;
- Think-tanking and Action learning in small groups pairing participants from different Posts and (Post-) Banks to develop practical ideation in a cross-country setting;
- Classroom learning and building skills facilitated by academic and practitioner experts;
- Site visits into Europe’s last wilderness with special missions in market research, team building and survival touring through the nearby rural and unbanked areas.