A House Journal of ASA

Volume 29 June 2001

HEADLINES ASA MD Attended the Microcredit Summit in New Delhi ASA MD Selected as Member in the Policy Advisory Group of CGAP ASA Preparing to Monitor National Poll ASA Meet Held ASA Abroad Microfinance Training in ASA ASA at a Glance	ASA MD Attended the Microcredit Summit in New Delhi Md. Shafiqual Haque Choudhury, Managing Director of ASA attended the Asia Pacific Region Microcredit Summit, which was helt in New Delhi from 1-5 February 2001. The organizing committee of the Microcredit Summit invited Mr. Choudhury to chair one of the Concurrent Session on "Successful Management Strategies to Reduce Cost & Improve Efficiency" and he also conducted one day-long course on - "Learning to use cost effective impact measurement tools". He has presented a Case Study on "Measuring Transformation: Assessing and improving the Impact of Microcredit". The Microcredit Summit is being held each year with an objective to reach 100 million poor households by the year 2005. Mrs. Fazilatun Khanam AGM, ASA also attended the Summit.	MD ASA Selected as Member in the Policy Advisory Group of CGAP-World Bank
		The CGAP (The Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest) has selected Md. Shafiqual Haque Choudhury, Managing Director of ASA as a member of the Policy Advisory Group (PAG). This is a prestigious appointment for a Bangladeshi National to the policy making body of CGAP. The CGAP's Chairperson Mr. Pilar Ramirez invited Mr. Choudhury to join as a member of PAG and it's next annual meeting, which will be held in -	Alexandria. Verginia on May 22-25, 2001. After a long process of consultation with CGAP staff, the Consultative Group (CG) and the Policy Advisory Group decided to co-opt Mr. Choudhury as a member of PAG in view of his poineering role in microcredit management and his out standing achievements and exemplary performance in microfinance both in home and abroad. In 1995 a group of donor agencies including the World Bank launched CGAP, to improve the qualify of microfinance programming, facilitation of business planning and financial projections.
ASA Meet Held A special yearly general meeting and half-yearly coordination meeting of ASA was held on January 13, at the ASA central office and IDB Conference Room in Dhaka. The general meeting at ASA Central Office was participated by 20 divisional landless representatives, 20 DM, 6 GM/DGM and Managing Director of ASA. The general meeting was presided over by Mrs. Taherunnessa Abdullah, Treasurer of the ASA Governing Body. Soon after, the half-yearly coordination meeting of ASA was held in IDB Conference Room. The coordination meeting was participated by 160 Area Managers, 20 Divisional Managers and all senior officials from ASA Head Office. The meeting was presided over by the Managing Director, Md. Shafiqual Haque Choudhury. In his opening speech Mr. Choudhury noted that the objective of the meeting was to find out the better way to increase the opportunities and stable the organization as well.		ASA Preparing to Monitor National Poll ASA is taking a wide range of preparation for monitoring the ensurring 8th national parliament election. To ensure effective monitoring ASA intends to deploy about 18000 observers who will cover 50% or above of the total voting centers. In addition, there will be 300 mobile ovservers for the total 300 seats of the national parliament. Furthermore, 4 mobile teams will conduct monitoring from the central office, Dhaka. For the purpose of election monitoring a 5-member powerful team has been formed in the ASA head office. The team will be led by Fr. R. W. Timm, President, ASA Governing Body and other members are Mr. Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, Editor Daily Manabjamin, Mr. Shafiqual Haque Choudhury, Managing Director of ASA and Mr. Enamul Haque, GM-Development and Partners, ASA.