Asia and Middle East Program Seminars

Creating Impact and Revenue in the Impact Economy

Examples from SITARA

Co-hosts: Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF), Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU)

As a side event of the Social Impact Day 2024, this learning session serves as an avenue to know more about impact economy in Asia, with a focus on learning from the example of SITARA, an impact enterprise based in India. The panel discussion session aims to serve as a place to exchange information about social entrepreneurship, impact investment and how one can balance mission and profit-making when doing business. In collaboration with APU Off-Campus English Course for Alumni, this event will be open for all, especially for university students and alumni from APU and other universities in Japan, especially for those who are interested in social entrepreneurship and creating impact in their communities.

Registration

Please register from either the in-person participation or online participation registration form below by 14:00 JST on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

When registering, please double check the email address provided in the form before submitting.

After registration, you will receive a temporary registration confirmation email. Please click the registration completion URL in the email within 24 hours of receiving it to finalize your registration.

If you do not receive this email, please also check the spam email box.

*We will use your registration information for future invitations to seminars and lectures sponsored or supported by SPF.

Contact: Social Innovation Team, Asia and Middle East Program
E-mail: social-innovation@spf.or.jp
Tel: +81-3-5157-5180

For media inquiries:
E-mail: spfpr@spf.or.jp
Tel: +81-3-5157-5395

Description

18:30	In-person Registration Open & Zoom Room Open
19:00	Opening Remarks from Program Director Ayaka Matsuno
19:20	Panel Discussion
19:50	Q&A Session
20:00	Closing Remarks by Ritsumeikan APU Representative
20:05	In-person networking session
20:30	Closing

Speakers

Profile

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of SEWA Grih Rin Limited (Sitara). She has over 20 years of extensive experience in project finance, evaluation, monitoring and evaluation systems and development lending, mainly in the microfinance sector, working with government ministries, financial institutions, multilateral and bilateral agencies. She has worked on establishing innovative financial services in urban and rural areas to help low-income households, especially women working in the informal sector, to create sustainable livelihoods.

Profile

Dr. Tsukada has 20 years of professional experiences working at the World Bank and Asian Development Bank as a task manager for infrastructure projects. He also has 15 years of teaching experience at APU as a professor for international economics, development finance, environmental economics and project management. He has a PhD in engineering (University of Tokyo), an MBA (Cornell University) and a BA (University of Tokyo). As a senior academia with vast international experience he will be the suitable person to moderate the session.

Profile

After graduating from university, she joined the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) and was posted to the Matsue station in Shimane Prefecture as a programme production director. After leaving the station, she studied at a postgraduate school in the USA. She then joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to work on women's empowerment in developing countries, supporting rural development and the empowerment of vulnerable groups at UNDP Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, she encountered microfinance at Grameen Bank and worked on women's economic empowerment through finance (rural banking). She then worked for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at its headquarters and in the Asia and Pacific Department, where she worked on the Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). After a break, Ayaka joined JICA and led an award-winning project on building capacity for victims of trafficking in person as a JICA expert in Thailand. Ayaka joined SPF in 2019 and she is currently working on the implementation of projects to promote women's economic empowerment and social inclusion in Asia,