USAID's Microenterprise Development office held its 36th Microfinance Innovations After Hours Seminar on the topic of"Financing Clean Energy: Comparison of Approaches in India and Prospects for Replication". The event was co-hosted by the Society for International Development (SID) Urban and Development Finance working groups and was moderated by Amanda O’Neil, co-chair of the Development Finance Working Group. Presenters include GreenMicrofinance, CHF International, and World Resources Institute.

• January 22: Womensphere Emerging Leaders Global Summit 2011: The Next Generation of Women Leaders Transforming the World, Panel: Environment, Health, and Sustainable Development, Urban Zen Foundation Center, New York, NY

The one-day conference brought together women leaders from the top companies in corporate America, as well as women from top undergraduate and graduate programs across the world.

• February 17: Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania: The Changing the World for Women and Girls: A Faithful Response to the Millennium Development Goals, St. Thomas’ Church, Whitemarsh, PA

Women empowerment is the underlying goal of the conference “by and for women”. Through this conference, each woman had a chance to learn about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Reduce Child Mortality and Improve Maternal Health, and Achieve Universal Primary Education.

• February 22: The NGO Committee on the Status of Women, A Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations, Women, Climate Change and the New Green Economy, Church Center of the UN, New York, NY

The conference showcased women’s increasing involvement in the Green Economy, and included examples of new entrepreneurial ventures and micro-financing programs.

• June 21: Cracking the Nut Conference: Overcoming Obstacles to Rural and Agriculture Finance, Financing Climate Smart Agriculture, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC

The conference's aim was to accelerate the impact of the world’s leading rural and agricultural development and finance leaders by uniting them in a collaborative pursuit of learning, leverage and large scale change.

The World Economic Forum in Davos released a study onGreen Investing: Towards a Clean Energy Infrastructure. In the study it states that “two billion people worldwide have no access to modern fuels and 1.6 billion have no access to electricity. In addition, hundreds of millions more live in areas with unreliable grids and experience regular outages disrupting light, water pumps and other essential functions”. GreenMicrofinance was listed in the study as one of eight global organizations "working on innovative ways of using microfinance to provide clean energy in developing countries". http://www.weforum.org/pdf/climate/Green.pdf (p.21)

• April 9: Penn Microfinance Conference, Social Impact and Sustainability, Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.