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International Conference for Christian Development Agencies and Investors

FaithInvest: Impactful Cooperation

Friday 17 January 2020, 9am – Saturday 18 January 2020, 5pm

Geneva/Switzerland, Ecumenical Centre

I. Books for downloading:

2nd enlarged Faith at Work Directory

II: Presentations

1) Opening Addresses

• Christoph Stückelberger, Executive Director Geneva Agape Foundation
• Martin Palmer, President FaithInvest, Bristol/UK
• Isabel Phiri, Deputy General Secretary World Council of Churches

2) Keynotes

Church Investments in Africa. Successful Examples and Strategy for the Future.

• Bright Mawudor, Head of Finance and Deputy General Secretary of the African Conference of Churches AACC, Nairobi/Kenya

Sustainable Finance: UN and Geneva Build Innovative Bridges

• Nicholas Niggli, Deputy Secretary General at the Republic and State of Geneva, Promotor of the International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability FC4S, Initiator of the Building Bridges Week Geneva.
• Roland Schatz, Founder and CEO, United Nations Global Sustainability Index Institute (UNGSII), Vienna/Geneva

3) Investment Strategies of Development Agencies and Churches: Presentation of investment strategies and experiences of (Christian) development organisations and churches

• Danchurchaid, Denmark, Eva Pinada Hansen, Head of Global Funding
• FCA Investments (Subsidiary of Finn Church Aid), Finland, Jukka-Pekka Kärkkäinen, CEO
• Bread for the World/Diakonia, Berlin/Germany, Monika Redecker, Head Africa
• Cui Ruitong, Board Member of GAF Foundation

4) Needs and Offers. Group Discussions

Table discussions about investment and development needs and offers. Every participant focusses on 1-2 example projects. Mixed groups

5) Keynotes: Investments with Public-Private Partnerships

• Jean-Pierre Sweerts, CEO Water Finance Facility and Board Chairman of DOB Equity, Kenya
• UNEP Finance Initiative, Nairobi/Geneva, Kai Remco Fischer, Head Climate Change
• World Bank, Mafalda Duarte, CEO Climate Investment Fund, USA, with Internat. Organisation for Migration IOM, Laura Thompson, Deputy Director General
• Liu Baocheng, Director Centre for Business Ethics, Beijing/China, Advisor to the Chinese Government on CSR Performance of Chinese Outbound Investments in Africa (Video)

6) Investment Strategies and Offers of Investors and Banks. Presentations

• LGT, Liechtenstein/Zurich: Oliver Karius, CEO LGT Venture Philanthropy and Representing LGT Lightstone
• Pax Bank, Köln, Germany: Gregor Kuhl, Head of Investment/ Asset Management
• Evangelische Bank, Kassel, Germany: Helmut Kotschwar, CEO, Sustainable Investment Management.
• Hauck&Aufhäuser Switzerland, Private Bank, Roman Limacher, CEO, Prime Values Funds
• The Global Impact Investing Network GIIN, New York: Sean Gilbert, Director of Capital Mobilization Programme

7) Divestment Policies and Blended Finance. Podium

• Frédérique Seidel, Manager, WCC-UNICEF Global Partnership
• Hubert Miyimi Muwawa, CEO of State Oil and Gaz Company, RD Congo
• Collins Beth, Catholic Relief Services and Chair of the Caritas International Impact Investing Working Group
• Mrsg Lucas Kalfa, Burkina-Niger, President John Paul II Foundation for Sahel, Vatican

8) Plenary Discussion on sections 5-7

9) Chapel prayer

10) Keynote

FaithInvest: Goals, Programmes, Perspectives, Members

Martin Palmer, President, CEO of FaithInvest, Bristol, United Kingdom

11) Innovation: Academic Research Projects, Project Pipeline, Pooled Fund, Institution-building, regulatory investment requirements and tax issues

• Overview: Christoph Stückelberger, Executive Director Geneva Agape Foundation
• Mapping Academic Research projects on faith and investments: Oxford and Princeton University, Faith & Work Initiative, USA. Nicoleta Acatrinei, Associate Research Scholar
• Regulatory Requirements: Karl Pilny, International Investment lawyer, Senior Investment Advisor Geneva Agape Foundation

12) Progress Reports/Lessons Learnt/Promotion of initiatives presented at the conference in January 2019

• Timo Plutschinski, Director, the World Evangelical Alliance Business Coalition, Department Theological Concerns, Hamburg, Germany
• Ulrich Möller, Member of the Church leadership, Protestant Church of Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany, President of OneClimate Fund
• Stephan Werhahn, Board member for International relations of the Workgroup Responsible Finance of the Alliance of Catholic Entrepreneurs (BKU), Germany
• Nicolas Lorne, Founder of Waterpreneurs, Innovate for Water Marketplaces, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Beris L Gwynne, Impact Bridges Group for Impact of Social Programmes, Canada.

13) Investment/Development Projects by Topics:
Sustainability in Water, Agriculture, Education, Technology, Buildings, Energy

Mixed Group discussions between development agencies, churches and investors

14) Pitching: Bilateral Cooperation based on prior registration and spontaneous decisions

15) Plenary: Strategic Planning, Lessons Learnt, Next Steps, Conclusions

Closing

Conference 1: International Conference of Faith-based Entrepreneurs: Stronger Together

Spirituality 4.0 at the Workplace

Sun 20 January 2019, 13h – Mon 21 January 2019, 14.30h

会议报告 1 (9.6MB). 图片下载 GAF Flickr

1 Opening and Introduction of Participants

• Prof. Dr Isabel Phiri, Deputy General Secretary World Council of Churches
• Prof. Dr.Christoph Stückelberger, Executive Director Geneva Agape Foundation, both Geneva, Switzerland

2 Keynotes: Spirituality 4.0 for Business Leaders

• Between Crisis and Mobile Phone Prayer and Care. Prof. Dr Cui Wantian, Entrepreneur, President/Founder of Geneva Agape Foundation, Beijing, China (20pages, 904 KB)
• Spirituality and Values in Finance Management and its importance for SDGs
  Mr. Alfred Berkeley III, President, Princeton Capital Management, New York (SDG Fund), former Nasdaq President

3 Panel: Spirituality at the workplace. Individual and institutional tools and experiences.

• Mr. Timo Plutschinski, Director of the World Evangelical Alliance Business Coalition, Department Theological Concerns, Hamburg, Germany (8 pages, 469KB)
• Mrs. Helen Howe, Christian Aid SALT Business Network, Manager, London, UK (10 pages, 1.5MB)
• Mr. Ventzeslav Sabev, Entrepreneur, Leader of the UN activities of the Geneva Spiritual Appeal GSA, Geneva, Switzerland, and Mahmud Samandari, EBBF and Spiritual Appeal (11 pages, 1.1 MB)
• Mr. Aimé Sene, Entrepreneur, President of ADECCES and Philanthropy, Senegal
• Mr. Yomi Bankole, Nigeria, Data Analyst at Global Fund, Geneva (5 pages, 430KB)

4 Workgroups: Sharing experiences and needs

5 Worship in the Chapel: Spirituality by Singing

Mr. Tobias Karcher SJ, Director, Lassale-Haus, Zug, Switzerland

Mrs. Dai Sheng, Church musician

6 Networking Evening

7 Prayer/Worship

8 Keynote: How Faith Inspires Business. Cases of Entrepreneurs

Prof. Dr Brian Grim, CEO and Founder of Religious Freedom and Business, Boston, USA (15 pages, 570KB)

9 Panel: Spirituality as Source of Ethics in Business

• Mr. Rolando Medeiros, President Uniapac International (International Christian Union of Business Executives), Chile (15 pages, 2.2MB)
• Dr. Nicoleta Acatrinei, Princeton University, Faith & Work Initiative, USA. Research results (contact with the author via bui@gafoundation.world)
• Dr. Prof. Yeh-Ming Hu, Executive Director, Jubilee Economic Ethic Foundation, Taiwan (19 pages, 3.5MB)
• Mr. Joseph Cajigal, Co-founder and CEO, Hudson Canyon Investment Counselors, Llc

10 Networking break for bilateral connections (+exhibition)

11 Plenary: next steps of cooperation (in the light of the Faith in Business Geneva Declaration 2018 and the conference 2019)

Closure: Prof. Dr. Isabel Phiri; Prof. Dr. Christoph Stückelberger

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Conference 2: International Conference for Christian Investors and Development Agencies

FaithInvest: Building Bridges

Mon 21 January 2019, 14h – Tue 22 January 2019, 17h

会议报告 2 (10MB)

1 Opening Address

Prof. Dr. Christoph Stückelberger, Executive Director, Geneva Agape Foundation. (4 pages, 504KB)

Mr. Rudelmar Bueno da Faria, General Secretary ACT Alliance, both Geneva Switzerland

2 Keynotes: Aid and Investments. The need for cooperation between investors and development agencies. Dr. Fidon Mwombeki, General Secretary of the African Conference of Churches AACC, Nairobi/Kenya (14 pages, 343KB)

Agape Investments. Risk Taking for social progress. Prof. Cui Wantian, entrepreneur, investor, Beijing/China, President of Geneva Agape Foundation (12 pages, 824KB)

3 Building Trust: presentation of 3 core Christian participants’ groups and their roles: Institutional Investors, Development Agencies, Churches

• Mr. Nicolas Karambadzakis, Partner Relations Consultant ECLOF International, Geneva/Switzerland (9 pages, 1.2MB)
• Mrs. Ging Ledesma, Director Investor Relations and Social Performance, Oikocredit (Ecumenical Microcredit), Ammersfort, The Netherlands (17 pages, 1.5MB)
• Dr. Ulrich Möller, Member of the Church leadership, Protestant Church of Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany, President of OneClimate Fund (10 pages, 1.2MB)
• Prof. Dr. Paul Dembinski, President of the Council of Rente Genevoise (semi-publi Pension Fund Geneva) and Director/Founder of Observatoire de la Finance, Geneva. (5 pages, 430KB)

4 Mixed workgroups

5 Chapel prayer

6 Building bridges: Panel: cases in the field of cooperation between investors and development programmes

• Mr. Terry Gray, Executive Director, Impact Bridges Group for impact of social programmes, Toronto, Canada
• Mr. Jørgen Thomsen, Chair of the Council in the Oikos Cooperative Bank and Advisor on Religion and Development, DanChurchAid, Copenhagen/Denmark (4 pages, 401KB)
• Mr. Nicolas Lorne, Founder of Waterpreneurs, Innovate for Water Marketplaces, Lausanne, Switzerland (9 pages, 782KB)
• Mr. Stephan Werhahn, Bundesvorstand / Board member for International relations of the Workgroup Responsible Finance of the Alliance of Catholic Entrepreneurs (BKU), Germany (14 pages, 1.1MB)

7 Networks present their work and vision of cooperation

• ACT Alliance: Mr. Rudelmar Bueno da Faria, General Secretary, Geneva, Switzerland
• FaithInvest Alliance: Dr Martin Palmer, Interim President, London, GB
• Swiss Impact Investment Association: Mr. Klaus-Michael Christensen, Zug, Switzerland (contact with author via bui@gafoundation.world)
• Geneva Agape Foundation/China SDG Fund, Prof. Dr Karl Pilny, Geneva, Switzerland
• International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability FC4S: Mr. Mark Halle, Geneva, Switzerland. (9 pages, 989KB)
• Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility ICCR: Rev. Seamus Finn, Chair Board of Directors, New York, USA (16 pages, 1.1MB)

Questions and Answers in Plenary

8 Keynote. Religions for Development: Funding and Implementing the SDGs by cooperation between Governments, UN Agencies and Faith Communities

Prof. Obiora Ike, Executive Director Globethics.net and its Representative to PaRD, Africa Representative to the Club of Rome, Founder/President of a Christian Bank in Nigeria (29 pages, 1MB)

9 Workgroups to elaborate strategies for cooperation

10 Plenary: Strategic Planning, Lessons Learnt, Next Steps, Conclusions

Closure