FAST to offer free on-line Financial Marketplace training

On-line training sessions available twice per week in March 2010

This month the Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST) will begin to deliver a series of on-line training workshops on the new ‘Financial Marketplace'.

The Financial Marketplace is an on-line tool the goal of which is to eliminate the ‘Financing Gap' by helping producer organizations and sustainable SMEs connect and communicate more efficiently with financial service provider members of FAST. The Financial Marketplace promises to simplify access to financing for the many thousands of producers serving sustainable supply chains worldwide.

The Financial Marketplace tool is available in English, Spanish, and French, and is accessible through a free login account on the FAST website. You can begin using the Financial Marketplace today by creating a free FAST site account.

The training workshop sessions began on Wednesday, March 3, 2010, and will be held twice a week, on different days, throughout the month of March. Training sessions will be limited to groups of 5-6 people at a time.
In order to participate in the on-line workshops, interested parties need to be a member or partner of FAST. Information on becoming a member can be found here.
For more information on training days and times, please see the English and Spanish pages of the FAST website.

The development of the on-line Financial Marketplace has been made possible thanks to the support of Oxfam Novib and Citi Foundation.

The Sustainable Commodity Initiative (SCI) is a founding member and partner of FAST