The University of Twente is delighted to announce that Her Royal Highness Princess Máxima of the Netherlands will visit us on Wednesday 11 April 2012. The Princess will deliver a speech to open the first research conference on micro-insurance in the Netherlands at the University of Twente in Enschede.
The conference is being organized by the Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies, a research institute at the University of Twente, in cooperation with various international research institutes in the field of microfinance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Scientific researchers will present and discuss their most recent findings in the field of micro-insurance during the conference. The questions covered will include: How do you develop micro-insurance? Does this kind of insurance contribute to reducing the vulnerability of low-income households? In addition, the conference will be a forum for discussion between researchers from different academic disciplines worldwide.
Princess Máxima will be speaking in her capacity as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance. Princess Máxima has been working for years at home and abroad to make financial services more widely available to vulnerable people, and to improve consumer protection and financial skills.
Since June 2011, Princess Máxima has also been the Honorary Patron of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion. In the Netherlands, Princess Máxima is the Honorary Chair of the Platform Wijzer in geldzaken and she is a member of the Netherlands Committee for Entrepreneurship and Finance.
The last royal visit to the University of Twente was in November 2011, when Her Majesty Queen Beatrix attended the ceremonies marking the University’s fiftieth anniversary.
