Opening remarks by Robin Newnham at 8th meeting of the Financial Inclusion Strategy Peer Learning Group

Dr. Natu Mwamba, Deputy Governor at the Bank of Tanzania, AFI members and partners, 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

It’s my sincere pleasure to welcome you on behalf of Dr. Alfred Hannig and all of us at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) to the 8th Meeting of the Financial Inclusion Strategy Peer Learning Group. 

To say this is the 8th meeting reminds me of how swift the passage of time can be. I recall the very first meeting of this group in Abuja, Nigeria, just a few years ago. So we have crossed from West to East Africa, and taken in between meetings as far away as Thailand, Malaysia (twice), Fiji, Trinidad & Tobago, and Mozambique, the diversity of the host countries itself telling a story of how the importance of effective strategy development and implementation resonates globally.

And of course you have made tremendous progress as a group in the previous 7 meetings and all the work that has gone on in between: 9 peer reviews of draft national financial inclusion strategies have been conducted, many of those strategies now published and greatly benefitting from the inputs of colleagues in this forum; 

The group has contributed to the development of a week-­‐long training course on financial inclusion strategy and data, over-­‐subscribed on each occasion and soon to be run for the third time next month in Kuala Lumpur;

•FISPLG members also took roles as expert speakers  in  a  specially  convened  training  on  Financial Inclusion Strategies in the MENA region last November; 

The group has also published an overview of the current state of practice of financial inclusion strategies, and has initiated a number of other guideline and case study knowledge products.

The importance of the FISPLG’s work has been underlined by the steady and continuing increase in countries adopting national strategies, with China, Mozambique and Zimbabwe doing so already in 2016. 

And although implementation experience is still scant, the emerging evidence -­‐ both quantitative and qualitative -­‐ is suggesting that National FI Strategies are having a catalysing impact on progress towards full financial inclusion. Two sets of analysis of the global Findex data – by both AFI and the World Bank – have suggested that countries with National Strategies are making faster progress than those without, and the increased rate of progress is particularly pronounced amongst those countries that have included concrete targets as part of their strategies.

The particular characteristic of this generation of national strategies–and the reason to believe in their potential–is country ownership. A previous wave of microfinance strategies a decade or so earlier often led to disappointing results, largely due to too much dependence on donors or consultants without country buy-­‐in, a lack of national leadership and coordination or a lack of political will to implement. With the paradigm shift to financial inclusion strategies,  we  have  seen  much  greater emphasis on national coordination, clear ownership, actions and targets, and a  far  greater degree of public accountability, driven in part by the commitments countries have made to the Maya Declaration.

At the global level too, we are seeing a seismic shift in the recognition of financial inclusion as a vital development and economic goal for all countries to pursue. Epitomising this,

1. In 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals – the successor to the Millennium Development Goals -­‐and the accompanying Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development. Demonstrated the international community’s recognition not only of sustainable financial inclusion but also of the importance of country led approaches, peer-­‐to-­‐peer cooperation models, and even a specific recommendation to  expand  current  provision  of  financial  inclusion capacity building through the AFI     network.
2. Secondly, in February 2016, a G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Shanghai under China’s Presidency announced in their communique that they “remain committed to strengthen the financial inclusion agenda” and called for the development of a G20   SME   Finance   Action   Plan   and   G20   Principles   for   Digital   Financial      Inclusion.
3. Thirdly, Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde, in a keynote address at the  IMF  &  World Bank Spring Meetings two weeks ago, noted that: “Financial  inclusion  is  distinctly  moving up the reform agenda, both at the international level and in individual countries. The post-­‐2015 Development Agenda squarely puts financial inclusion as a key objective for United Nations  member  countries.

Therefore, Lagarde concluded “Financial inclusion is an integral part of inclusive growth strategies and should be closely integrated into macroeconomic and financial policies.”

So when we hear the Managing Director of the IMF place Financial Inclusion as a policy goal on a par with Financial Stability and Financial Integrity, when we hear G20 FMs and CBGs recognize the necessity for digital financial inclusion efforts amongst all its members, and when we see Financial Inclusion identified as a critical enabler for achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, there can be no doubting the success of our collective advocacy efforts to raise financial inclusion to the highest levels of discussion in key international economic forums.

But success in advocacy does not translate automatically to success in implementation, and in this domain many challenges remain to be tackled if we are to reach the remaining 2 billion people still lacking access to even a basic transactional account.

The FISPLG is in a unique position to identify practical challenges that countries face in implementation of FI strategies and policies, and to develop toolkits and guidance, and peer support mechanisms in order to seek to overcome them.

One of those implementation issues is undoubtedly ensuring that women benefit from financial inclusion policies and strategies to at least the same extent as men. And the evidence suggests that is not yet happening, with the gender gap in access to financial services remaining stubbornly persistent.