Opening remarks by Charles Marwa, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), as prepared for delivery for the Financial Inclusion Data Working Group Meeting, on 2 April 2016 in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Mr. Oscar Cabrera Melgar, Honorable President at the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador,

AFI Members and Partners,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Damas y Caballeros,

Gracias por invitarnos a la hermosa ciudad de San Salvador.

Regrettably, that is the only phrase I know in Spanish, so please permit me to continue in English.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you to the AFI’s 13th Meeting of the Financial Inclusion Data Working Group.

On the behalf of the entire AFI network, allow me to share our sincere gratitude with President Cabrera Melgar and his staff at the central bank. We recognize and appreciate all of your outstanding efforts in organizing and co-hosting this important meeting.

Ladies and gentleman,

I once read that data are simply summaries of thousands and thousands of stories. And to make that data more meaningful, one must share some of those stories.

So, allow me to share one such story, from my homeland, Kenya.

Several years ago, I was speaking with a colleague working in the highlands of western Kenya for a large international organization. She was conducting a survey in a village, attempting to learn more about the usage of digital payment channels.

She was astonished to discover significantly higher levels of people reporting that they used a mobile phone to make a payment than the national average.

My friend the researcher decided to investigate further. One evening, she headed to the local market to find some villagers to interview.

She saw a group of men huddled around a TV, watching a football match. She started speaking with two of the men, and asked if they had ever made a payment with a mobile phone.

The first man, a local taxi driver, quickly replied, “Of course.”

She then requested that he demonstrate how he made a payment over a mobile phone.

The driver happily obliged: He borrowed his friend’s phone, called his wife, and told her to go the corner store to buy some fish and a bag of flour.

In his mind, the driver had initiated and conducted a payment over a mobile phone. And maybe in one sense he did. But the researcher’s failure to communicate clearly — perhaps because of a cultural disconnect — concluded in the collection of incorrect information.

Good data illuminate our world. It can make invisible markets visible.” — Charles Marwa, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at AFI

Ladies and gentleman,

Clearly, the moral of this story lies in the importance of collecting the right information.

Good data illuminate our world. It can make invisible markets visible.

This is a notion that we all accept — we all share the belief that the proper application of good data is paramount to promoting evidence-based financial inclusion policy.

That means our work is about more than numbers and statistics and counting. Because good data is also about people, and their financial and social behavior, and how to best communicate with them to understand how to properly meet their financial needs.

Looking around this room, I am once again reminded that FIDWG members are best positioned to meet those needs. We are advocates of a culture that embraces data usage, and one that provides the tools to do so.

Ladies and gentleman,

AFI working groups represent leadership and innovation in the network. While emphasizing and balancing financial safety and stability, our members have initiated some of the most innovative policy approaches to extending the reach of financial systems across the world.

FIDWG’s role has been — and will continue to be — central to this process. Data is a cross-cutting issue with implications across every financial inclusion policy area. FIDWG indicators for the SME Finance Working Group and Digital Financial Services Working Group are two prominent examples where our work must be integrated and utilized to embolden the efforts of other members.

FIDWG’s work also remains central to building capacity in the network through trainings. And FIDWG has assumed a key role in the creation of the soon-to-be-launched AFI Data Portal. This will allow our members to share their financial inclusion indicators, track policy profiles and set country-specific targets and progress reports for the AFI Maya Declaration — our network’s commitment to unlock the economic and social potential of the 2 billion unbanked through greater financial inclusion.

With FIDWG positioned as a core working group for the AFI network, data is at the heart of the future of financial inclusion.

As such, we have an even greater and urgent responsibility than ever to outline specific new or renewed targets related to data and measurement under the Maya initiative — a proven driver of successful, evidence-based financial inclusion policy solutions.

I also call on and remind all AFI members to use FIDWG’s indicators to measure their Maya commitments.

I applaud the efforts of those who have declared and achieved a Maya commitment. And for members who have not yet made a specific commitment, I can think of no better place to announce one than at the Global Policy Forum this September in Fiji.

The GPF will once again attract more than 500 high-level financial policymakers, regulators, and relevant stakeholders. It continues to be the most important annual forum on financial inclusion in the world. And it enables FIDWG members to deepen relationships both inside the network and with key external partners — some of whom are here today, including the Gates Foundation, Mix Market, GBA, and IMF in the public sector; and BBVA, Visa, and MasterCard in the private sector.

The most pressing financial inclusion issues we face will be featured at the GPF.

Big challenges related to gender, national strategies, digital financial services, green finance and more loom on the horizon. FIDWG will be an important factor to reaching successful resolutions in all these areas, a fact that should be reflected in our working group’s three-year strategy as it begins to take shape at this week’s meeting.

With this in mind, I would like to draw special attention to the pivotal role of data in improving women’s finance in particular.

To help bridge the gender gap, one critical measure is collecting sex-disaggregated data. This allows for a better understanding of the women segment and leads to more informed policy development. Sex-disaggregated portfolio performance data can facilitate the setting of regulatory and business strategies to better serve the segment. And it provides a more accurate picture of women’s specific needs for financial services.

To note, financial inclusion for women is high not only on FIDWG’s priority agenda, but the entire AFI network’s priority agenda. Our members will look into mainstreaming women’s financial inclusion across all work streams within the network. And our Board will establish a high-level committee on women’s financial inclusion to provide strategic leadership and direction.

With over one billion unbanked women globally — mostly from developing countries — AFI members are in a strong position to support and enhance women’s financial inclusion.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is worth acknowledging that this FIDWG meeting is significant for a very important reason — it is the first time our working group has formally convened since AFI became a fully-independent, member-owned organization on January 27th, 2016.

Our formal independence is a remarkable achievement. Our network has journeyed a long way since its modest start as a project funded by the Gates Foundation. AFI was essentially a trial balloon to see if a peer-learning platform comprised of financial inclusion policymakers from developing countries could change the world.

I am very honored to report that we have changed the world.

Our network championed a model of cooperation centered around peer learning and knowledge exchange. We believed that once you share your knowledge, it becomes another’s. It was a simple but profound idea.

The AFI approach has been so successful that the United Nations General Assembly singled out our network in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. It named AFI as the ideal partner to facilitate financial inclusion peer learning and experience sharing among nations and regions.

It also laid out a strong case for the role of financial inclusion by committing the international community to work toward full and equal access to formal financial services for all. Finally, it stated that the full implementation of the Agenda is vital for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me conclude with a message of opportunity and optimism.

AFI members have constructed a strong foundation. FIDWG’s development of the Core Set of Financial Inclusion Indicators, which are now widely used across our network and beyond, is one example.

As we move forward, we must continue to lead the world by building pillars of inclusive and sustainable social and economic development. We do this, in part, by embracing new topics — such as gender or big data — and by examining opportunities and challenges associated with technology.

There is, at this precise moment, a once-in-a-generation chance to influence the development priorities of our world, and our future. I implore you, share your knowledge with all those willing to listen; and soak up as many lessons from others as you can.

If we work together, we can create the inclusive future we all envision — for all women and all men; where no one is left excluded at the margins of society; where no one lacks the tools to build better lives; and where no one fails to realize their full potential, regardless of color or caste, class or creed.

This will be the true measure of our success.

Thank you.