“Challenges and Opportunities for Youth Financial Inclusion in the Time of COVID-19”

G-24/AFI Policymakers’ Roundtable will take place on 19 October 2020, from 13:00 – 15:00 UTC (09:00 – 11:00 Washington D.C.), following the 2020 IMF & WBG Virtual Annual Meetings which are scheduled from 12-18 October 2020.

This first-ever virtual G-24/AFI Policymakers’ Roundtable at the Annual Meetings will be structured around two inter-linked sessions. The first session will highlight relevant financial regulatory and policy responses to COVID-19 by G-24 and AFI members to mitigate the impacts of the crisis and build towards the recovery. The second session will focus specifically on the challenges for financial inclusion of the youth population, and detail the key recommendations in a provisional AFI policy framework for youth financial inclusion.

The coronavirus pandemic has deeply impacted both human health and the global economy, with a severe impact in emerging and developing countries. Financial inclusion policies have an important role to play both in mitigating the impacts of the crisis, particularly on the most vulnerable segments of society, and in contributing towards an economically inclusive and sustainable recovery. Young people, already disproportionately excluded from formal financial services, are facing multiple shocks from the COVID‑19 crisis including disruption to education and training, and more than one in six young people are out of work as a result of the pandemic.

At the AFI Global Policy Forum (GPF) in September 2019, AFI members approved the Kigali Statement, committing to harness the capacity of the youth, and other disadvantaged groups, to drive inclusive growth. The Kigali Statement builds on the 2018 Sochi Accord, through which the AFI network strengthened its determination to leverage digital financial services and FinTech for financial inclusion. This special Roundtable at the Virtual Annual Meetings will expose a provisional policy framework for youth financial inclusion and facilitate the sharing of G-24 and AFI members’ experiences of using digital financial services to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to overcome the barriers to youth financial inclusion.

Should you have any questions regarding this event or how to participate, please contact afievents@afi-global.org.