Financial Inclusion Beyond the Pandemic: A Policy Leadership Dialogue

AFI is organizing the Financial Inclusion Beyond the Pandemic: A Policy Leadership Dialogue, from 28 – 30 September 2021. This program will be held virtually given the unprecedented magnitude of the global crisis posed by COVID-19.

Central banks and financial policymakers from the AFI membership and beyond responded swiftly to the pandemic to preserve financial stability, ensure continued lending by financial institutions to small and medium enterprise and leverage digital technology to facilitate social welfare transfers and e-commerce. AFI members and central banks globally also coordinated effectively to share experiences, assess cross-border risks, and align policy responses. Such actions were successful in stabilizing the financial sector, ensuring the continued functioning of key parts of the economy, and the timely transmission of emergency assistance funds to disadvantaged groups, particularly women, youth, elderly, forcibly displaced peoples and those living with a disability. Since the onset of the pandemic, members of AFI delivered systematic, effective and coordinated COVID-19 policy responses serving to alleviate the economic effects of the pandemic on the most vulnerable through financial inclusion policy development and implementation.

Yet, critical challenges remain ahead for policymakers to navigate a pathway out of the crisis. These include:

•  when and how to exit and unwind from temporary measures, for example to inject liquidity into the financial sector, or to incentivize the use of digital payments;
• how to ensure a sustainable, green and inclusive recovery that will leave countries and their populations better prepared to face future systemic crises, whatever their origin;
• how to mitigate against and overcome the reversal of years of gains in financial inclusion, poverty reduction, gender equality, and other goals set out by the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda that are a consequence of the pandemic’s unequal impacts across and within countries; and
• how to maintain momentum in digital technology innovation – from mobile payments through to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – and make effective use of it for financial inclusion and broader environmental and social goals; and
• how to address the digital divide to ensure that the acceleration of digitization provides opportunities for all and leaves no one behind.

Overview agenda:

28 September 2021 – AFI Member High-Level Peer Learning on Effective Policy Responses for an Inclusive and Green COVID-19 Recovery.
29 September 2021 – Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and Financial Inclusion.
30 September 2021 – Public Private Dialogue on COVID-19 Recovery.

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