23 April 2010: Developing country perspectives are critical to helping shape global financial inclusion policy initiatives and ongoing knowledge exchange on proven policy innovation is essential, concluded participants at the high-level roundtable hosted by AFI and the G24 Secretariat held in Washington D.C. on Thursday April 22, 2010. 

Financial policymakers from nearly 20 countries joined key partner organizations – including BCEAO, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CGAP, IFC, IMF, Islamic Development Bank, South Centre, World Bank and high-level representatives from the G20 Financial Inclusion Experts Group –in the meeting held on the sidelines of the World Bank / IMF 2010 Spring Meeting. 

The Roundtable aimed to give developing country policymakers an opportunity to discuss the current status of the G20 Financial Inclusion Experts Group (FIEG) – Access Through Innovation Sub-Group (AITSG) and provide feedback on the draft ‘Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion’ that were shared, as well as to receive an update on preliminary findings of the AFI survey on financial inclusion policy in developing countries. This marked the 2nd G24/AFI annual meeting – the first having taken place around the 2008 World Bank/IMF Spring gathering, where AFI was first informally launched. 

Opening the roundtable, Governor of the Bank of Kenya and AFI Steering Committee Chair, Professor Njuguna S. Ndung’u outlined the importance of financial inclusion as one of the cornerstones in achieving growth and poverty reduction and appreciated the G24 Secretariat in providing this opportunity for exchange. “This roundtable represents what we in AFI believe in and what we want to share with you,” he said, underlining his belief that the G20 should actively engage developing countries in the discussion and keep in mind that many of the successful financial inclusion strategies come from these countries. 

“This roundtable allows us to raise the voice of developing countries on proven solutions to financial inclusion,” said Luis Gustavo Mansur Siquiera, Deputy Head of the Department of International Affairs, Banco Central do Brasil, who also gave opening remarks. Welcoming the AFI survey and commending the network for providing a knowledge sharing platform for policymakers, he underlined that including non-G20 countries’ views and examples of innovation in the G20 process will enable the development of a broad consensus among policymakers. 

Participants were addressed and updated by the co-chairs of G20 sub-groups working on two different aspects of financial inclusion: access through innovation (co-chaired by Australia and Brazil) and on SME finance (co-chaired by Germany and South Africa). AFI Executive Director, Alfred Hannig, then gave an update on initial findings – including trends and barriers in financial inclusion policymaking, lessons learned and an outlook – from a survey AFI has carried out on financial inclusion policy in developing countries. The survey, originally requested by the AFI Steering Committee with the aim of informing the future work, development and areas of focus for the AFI network, have also fed into and informed the development of the ATISG work programme and ‘principles’. 

The discussion session, moderated by the Director of the G24 Secretariat, Amar Bhattacharya, aimed to gain structured feedback on the G20 initiative and reactions to the AFI survey findings then took place. A number of key issues and points were raised, including: 

• Financial inclusion policymaking should be an integral part of the mainstream financial sector policy.
• Coordination among different government agencies is a key challenge in financial inclusion policymaking and implementation. Motivating different government players is therefore key in developing and implementing financial inclusion policies.
• Peer learning and knowledge sharing is ever more important in brining the financial inclusion status to the next level. Participants expressed their strong willingness and desire to learn from other countries that have already implemented successful policy solutions. Apart from the successful policies, it is very important to analyze the underlying factors that made success happen.
• Lack of data and evidence is as a key constraint for policymakers. Efforts to measure success need to be strengthened in order to allow for evidence-based policymaking.
• Participants underlined the necessity for openness for innovative approaches in financial inclusion policymaking.

“The vast majority of action [on financial inclusion] takes place in developing countries,” said Paul Flanagan, the Australian G20 ATISG Co-Chair, encouraging participants to submit proposals on how to translate the G20 ‘principles’ into action and possible practical steps that G20 can undertake. Moving forwards, he outlined that the ATISG will share the more detailed synthesis report including country examples and that the group would like to continue the dialogue with developing country policymakers towards the G20 Seoul Summit. 

Concluding the meeting, G24 and AFI emphasized that they will continue the collaboration and will provide such forums to engage developing countries in global discussions, including the upcoming AFI Global Policy Forum in September and future G24/AFI annual meetings. 

Delegates and speakers from the following countries attended the meeting: Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ghana, Venezuela, India, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu