AFI’s Eastern Europe & Central Asia Policy Initiative (ECAPI) has held its first virtual meeting of the year, to share insights and outline priorities for 2024 and beyond.

Launched in 2018, ECAPI aims to resolve regional challenges and elevate the voice of Eastern European and Central Asian (EECA) nations on key financial inclusion policy issues. At the meeting, AFI members went through the ECAPI Workplan for 2024-2028, which aims to bridge remaining financial inclusion gaps (men-vs-women, urban-vs-rural, young-vs-old, etc.) in member countries. The plan also seeks to enhance members’ capacity to implement financial inclusion policies and develop AFI knowledge products, and to drive cross-country, cross-regional, and global cooperation and knowledge sharing.

“A priority in the years ahead will involve strengthening cooperation among our existing members in ECAPI and with the global AFI network. We also expect our regional membership base to expand,” said Arif Nasibov, AFI Senior Policy Manager.

The Central Bank of Armenia will host an ECAPI meeting on 14-17 May 2024, and ECAPI members will meet during the AFI Global Policy Forum in El Salvador on 2-5 September. Several knowledge exchange and peer-learning events are planned, as well as the production of a regional publication on monitoring and evaluation in financial education.