AFI hosted the Financial Inclusion Strategy Peer Learning Group’s (FISPLG) second meeting, along with the Policymakers’ Roundtable on SME Finance, on 6-8 March 2013 at the Okura Prestige Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

Attendees used the three-day event to work toward building a peer learning program agenda beyond current working groups to serve as a focal point for the AFI Network in both national financial inclusion strategies and SME finance. The two new topic areas fulfill a G20 mandate for AFI as an implementing partner of the G20 Financial Inclusion Peer Learning Program and SME finance subgroup of the GPFI.

The FISPLG meeting concentrated on mapping the current state of financial inclusion strategy development across the AFI Network and developing a peer learning agenda within important topic areas such as national coordination mechanisms and public-private partnerships for financial inclusion strategies.

“The invaluable nature of learning among peers is an important experience as we work toward developing a national financial inclusion strategy plan with a wide range of stakeholders, including regulators and microfinance institutions, all around the table to draw up an actual plan and monitor implementation,” said Benno Ndulu, Governor at the Bank of Tanzania (BoT).

On the final day of meetings, the roundtable connected the perspectives of both policymakers and stakeholders — such as the private sector, donors and academics — into key questions on the role of central banks and finance ministries in SME finance policy solutions.

“It’s obvious that SME finance is a key part of the financial inclusion landscape,” said Alfred Hannig, Executive Director at AFI. “Moving forward, it will be important to expand the Maya Declaration to include SME policy elements.”

The meetings featured more than 100 participants from more than 35 member countries, as well as stakeholders.

Senior policymakers that participated were Governor Ndulu, Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) Governor Denton Rarawa, Reserve Bank of Vanuatu (RBV) Deputy Governor Peter Merakali, Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan Deputy Governor Eden Dema, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor and Chair of the AFI Steering Committee Nestor Espenilla, Jr.

High-level stakeholders included Director of the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four (G-24) on International Monetary Affairs and Development Amar Bhattacharya, as well as representatives from the World Bank and the United Nations Capital Development Fund.