From “A Day for SDG Solutions”, a conference held by Agence Française de Développement in Paris on 3 April 2025

At the risk of stating the obvious, our world currently faces significant challenges. Geopolitical tensions, attacks on multilateralism, climate change, increasing social inequality, structural issues like ageing populations, high debt levels, inflation, low productivity growth, cybercrime… it is truly what some observers call a ‘polycrisis’.

Against this challenging and highly unstable backdrop, central bankers must navigate inflationary pressures, cope with volatile financial markets and embrace innovation, while safeguarding against the risks of technology. And the challenges are multiplying as technology moves ever faster forward. Consistent macroeconomic policymaking is more complex and challenging than ever before. Keep in mind that as part of their mandates, our members are required to maintain stability. There have been easier times to be a central banker…

Some of you work closely with central banks, but for many of you, central banking may be less familiar ground.  If you are in that second group, may I ask: What do you think of when you imagine a “central banker”?  Do words like: “conventional,” “conservative,” “risk averse”, “traditional”, “cautious”, “not proactive” come to mind? 

Years ago, I used to assume that some of these characterizations apply to central bankers. But when you actually meet central bankers from the developing world, and you learn what’s important to them, and why they do what they do, a very different picture emerges.

Rather than explain what I mean, let me show you instead….

In this video, we see central bankers who are passionate about financial inclusion, because they know that it serves higher objectives.

First and foremost, they see how financial inclusion complements monetary and financial stability. It strengthens financial sector soundness. But it does much more. When we bring people into the financial system, they can participate fully in the economy and achieve their potential. We create a broad base of consumers, savers, and entrepreneurs. We help families, communities and nations become less vulnerable, and more resilient. We create the conditions for inclusive growth.

The concept of inclusivity is key here. Our members know that financial inclusion must be human-centred. It means focusing on disadvantaged groups such as women and girls, older people, people with disabilities, and those who are forcibly displaced as a result of conflict, or at risk due to changing climate conditions. It means working to understand their needs and challenges. It means involving them in figuring out solutions.

It’s all about ensuring that as a nation advances, the benefits of progress are shared by all parts of society. It’s a commitment to leaving no one behind.

As a result of many efforts undertaken by regulators, the private sector and funders, hundreds of millions of underserved people have been financially included over the last 15 years. Financial services have become more accessible to lower-income individuals, costs have been reduced, and service reach has been broadened.

The rise of digital payments and transfers has been a key driver of these developments, but new technology comes with new risks, which could have dramatic consequences. Vulnerable people could lose everything they possess in one day. Therefore, we fully support the call for responsible financial inclusion that prioritizes financial education and wellbeing.

Let us have a look at how financial inclusion serves as an enabler and accelerator of the Sustainable Development Goals.

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First, because this is a key priority for AFI members, Gender Equality. Over the last fifteen years, the gender gap in financial inclusion has reduced, but it remains a major issue. Today in many countries, women still struggle to register businesses, own land or property, or even open bank accounts. Significant barriers on multiple fronts (legal, cultural, societal, regulatory) hinder their access to, and use of, financial services. 

The AFI network believes that women’s financial inclusion is key to achieving a healthy, robust and resilient society. It helps overcome poverty, improves children’s health and nutrition, and boosts child education. With women owning a large share of small businesses in developing countries, it is a vital driver of economic growth and job creation.

That’s why our members are developing policies and regulations that create an enabling environment for financial service providers to provide women with equal access to financial services while promoting institutional gender equality.

Here are just two examples:

In Ecuador, the Superintendencia de Economía Popular y Solidaria solicited women-owned savings and credit cooperatives when designing regulations to tackle women’s historic lack of access to credit. SEPS also moved aggresively to increase female representation across their workforce: today, 55% of their employees, 51% of senior managers, and 67% of Board directors are women.  

In Pakistan, the State Bank of Pakistan implemented a Banking on Equality Policy to encourage a shift towards women-friendly business practices in the financial sector. Banks were given targets for women financing, they had to increase their women workforce, each branch had to have a female champion. Banks were encouraged to design products and services for women’s needs.

Around the world, AFI menbers have implemented over 60 policy and regulatory changes which have contributed to reducing the financial inclusion gender gap in developing countries from nine to six percent. 

Yet six percent is still too many. And so to accelerate progress, in September 2024, AFI published a Gender Inclusive Finance Policy Model. This consolidates global knowledge and provides a sound, practical framework on which to construct policy to support women’s financial inclusion.

Within developing-country central banks, there is a clear understanding that women’s financial inclusion supports the attainment not just of of SDG 5 on achieving gender equality and economic empowerment of women, but also SDG 1 on eradicating poverty, SDG 8 on promoting economic growth and jobs, SDG 10 on reduced equalities, and indeed all SDGs.

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A second key priority for our members involves Climate Action.

This issue is very real for our members. Across our network, floods, droughts, rising sea levels, desertification and unprecedented storms are causing havoc. Climate change disproportionately affects low-income communities, who have the least access to financial tools to cope with or adapt to climate impacts.

Our members see the financial inclusion and climate policy agendas as closely inter-linked –  both are integral to the central banks’ primary mandate to ensure financial stability. 

In response, the AFI network has been at the forefront in developing Inclusive Green Finance, which allows countries to advance climate resilience and emissions reduction through access to financial services.   

To explain how this works, let’s take the case of an African farmer. I invite you to consider:

• when there is massive flooding, the advantages of holding savings in a bank account, rather than in livestock
• with impending drought, the advantages of being able to access a loan to invest in better irrigation
• after a climate disaster, being able to access government support or a transfer from a relative through a mobile phone
• the benefits of accessing insurance to insure crops against climate-induced locust infestation or drought

Across our network, central banks and financial regulators are developing policies and interventions which build climate resilience:

• In Egypt, the Central Bank has made affordable credit available for farmers to invest in better irrigation systems.
• In Fiji, the Reserve Bank has initiated mobile payments for government remittances to people affected by cyclones.
• In Armenia, the Central Bank has coordinated the development of climate risk insurance products for the agriculture sector.

Over the last decade, integrating climate risk has become part of many developing-country central banks’ core mandates. What they’ve learnt is that investing in climate resilience represents money well spent – policy interventions can make a major difference for modest output. Examples include developing green taxonomies or definitions, implementing Environmental Risk Management Guidelines, or collecting demand-side data on Inclusive Green Finance. 

Since the adoption of AFI’s Sharm El Sheikh Accord on Inclusive Green Finance, our members have brought in 36 policy changes. Today, 58 countries are advancing this area of policy in AFI’s IGF Working Group.

With support from AFD and other partners, these efforts are gaining momentum across all regions, with a strong focus on green taxonomy development, capacity building, and integration of IGF into National Financial Inclusion Strategies.

While for our members and our partners, the benefits of Inclusive Green Finance are obvious, we are conscious that the message needs to get out to a wider audience. Among other outreach and advocacy initiatives, AFI will organize a public-private partnership dialogue meeting on Inclusive Green Finance at the upcoming IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings. We’re also working with AFD to produce Impact Stories that reveal how IGF policy is positively transforming communities and livelihoods.

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I mentioned at the outset that the current global context is challenging, but let me share four thoughts relating to how we can turn threats into opportunities:

1. Financial inclusion is a macro-objective that is here to stay, both because it has entered the key mandate of financial regulators wanting to ensure monetary and financial stability, and because of its relevance for the SDGs.
2. Focusing on the most vulnerable helps to build resilience and therefore minimize investment risk by making economies more robust, and financial systems more stable and secure, which also can contribute to social and political stability. There is thus a strong business case for policies and investments which target vulnerable groups.
3. With Diversity, Equality and Inclusivity initiatives under attack, it is crucial to highlight how financial inclusion contributes to stability and economic resilience. Inclusivity is the right moral thing to do, but it’s also the smart business thing to do.
4. DEI is under attack, and so too is international aid, not just in the US but here in Europe. In a context of reduced aid flows from north to south, developing countries will increasingly collaborate regionally and globally, among themselves and with other like-minded nations. They are already doing this effectively on financial inclusion through the AFI network, using a cooperation model which is characterized by country-ownership, and by tailoring reforms to countries’ needs, to ensure their sustainability.

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Let me end with a call to action. Just a few months ago, when AFD began planning this event, the world felt very different, didn’t it? 

AFI was proud then and remains proud today that AFD is our partner. Your commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, your deep technical expertise, and the breadth of your achievements are remarkable. Today more than ever, the world needs organizations like AFD, and like our partners in the room. Because the vision we share, where no one is left behind — where finance works for people, planet, and prosperity – is under threat.  And we are all now responsible for protecting this vision.

Together, we can give life to a new global model for inclusivity, where cooperation is not about North-South transfer, but about co-creation. There is an alternative in the making, and together we can be that alternative.

For sure, the messages coming across the Atlantic are very different. But rather than getting swallowed up by that noise, let it energize you. Keep your focus, and your global perspective. Be true to your beliefs. Be innovative. Be impactful. Be European. 

Across the developing world, central banks and financial regulators are balancing traditional objectives such as monetary and financial stability with newer demands like socioeconomic development and financial inclusion.

Amidst the challenges, and in the face of growing complexities, we in AFI see an unprecedented opportunity.  I invite you to work with us, to make a better future together.