Last month marked an important milestone in the Alliance for Financial Inclusion’s (AFI) work stream to promote the collection and sharing of financial inclusion data. On 18 April 2016, AFI launched its brand new AFI Data Portal (ADP) that allows members to track and view progress made against their Maya Declaration Commitments as well as key financial inclusion indicators.

Furthermore, through the ADP, for the first time members will be able to explore the AFI Country Policy Profiles containing the status of financial inclusion policies and regulations, including relevant primary legal documents in each country in the AFI network.

The AFI Data Portal is a unique and integrated global database on financial inclusion policies, regulations, and outcomes, built by policymakers for the benefit of policymakers.

Housing information sourced directly from the users themselves, the ADP empowers countries’ policymakers and regulators to share their financial inclusion stories through data. We like to think of the ADP as almost similar to Wikipedia for financial inclusion policies and regulations, where we rely on you—policymakers and regulators—to contribute high-quality data.

There are values for centralizing information on financial inclusion achievement by policymakers and regulators in a structured, searchable, and frequently updated database. Through variety of AFI’s forums, reports, and webpages, you may have heard success stories about Kenya’s agent banking regulation, Malaysia’s financial consumer protection regime, and Mexico’s demand-side survey framework.

What you may not have heard before are equally successful but perhaps less well-known experiences from Fiji, Mongolia, Paraguay, Rwanda, and many more. Every day, we at AFI witness how the members set bold targets, design smart policy solutions, and collaborate with stakeholders to advance financial inclusion objectives.

When these successful reforms are not highlighted or shared in easily accessible way, your peers lose opportunities to learn from you—and vice versa.

Currently, the ADP features three main datasets:

• The Maya Declaration Commitments: The world’s first commitment platform under which AFI member institutions publicly pledge concrete financial inclusion targets and regularly report progress towards achieving them. Through the ADP, users can view all Maya Declaration commitments and related progress reports. AFI members can also announce new Maya Declaration targets and submit progress reports for existing commitments.

• AFI Country Policy Profiles: The first repository of knowledge containing information on the legal and regulatory status of financial inclusion in each country of the AFI network. The dataset allows regulators and policymakers to examine regulatory frameworks of their peers and to identify thematic, regional, and global trends in financial inclusion policies.

• Financial Inclusion Indicators: These comprise AFI’s common set of indicators created by FIDWG and other working groups. In addition, the members can add their own indicators, report values on existing ones, and view other countries’ indicator data.

The ADP provides users with numerous and policy-relevant benefits. These include: (1) raising your countries’ public profiles on financial inclusion achievements; (2) setting your national goals and targets on financial inclusion based on Maya Declaration commitments by peers facing similar financial inclusion challenges; and, (3) identifying countries with advanced policy/regulatory frameworks or outcomes for further peer learning.

As the financial inclusion landscape evolves, the AFI Data Portal will continue to evolve in response to AFI members’ new challenges and needs. But one element is constant: your continuous contribution of data on the ADP will make it unique, relevant, and useful to your peers. After all, good stories must be shared.

Visit the AFI Data Portal and obtain your log-in credential now at www.afi-dataportal.org.

Download a quick guide to the AFI Data Portal here:

English | French | Spanish

Upcoming: video tutorials in English, French, and Spanish on how to use the AFI Data Portal

To learn more and provide feedback, please contact: Prad Kerdpairoj, AFI Data Portal Manager,prad.kerdpairoj@afi-global.org.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prad Kerdpairoj is the AFI Data Portal Manager and a Policy Analyst at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.