AFI, along with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), this week co-hosted the “Financial Inclusion Strategy and Data and the Forum on Strengthening Maya Declaration Commitments via Sasana A­ccord”. The member training was held at the Sasana Kijang Complex in Kuala Lumpur.

This five-day event brought together 44 participants from 25 countries representing 28 institutions.

The opening remarks were delivered by Robin Newnham, Head Policy and Capacity Building at AFI, and Thomas Tan Koon Peng, Director of the Human Capital Development Centre at BNM.

Mr. Newnham identified the importance of timelines, prioritization, focus on the root causes and buy-in from stakeholders as the key elements on a successful strategy.

The training is being conducted with technical support from Nimal Fernando, a noted financial inclusion expert associated with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

A new element in this type of training workshop is the introduction of a private-public partnership with Visa as a technical partner for a session on electronic payments.

Speakers also are from AFI members from the Philippines, Nepal, Bangladesh, Tanzania, and others.

The five-step-structured approach to the process of data collection to strategy formulation was appreciated by the participants. While they agreed that in reality it is a challenge to follow all the five steps, they acknowledged the need to strive towards adhering to them.

The five steps include:

1. Establish legislated mandate for central authority to promote financial inclusion;
2. Develop data systems infrastructure to reliably and accurately collect financial inclusion data;
3. Take stock of the financial inclusion landscape and perform gap analysis to identify areas for policy intervention;
4. Formulate financial inclusion strategies with measurable targets to address gaps;
5. Monitor and evaluate impact of financial inclusion strategies against measurable targets.

Fernando, in his presentation on the political economy of financial inclusion, spoke about the need to give due attention to the political economic factors and gave various examples of how it can impact the development of effective strategies. Following the presentation, participants discussed the importance of stakeholder analysis, collaborative partnerships and global advocacy, which together facilitate financial inclusion.

This is the third training being held by BNM-AFI on the topic. The growing importance of having a published national financial inclusion strategy has been established and the role of data in making these strategies robust financial strategies is also recognized.

There is growing interest and prioritization of reporting data but the challenges to access data continues to be a concern.

The AFI-BNM training will help facilitate sharing experiences on possible solutions to achieve it and further strengthen this with a special focus on the national strategies with measurable targets as committed through the Maya Declaration.