Washington D.C. is home to thousands of international representatives this week as the annual IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings are once again held in the United States’ capital.

Financial inclusion is high on the agenda with the first meeting on the subject having taken place on Monday. The IMF’s Christine Lagarde was on hand to give the keynote for “Financial Inclusion: Macroeconomic and Regulatory Challenges”. The session, co-hosted by IMF and the Center for Global Development, explored financial inclusion trends, macroeconomic impacts and new technologies in the context of international development priorities.

In her presentation, Lagarde acknowledged the international partners working toward the advancement of financial inclusion, including AFI, the United Nations and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She also highlighted the importance of setting and achieving national financial inclusion commitments. “The post-2015 Development Agenda squarely puts financial inclusion as a key objective for United Nations member countries,” said Lagarde. “To date, more than 60 governments across the world have set financial inclusion as a formal target.”

As has become tradition, the AFI will be hosting and co-hosting several events on the sidelines of this event, while many AFI members will be taking part in the main meetings throughout the week.

The most prominent AFI event will be the 8th Annual G-24/AFI Policymakers’ Roundtable on Financial Inclusion which will take place on Wednesday. Held under the theme of “Mitigating the impact of de-risking and embracing the digital financial services opportunity,” the meeting will explore de-risking issues and look into the challenges now being faced in the establishment of sustainable of digital financial services ecosystems.

AFI’s 25th Board of Directors meeting will be conducted on Thursday as the newly independent network continues to refine and strengthen its strategic and operational goals. And, at the close of the week, AFI’s groundbreaking Public Private Dialogue (PPD) platform will see private sector partners gather to discuss financial inclusion trends and possible areas of further cooperation and collaboration.

The 2016 IMF/World Bank Spring meetings provide an ideal venue for AFI and its partners to promote and support the potential of smart financial inclusion policy to bring formal financial services to the world’s unbanked and help to improve the lives of the poor.