AFI will present its second annual policy award at the 2015 Global Policy Forum (GPF) in Maputo, Mozambique, to illustrate and promote successful financial inclusion polices within the network.

The AFI Policy Award will be held as part of the broader AFI Awards at the GPF to celebrate AFI member institutions that have enacted innovative policies with demonstrable real impact on financial inclusion. It is important to note this award honors successful policy examples in a country’s own specific context, and is not intended to identify one policy as superior over another in a direct comparison.

The criteria for the policy awards are:

1) IMPACT

• Scope: Impact on a large percentage of the countries’ population and/or large geographical area?
• Salience: How important is the problem addressed by the policy?
• Scalability: Is policy scalable within the particular domestic context and/or is it potentially adjustable for application in other countries?
• Stability: Does policy maintain the safety and soundness of the system?

2) INNOVATION

• The policy solution must be something that is new and innovative.

Considerations that will guide the selection committee in the application of their judgment to choose the three nominees and ultimately the winner are primarily related to financial inclusion policies’ innovation and impact.

Judges will analyze which policy has had the biggest impact by the importance of the problem addressed by the policy, whether the policy impacted a large percentage of the nation’s population and geographical area, if the policy possesses the potential to be applicable in other nations as well as lend itself to integration within AFI’s peer learning services, and whether the policy achieved its impact while maintaining safety and soundness in line with domestic and international standards.

Meanwhile, in pursuit of the most innovative, focus will be on policies that tackle a new problem or respond to an existing problem in a new and improved fashion. Innovative policies include those that utilize technological advances, organizational choices or political experimentation.

The nomination process is currently open until 22 June 2015. More details:

• Nominations can come from any individual or organization;
• Nominees must be a current member AFI;
• Nominees must have implemented or initiated a successful financial inclusion policy;
• Nomination applications should include the name of the institution, the policy and a short justification ideally with a verifiable reference to data on the policies impact; and
• Nominations can be submitted via email to afiawards@afi-global.org.