Training of Trainers on Instructional Strategies,
Organized by AFI in collaboration with Bank Negara Malaysia
Monday, 19 February, 2018
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening Remarks by Norbert Mumba, Deputy Executive Director, AFI

Ms. Kristina Rai, Human Capital Development Centre, BNM,

Ms. Armi Stephanie Treñas, President and Principal Consultant from Learning and Performance Partners Inc., our lead trainer this week,

Colleagues from BNM – Ruziana, Juraidah, Sulhi, Arveen,

Special representatives from AFI member institutions,

Colleagues from AFI,

Good morning! This event is special in more than one way.

• This is the first Capacity Building event of AFI in 2018.
• And a year which is very special for AFI – as we commemorate 10 years of AFI- 10 years of bringing smart policies to life.
• This event marks the beginning of the sixth year of partnership with BNM for hosting capacity building events
• It is the first training that AFI is holding on soft skills
• It is the first training directed jointly towards the staff from AFI members and AFI staff themselves

As AFI enters its 10 year, it is time for reflection on the path we have tread and the way forward. AFI services have evolved in the past ten years – as AFI has expanded, as AFI network members have made significant progress and as the financial inclusion horizon has drastically changed. While we as a sector have done well on reaching numbers, maintaining quality remains the continuous challenge.

We started off our journey of the tenth year with a presentation by Prof. Thorsten Beck reflecting the 10-year journey of bringing smart policies to life, and evolution of the financial inclusion data framework. On the occasion, AFI Executive Director, Dr Alfred Hannig emphasized that regardless of the speed that it takes to reach total financial inclusion, the big challenge is to maintain high level of financial inclusion. “AFI is not worried about the speed of financial inclusion. AFI is much more worried about the quality of financial inclusion.”

AFI reaches out to its members through a diverse range of services – capacity building events, working group meetings, global and regional policy forums and via the AFI data portal. As you are aware all these services are delivered in partnership with members of the network, development partners, private sector players and focus on six core policy areas and also on emerging topics. The quality and success of these initiatives rests equally on two pillars – quality content and quality delivery.

This training is the first event of the journey of 2018, especially designed to enhance the quality of AFI programs.

As AFI is a member driven network, the responsibility of of ensuring quality content and quality delivery is jointly shared by the staff from AFI and staff of AFI member institutions. Hence this training was designed to be of joint participation of AFI members and AFI staff. You have been handpicked for this training, because you as Policy Managers, as office bearers of Working Groups, as leaders of regional initiatives and such other positions, are in the forefront to take forward the financial inclusion policy agenda.

In this training, we will focus on learning how to be assess the learning needs of members? What is the preferred way of learning of our members? How do we align the content to the learning objectives? How do we ensure that the sessions are engaging? Following this training, we hope to see innovations in the approach to our events, the designing of agenda, improved delivery of the content such that we can expect that our programs directly result in having specific and higher impact that can tracked. Remember that all the programs we organize are not an end in themselves, they are the means to initiate work which is expected to make a bigger impact. I urge you to really think from the scratch, think out of the box, think long term to ensure that as a network we are really able to make that impact.

The week promises to be very intense and during the week, you will also through peer support, get a lot of individual and group feedback on your thoughts, your work, your delivery. Please do give and take feedback in a positive way, so that we all are able to make the best of this opportunity.

I especially request all of you to attend the dinner tomorrow as at dinner, you will be provided with inputs on other soft skills in public speaking.

This is a very special initiative and being the first attempt, we would sincerely appreciate your honest feedback, so that we know how to take this forward more effectively. We sincerely thank Learning and Performance Partners Inc. and the BNM team for working with AFI specifically, the Capacity Building and Events team to design and deliver this event. I also take this opportunity to thank your Governors and Heads of Institution for making your participation possible.

Remember quality and not necessarily speed should be the principle driving our financial inclusion interventions if we are to create greater and sustainable impact.

I wish you a week of great learning.