> Posted by Adriana Magdas
- Couple at store in Nepal.
In celebration of its 3rd anniversary, the Center for Financial Inclusion is organizing an after-hours event at its Washington, DC office. Guests can view a photo exhibit demonstrating disability inclusion in countries around the world, discuss disability inclusion in financial services, network, and enjoy wine and cheese.
Speaking at the event will be the Center’s Managing Director, Elisabeth Rhyne, joined by Joshua Goldstein, Principal Director for Economic Citizenship and Disability Inclusion, and Rosita Najmi, who is the Program Manager for the Financial Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities Program and for Financial Access at Birth (FAB). Together they will discuss the existing landscape of disability inclusion in financial services around the world, introduce a road map for action by financial services providers, and invite guests to join in the efforts by discussing the path to disability inclusion.
Before and after the presentation, guests will be invited to view a photo exhibit commissioned by the USAID Disability Team to commemorate the 2010 United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The exhibit demonstrates disability inclusion in Cambodia, Ecuador, Kenya, Macedonia, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, and Zambia and highlights case studies from Albania, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Egypt, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tanzania, and Vietnam.
Background
785 million people 15 or older from around the world, nearly 15 percent of humanity, have a disability. Over 80 percent of these people live in developing countries. Yet, less than 1 percent of the clients of microfinance institutions, dedicated to serving the world’s financially excluded people, were found to be persons with disabilities. In order to reach full financial inclusion, the financial services industry must address the financial needs of the world’s disabled poor.
For more information regarding the Center’s work promoting equal and fair access to quality financial products and services by persons with disabilities, please visit our website or download a copy of the “Program Concept Note: A New Financial Access Frontier: People with Disabilities” (also available in Spanish) and the Program Briefing.
Image credit: Handicap International
Have you read?
What to Do When the Mice Eat the Money, or, ‘Where Are the Non-subsidized Financial Services for Persons with Disabilities?’
Skepticism Surplus, Glamor Deficit? PWDs Battle Both in Quest for Financial Inclusion
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June 18, 2014 at 7:18 am
Louis Métayer
We must highly commend the organizers of such events, but in the future we would advise providing a lead time for invitation purposes. Because we find such events brings light, purpose, motivation to the plight of PWD’s worldwide. That said, we should create an atmosphere of solidarity of providing pertinent information among PWD’s so that the exchange of information in “due time” for purposes of planning, is or would be essential for the participation of PWD’s at such events, activities that concerns all actors. Again, if I may suggest, do let us know in advance when such activities are taking place.