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Michael Schlein, President and CEO of Accion, shares his exhortation for action
Looking back
Two years ago the Citi Foundation convened a group of us to start thinking about Financial Inclusion. We looked around the room and saw all the usual suspects. We immediately realized we needed to broaden the conversation to all the new actors who are coming in, seeing the opportunities, the markets and the need for financial services at the base of the pyramid.
From a Forum to a Movement
That led us on this path to FI2020 and this Forum. I do think we have succeeded in broadening the conversation significantly. It’s not just the non-profits and the microfinance institutions but it is now banks, payment companies, retailers, insurers, government organizations and regulators. It is a broad conversation aligning around a common vision of creating a financially inclusive world.
This is more than a Forum. It has now become a movement with a clear direction laid out in the Roadmaps. There is a lot of energy in this room and we will all leave here and continue to work on driving this vision forward.
Everyone has a role to play
This is an inflection point.
We at the Center for Financial Inclusion have been working hard to get to this Forum. We now have to take stock and think about the future and how to keep this momentum going.
My exhortation to everyone involved in this Forum – in person or online – is help us make this vision real. Everyone has a significant role to play in actually achieving a financially inclusive world.
Read Michael’s latest Huffington Post article, “Tapping an Invisible Market: We Can Make Financial Inclusion a Reality“
To see what others are saying and posting about the Global Forum, visit the Financial Inclusion 2020 website and follow #FI2020 on Twitter.
Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo, Former Governor, Banque Centrale du Congo reflects on his role and career to date in the DRC and his reflections on the FI 2020 Forum and goals
The Challenge: Hyperinflation, disintermediation and dollarization
Prior to working as Governor of the Central Bank of Congo, I was Head of Citibank in Kinshasa in the DRC. I spent 17 years with Citibank, so I came from the private sector, I went to the public sector and I am now retired.
In order to understand financial inclusion in the DRC, you first have to look at where we started from when I entered the Central Bank of Congo. It was a period where we had hyperinflation and devaluation of the currency on a daily or hourly basis. Because of that, people did not keep money in the banking system, so we had disintermediation as well.
On top of that, we had the ‘dollarization phenomena’, where we had four currencies within one country, so we needed to put some order into that.
The results: from chaos to control
Inflation, we moved from 4 digits to 1 digit, going from 10,000% to 1%, or less than 1%, in 2013.
Stability of the local currency: we moved from devaluation and depreciation on a daily basis to stability in the last four years. Our currency against the dollar or the euro, moves 0.3% per year, which is normal. That gives visibility. That provides trust for those that want to get into the financial system, or use the financial services.
We also needed to reintermediate, or give the banks the chance to reintermediate with the debt. To give you an example, total loans into the system were $50 million. Today we are above $2 billion. Deposits, were similar: $100 million, because of the disintermediation. Today we are above $3 billion.
Pushing for microfinance
Now, on top of that, we pushed for microfinance. So I put a microfinance department in place at the Central Bank, with people in charge to look at that sector of the business. I trained them. They travelled all over the place to learn and then came back and took charge of that mission.
Today we have about 150 microfinance institutes that we supervise. In order to push forward that sector, we introduced mobile banking.
Mobile banking
Before introducing mobile banking, we modernized and restructured the Central Bank, putting in place a new national payment system. As a result, we had online transactions and online transfers all over the country.
We then pushed the commercial banks again to invest with us and restructure – so they also came up with new products and services based on the new technology.
The result: a significant impact on the life of the small guys
So we moved from, 2% banking penetration to 6% banking penetration – bearing in mind that the DRC has about 70 million people. And I’m sure we can do a lot more with a good roadmap of financial inclusion. That’s why I came here, to get some ideas, and to see how we can push forward that financial inclusion.
The important thing about financial inclusion, for me, is that you can have a significant impact on development. You can have a significant impact on the life of the small guys if things are done right, properly, with ethics and so on. It will take time – it doesn’t matter how long it takes – but at the end of that time, we’ll make significant progress.
The major challenge to achieving the goal of full financial inclusion
The major challenge that I see – and again, I’m speaking from a DRC point of view, but I think it’s also valid for other countries as well – is that in order to have a significant impact on the poor, you need great coordination among the different sectors for financial inclusion to be successful.
For example, you need something from the telecoms sector, from the financial services providers, from the agricultural sector – if you need to be in the rural places. It’s the coordination of all those areas that becomes very challenging. I would recommend that you have the right people in place and that you work together with all the stakeholders.
Ajay Banga, President and CEO of MasterCard Worldwide presents MasterCard’s perspective on the FI2020 Global Forum
Part 2 – Challenges and Next Steps
Measuring success
You’ve got to measure success in some way. For example, measuring the reduction of cash in the economy, and the increased number of people with some kind of digitized account. All these measures of success will be very important. So that’s what I think is going on here at the FI 2020 Global Forum – a network of like-minded people are coming together to create the right partnerships, both public-private as well as private-private.
Developing public-private partnerships
I’ve learnt that public-private partnerships are really tough, because 30% of money that is going to the 2.5 billion financially excluded is government money. So you need the government participating in the system and the discussion in some way. Governments can also play a role in the way they create identities for people. Identities mean that companies can deal with them without the fear of facilitating illegal activity, and therefore there are many sides to this that the public-private partnership is very important for.
‘If you don’t set a goal, you won’t start working towards it’
That’s what Accion’s doing here – bringing together a network of people. So where’s it going to go? I don’t know yet. There’s this goal put out recently by the World Bank and the IFC saying ‘hey, let’s go for reaching financial inclusion by 2020’ – that’s a pretty big goal. You’ve got 2.5 billion people who today don’t participate in the mainstream – can you achieve that in 7 years? I don’t know. But I think if you don’t set a goal, you won’t start going towards it. And I think that’s the advantage of a goal like this, it fires everybody’s imagination and puts some energy into the system. I’m hoping that we will build on events like this – this won’t be the only one, there are going to be tons of these caused by that goal. I think that’s the key here.
A focus on financially excluded youth and women
You’ve got to be committed to doing this because close to the 40% of those financially excluded in the world are young people, below the age of 34. Close to 50% of them are women, and they’re not all rural – half of them are urban and half of them are rural. And half of these people have a job. In many ways, these are people like us.
We just have to realize that 2.5 billion people out of 7 billion are leading a life that’s different from yours and mine. I think we need to go out of this room saying ‘boy, I’m not going to let that carry on. I can make a difference to one, two, three million people’. I think that’s the deal – people here have to go back thinking this. It won’t happen at one event, but it will happen at a number of these.
Ajay Banga, President and CEO of MasterCard Worldwide presents MasterCard’s perspective on the FI2020 Global Forum
A transition from a cash-based to digitized monetary system
We came into the space of financial inclusion through the perspective that cash is way too large in the world’s economy. 85% of the world’s retail transactions are still in cash. Cash is expensive. The popular dialogue around cash treats cash as free and electronic commerce as expensive and I think that’s really inverted, it’s backwards. Cash costs between 0.5-1.5% GDP to print, secure, and distribute. It facilitates tax evasion and illegal activity. There are studies out there discussing all of this.
So MasterCard came in from that perspective. Then we looked at where the cash is coming from; about 30% of the money that goes to the 2.5 billion financially excluded people comes from governments, social security payments, and such like; 60% comes from companies and part-time work; 10% from remittances – it’s different by country, but that’s the overall view.
Addressing financial exclusion through a new payments network
When you consider all of that, that’s when you start to find a way into this space. The best way to access the financially excluded is to create the payments network for the money coming into them. Once the money coming into them is digitized, made electronic, or put onto some plastic or fingerprint form, then you have a chance to educate the financially excluded and involve them in using that payment method without needing to take out cash again.
Now once you’ve done that, that card – that account in the sky – is a savings instrument. All of the sudden you’ve gone from payments to savings. Now comes the question of how do you lend?
Digitized money: How do you lend?
Accion has a great 5-step model, which involves credit reporting and how it takes a village to build that whole credit-reporting network; this is key for lending. But I don’t think lending is what you start with; you’ve got to start with the basic highway of cash in and cash out, and a savings method. That’s why MasterCard is here today.
Purpose of FI2020 Global Forum: Bringing together like-minded people
What Accion is doing right now is bringing together like-minded people, who, in the space of what is loosely called financial inclusion, are brought together to try to understand what they are doing. The fact is that there are a lot of people who are participating in this space already, but they just don’t know that they are. So people developing mobile payments like BKash are participating in financial inclusion already; they may not have called it that, but that’s what they’re doing.
The need for constructive open dialogue
And so if you bring like-minded people together and you start having a constructive open dialogue this makes people, first of all; understand the definition of financial inclusion, and secondly; understand what public-private partnerships need to be made in order to make that work. If you put those people together, you have a chance of actually doing something about it.
Next post: Reaching financial inclusion by 2020 – Challenges & next steps
To see what others are saying and posting about the Global Forum, visit the Financial Inclusion 2020 website and follow #FI2020 on Twitter.
Duvvuri Subbarao, Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, shares his reasons for attending the FI2020 Global Forum, and the outcomes of a Working Group on the Role of Technology in Financial Inclusion, which he moderated on Day 2 of the forum.
Duvvuri Subbarao: Addressing India’s financial Inclusion Challenges
Financial Inclusion: Learning and Contributing
I came here to learn about financial inclusion and to offer my experience of financial inclusion to the conference attendees. The Reserve Bank of India attaches high priority to financial inclusion. You may ask why a central bank that is in the business of setting monetary policy and printing and distributing currency and regulating payment systems should be interested in pursuing financial inclusion? This is for two reasons:
First, the Reserve Bank of India, unlike central banks in advanced economies, has historically had a development role. We believe that financial inclusion is a necessary condition for inclusive growth; the benefits of growth have to flow to poor people, they must have access to the formal financial sector because it gives them an opportunity to improve their incomes, and improve the quality of their lives.
The second reason that the Reserve Bank is important in financial inclusion is because lack of access to the formal financial sector can be destabilizing financially to the entire financial sector. There are many fundamental causes for the global financial crisis, but one of the root causes is the lack of awareness of financial matters by ordinary people – where many took on mortgage loans and then defaulted. So financial literacy and financial inclusion is very important – at personal, institutional and economic levels – to ensure the stability of the overall financial system.
What has stood out for you at this forum?
I was very positively surprised that so many people around the world – different nationalities, stakeholder groups, and segments of the financial sector – are united by a common ambition of pursuing financial inclusion. No matter what their motivation, the larger objective is really unexceptionable and, I think, a necessary condition for poverty reduction. So I’m amazed at how many people here that I didn’t know existed, people who are committed to this very lofty objective.
Please tell us about your technology working group
Our group discussed how governments can creatively leverage their resources to promote technology enabled financial inclusion. What you need to appreciate is that one of the big facilitators and breakthroughs for financial inclusion has been technological innovations. People can do banking – even though miles away from a brick and mortar branch – from a mobile phone or through a handheld machine; and that’s caught on, but that’s just the beginning. A lot of financial sector players are using the technology, but aggregating all this effort are the governments at the top. So the topic under discussion was how do governments creatively use their resources to promote a technology enabled financial inclusion.
What key issues came to surface during the Working Group?
There were several ideas, but we crystallized them into two insights:
First, because different countries follow different models, undertake different experiments and have their own record of successes and failures, there is a huge opportunity for these countries to learn from each other. But at the moment there is no single platform where all this experience is concretized and put across. So, one idea that came up was whether an institution like CGAP or the World Bank could be that central aggregating agency and run a platform for experience sharing on technology enabled financial inclusion. Of course this has got to be fleshed out in great detail, but that’s the first idea.
Second, how do you spread awareness and acceptance among ordinary people about technology enabled financial inclusion? After all, people can be intimidated. If somebody came to me – at my level of income, education and experience – with a handheld machine and said ‘look, you can deposit money with me’, I would be worried. Imagine people who are entering a banking system for the first time in their lives, giving their life savings, as meager as they are, to some stranger who has some machine, which doesn’t look like a bank at all! It’s important to educate people and create trust so that people know that this is regular banking and is a viable market.
What are the next steps your group proposed?
We’ve had this conference on financial inclusion by 2020 and lots of ideas have come up. But we will all disperse tomorrow and then we all do our regular work. There should be one commitment that everybody makes, one concrete measurable commitment, enforceable commitment – for example, something simple like, “every government in the world will ensure that at least 80% of their households conduct at least one transaction with the formal financial system per month”. Numbers could be different, but the idea is that you set a concrete measurable objective.
This commitment has to come from a conference like this, but I think that commitment has to be driven by a body with greater authority. This conference has no authority, but G20, for example, has taken on financial inclusion as one of its agenda items. If the G20 were to determine tomorrow that by 11/2015 all of us pledge that we work towards this goal of 80% of households doing at least one transaction with the formal financial system at least once every month, that would be a great big idea.
I think this conference can advocate for this big commitment idea. This conference has brought together a lot of stakeholders, but we need to promote this idea – canvas and lobby the G20, governments, central banks, ministries of finance, the World Bank, IMF and the ADB.
Here is a short photo review of the second day of the Financial Inclusion 2020 Global Forum.
Please click on any photo to see a larger image.
Cherie Blair addresses the Forum
Luis Gallegos: Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations Office at Geneva
Panel discussion: building a Roadmap to Financial Inclusion
Duvvuri Subbarao: Addressing India’s financial Inclusion Challenges
Financial inclusion for persons with disabilities – side session
Marking the 2013 Microscope on the Microfinance Business Environment
Networking
Round table breakout sessions
Anna Zelentsova: Co-Chair G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, Russian Federation Ministry of Finance
Live audience polling
Cherie Blair and Susy Cheston: We’ve come a long way since this was mandated!
Mark Hookey speaking on the ‘Innovation in Client Data Analytics’ panel at Day 2 of the FI2020 Global Forum
To see what others are saying and posting about the Global Forum, visit the Financial Inclusion 2020 website and follow #FI2020 on Twitter.
In a short interview, Mark Hookey, Founder & CEO of DeMyst Data, shares his reasons for attending the FI 2020 Global Forum, and outlines the key challenges that need to be overcome in order to achieve full financial inclusion by 2020.
Mark Hookey speaking on the ‘Innovation in Client Data Analytics’ panel at Day 2 of the FI2020 Global Forum
Product design and data analytics
Ultimately, I’m here to focus on product design – figuring out where people are at with this, and what the future holds. I’m here to find out how people can work together to create the most cost-effective, user-friendly, data-driven, and secure financial services products.
There’s an opportunity to build a new financial system from scratch, and this needs to be done right using innovative telecommunications, data analytics, and product design.
What are the key challenges?
1. Accessing data:
- customer permission is needed.
- privacy regulations are tightening up around the world making it harder to regulate.
2. Turning messy data into data that can be used and acted upon can be tricky in order to build a viable credit scorecard.
3. A shift from manual/headwork intensive data to real-time/digital offers up some issues.
4. It can be difficult to package credit-based products and make these accessible to Microfinance lenders.
What are your thoughts about future challenges and opportunities in data analytics, technology, and product design?:
- New financial systems need to be created that harness, analyze and apply data that is available.
- We see verifiable and accurate data from mobile technology, but we also need to access alternative data sources in order to develop credit risk scorecards, for example.
- We need to develop financial systems that leverage the cheapest and best technologies.
- We need to set up transparent systems and services that are well communicated to the borrower.
- People here are talking about “big data”, but there must also be a focus on data analytics and an emphasis on making sure that these analytics are trusted.
- It’s promising that alternative client data-driven technologies are being developed, but nobody is quite there yet.
To see what others are saying and posting about the Global Forum, visit the Financial Inclusion 2020 website and follow #FI2020 on Twitter.
Cherie Blair, Founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, opens the FI 2020 Global Forum’s session on Building a Roadmap to Financial Inclusion.
There was a great response on Twitter to Cherie Blair’s opening speech on Day 2 of the FI2020 Global Forum. Here is an overview of her talk as highlighted by tweeters…
Importance of the Roadmap to Financial Inclusion
@nxtstep2 #FI2020 Cherie Blair …Why is the Financial Inclusion Roadmap important? First and foremost because it was inclusive in its development.
Including women
@tkilara Does poverty have a female face? Cherie Blair makes a case at the Day 2 opening of #FI2020
@safoz #FI2020 We came a long way since 1880s but still lot to be done for full inclusion for women pic.twitter.com/6AJ3hCJj8p
@SonjKelly That’s what we’re talking about today – why can’t a woman be a person? -Cherie Blair #fi2020
@NandikaM If we are going to defeat poverty, we have to include women and design products targeted to low-income communities – Cherie Blair #FI2020
@nxtstep2 #FI2020 Cherie Blair “women are not JUST customers but NEED to be part of this industry in more meaningful ways …esp in emerging markets’
Women and mobile technology
@alexfiorillo “I am a techy. Technology should be also available to the women entrepreneurs around the world who are struggling” @CherieBlairFndn #FI2020
@helmshart #FI2020 why should only fortunate women benefit from the flexibility technology brings?
@AlexCounts Cherie Blair: ‘technology essential to empowering women’ @GrameenFdn study shows challenges microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/templ… @CherieBlairFndn #FI2020
@Accion_Global Over 300 million women in EM don’t have mobile technology – but women make the financial decisions. –Cherie Blair, #FI2020
Understanding and accessing low-income emerging markets
@SonjKelly The successful providers are going to be the ones who understand this [low income] segment best. -Cherie Blair #fi2020
@YouthForTech “Closing the access gap will result in better living standards not just for women, but for families and communities.”- C. Blair #fi2020
NGOs need to be confident and collaborate
@AlexCounts C. Blair- for fast #financialinclusion NGOs need to be more confident, collaborative & sharing of lessons #FI2020 #microfinance
@YouthForTech “The #NGO sector needs to understand that working together is beneficial.”- C. Blair #fi2020 #notZeroSumGame
@ThePERC Cherie Blair encourages “third sector” (NGOs) to collaborate and be confident. Not chasing single pot–together will grow pot. #FI2020
@helmshart #FI2020 “third sector” (NGOs) sometimes more reluctant than private sector and government to forge partnerships -Cherie Blair
Cherie Blair Foundation for Women – partnership with Visa
@VisaNews “Women not just consumers. Deserve to be business owners as well.” Visa partnership supports women mobile agents @CherieBlairFndn #FI2020
@e_MFP Cherie Blair: a (gender) balance board, a balanced workforce, a balanced customer base = successful business. #FI2020 @CherieBlairFndn
More women in the retail chain
@helmshart #FI2020 more women in the retail chain, more women as customers — we can change the world, says Cherie Blair
@e_MFP Cherie Blair: a (gender) balanced board, a balanced workforce, a balanced customer base = successful business. #FI2020 @CherieBlairFndn
Mobile technology and literacy
@helmshart #FI2020 @sewa orders by phone multiplies income for poor women, financial inclusion can work for women who are not literate
@nxtstep2 #FI2020 ‘Micro entrepreneurs may be largely illiterate but they certainly are not ill numerate …there are always ways! @CherieBlairFndn
@YouthForTech The use of mobile phones can improve literacy skills of women leading to #FinancialInclusion. #fi2020 #development
Education and financial literacy
@RaniYouthSavngs Cherie Blair at #FI2020: so much more we can all do in #financialliteracy – in schools for kids, by providers for clients
@YouthForTech “It is not just about access to financial services but we need wide #education education on how to use them.” – C. Blair #fi2020 #ICT4D
@nxtstep2 #FI2020 ‘there is so much more we can all do to ensure fin capability is developed & women’s specific needs prominent @CherieBlairFndn
Government collaboration and client protection
@helmshart #FI2020 partnerships with the private sector, enhanced by government, is needed — collaboration is key for success, accd to Cherie Blair
@e_MFP Cherie Blair: At the end of the day, we need to have client protection, and who else can make that happen if not government? #FI2020
A Regulation Challenge
@cmaneesha #cherieblair #FI2020 If we’re going to regulate mobile money the way we do traditional banking we’ll never have finance for the poor.
To see what others are saying and posting about the Global Forum, visit the Financial Inclusion 2020 website and follow #FI2020 on Twitter.
Talya Bosch, Vice President of Social Ventures at Western Union, discusses the FI 2020 Global Forum session on ‘Mapping the Invisible Market’. She details the key topics covered by the panel, noting evident areas of consensus followed by highlighting various challenges that were voiced during the session in order for full financial inclusion to be reached by 2020.
Data as a starting point – a background to Mapping the Invisible Market
With Mapping the Invisible Market, we started off looking at data that shows that financial inclusion is possible by the year 2020, which is really quite a provocative and radical concept given where we are today. We also looked at what that data shows about the key populations that we’ll need to reach. Through this, we found that two things really stood out and were discussed by the panel today:
1. Demographic window of opportunity
Right now, emerging economies have the benefit of a demographic window that is narrow and profound. There is a ‘youth bubble’ where a significnant number of people in their productive working years have relatively low old-age dependency and relatively low youth dependency.
This situation in itself has tremendous potential for society – socially, economically, politically – especially if people in this ‘bubble’ have access to financial services and can fully capitalize on this moment of potential. However, if we don’t get it right, the downside potentials are also quite sobering.
2. Impact of ageing populations in the developing world
Despite this focus on the youth bubble, even in the developing world we are seeing the demographic of ageing populations increasing more rapidly than we had anticipated.
The conversation about old-age dependency and the financial services that see people through old age is not just a conversation limited to the developed world, but is a conversation that emerging economies need to undertake in a very serious and rapid way.
Areas of consensus
1. The power of technology
Technology, particularly mobile technology, has power to reach a wide variety of people in a wide variety of places. Technology has as much potential in Peru as it has in the DRC.
2. The need for ‘bespoke scale’
Many people here at this forum want to achieve scale rapidly, in order to reach as many people as we possibly can. That said, the more that we learn about our customers, the more we also see that their needs are not all the same.
So the challenge now is not just how we achieve scale, but how we achieve customized scale, ‘bespoke scale’, so we can have full global financial inclusion in a way that is meaningful and relevant for the individual. Arguably, if it’s not meaningful and relevant for very different individuals – old, young, women, disabled – then we really haven’t achieved the vision of inclusion. This would be inclusion in name only.
3. The need for more data
In addition to the excellent data available on Mapping the Invisible Market, our panelists all talked about the need for additional data. This data would help them better understand the needs of their customers/potential customers, and help them make the case to financial services institutions that the so-called ‘vulnerable class’ – who are living on $4 to 10 per day – can be a viable market for formal financial services.
A Remaining challenge: Changing regulatory frameworks
What came out most strongly during the panelist’s discussion was the challenge of changing regulatory frameworks. For technology (and particularly mobile) to reach it’s full potential we need different regulatory schemes in different parts of the world.
For example, while regulators do have visibility into the larger commercial banks, they don’t have enough visibility into consumer banks. As Elisabeth Rhyne also pointed out in the session, you can’t take a scheme that works for a commercial bank and apply it wholesale to consumer banking, particularly at the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) and assume that that will be effective.
To see what others are saying and posting about the Global Forum, visit the Financial Inclusion 2020 website and follow #FI2020 on Twitter.
Alexia Latortue, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Development & Debt, US Treasury, summarizes the opening session of the day: The Case for Financial Inclusion Now.
Setting the context for microinsurance
Unfortunately bad things happen in life – to people and to businesses. Houses burn down, people get sick, and the cost can be very high. If we don’t anticipate the possibility of these things happening and put money aside little by little, then we are in less of a position to take care of it when something bad does happen.
A focus on micro-insurance
So, with micro-insurance, we’re “helping the poor weather life’s storms” to quote MicroEnsure. And by doing so in a way where costs are shared with many others, there’s solidarity across large pools of people.
Serving the markets of tomorrow
The two panelists for this session – Michel Khalaf, President EMEA, MetLife and Martyn Parker, Chairman Global Partnerships, Swiss Re – are regarded as leaders in the commercial insurance and re-insurance space.
They have built their businesses in rich countries but are now seeing growing middle-income countries, growing middle classes, and saying ‘we need to also serve those markets’ as they are the markets of tomorrow.
Reaching new countries and understanding client needs
Our panel discussion showed that these big companies think they can actually make it work in the emerging economies. There is a firm belief that they are able to reach both these new countries and customers.
I think MetLife’s story is the global footprint: they are present in many markets, with the proximity to understand client needs and to adapt products that they’ve been doing for years to these new conditions.
Products have to be adapted to the needs of a different culture or group of people – so physical presence and proximity is really critical.
The Challenge of Distribution
One challenge that came up was distribution – how to get the actual products out to people. One example is rural areas where people are more spread out in places where the premiums are low and it’s hard to recuperate costs. So it’s a cost and technology issue. It’s about having different kinds of distributors, and then figuring out how to create a chain of partnerships that get you to the client in the most cost-effective way.
The need for an integrated response
Another challenge is to get the development folks, the government folks, and the private sector folks, to all really engage upstream. Diana Taylor talked earlier today about different types of communities coming together – this is a space where communities absolutely have to. Health insurance is one of the most striking, because you can have insurance, but if you don’t have good affordable healthcare it doesn’t work. So we really need these communities to talk together and identify the challenges and understand how they each contribute to the solution.
To see what others are saying and posting about the Global Forum, visit the Financial Inclusion 2020 website and follow #FI2020 on Twitter.
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