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> Posted by Center Staff
FI2020 Week is a global conversation on the key actions needed to advance financial inclusion, grounded in the findings of the recently launched FI2020 Progress Report. From November 2-6, 2015, stakeholders around the world are participating in more than 30 events and sharing their voices over social media, with #FI2020.
FI2020 Week is nearing its end! Today is the final day. We’re sad too, but there are still lots of opportunities to get involved, and it’s been a lively four days. Also, we’ll continue to report out on all that happened, so there’s more to come! Along with the in-person events, there are a handful of webinars today, you can submit a call to action, or take part in the far-reaching social media conversations, which we’re capturing on the FI2020 Week site, here.
Since our last recap there have been dozens of events around the world bringing together stakeholders passionate about advancing financial inclusion. Here is a quick look at a few of those events:
Nkosilathi Moyo, CEO, VisionFund Zambia
In Lusaka, Zambia, representatives from a variety of organizations, including the Bank of Zambia, came together at an event hosted by VisionFund Zambia to discuss promoting financial inclusion by leveraging savings groups and microfinance institutions. Participating stakeholders identified three major gaps for achieving financial inclusion in the country: lack of a conducive regulatory framework; poor infrastructure; and information asymmetry between different players in the market. Moving forward, the participants agreed on the importance of convening and decided that an FI2020 event should be held each year until 2020. Additionally, the participants agreed, there needs to be a stronger focus on establishing strategic partnerships between mobile network operators, financial service providers, NGOs, and government to develop cost-effective delivery channels that reach people in rural areas.
Forty-five leaders in financial capability, financial literacy, and financial health came together at a roundtable in Washington, D.C. to review a draft paper on innovations in financial capability written by the Center for Financial Inclusion in partnership with the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. The event was hosted by the Institute of International Finance. The draft paper focuses on seven principles to re-orient financial capability building toward customer needs and behaviors, with a call to action to all stakeholders—providers, governments, social sector organizations, financial capability providers, and donors—to make this shift.
> Posted by Center Staff
FI2020 Week is a global conversation on the key actions needed to advance financial inclusion, grounded in the findings of the recently launched FI2020 Progress Report. From November 2-6, 2015, stakeholders around the world are participating in more than 30 events and sharing their voices over social media, with #FI2020.
We’re two days in! FI2020 Week thus far has been a whirlwind few days, with events all over the world, a handful of public webinars, and robust social media conversations. We hope you’ve had the opportunity to take part in the action!
To get you up to speed, though certainly not comprehensive, here’s a snapshot of what’s been happening.
In Bangladesh, BRAC conducted an internal debate about the impact and benefits of its own microfinance program. Answering tough questions like “Does BRAC risk doing more harm than good by using microfinance in its model of fighting poverty?” staff shared their perspectives, providing insights into how to improve the program. Check out some of the presented arguments on BRAC’s Twitter feed.
In Nigeria, Accion and Accion Microfinance Bank discussed financial inclusion strategies for the country. The three biggest industry gaps identified were the lack of mobile and agent banking infrastructure, human capital in the microfinance banking sector, and a spirit of collaboration and partnership among the various players. Moving forward, the discussion participants will apply greater focus on savings as a necessary service offering that can be improved.
The World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) conducted a webinar on the lessons drawn from a six year project (2009 – 2015) carried out with 12 WSBI member banks aimed at creating usable savings services in the hands of the poor. One call to action from the webinar was the need for greater connectivity to combat the challenge of reaching clients in rural communities. As WSBI aims to add 400 million customers to its network by 2020, it will need to partner with more organizations in order to reach very remote village groups.
> Posted by Guy Stuart and Eric Noggle, Executive Director and Research Officer, Microfinance Opportunities
Last week’s post discussed how we implemented an embedded education program with VisionFund and Zoona in Zambia that leveraged touch points in an effort to improve clients’ financial capabilities. While we hope this blog series has begun to convince you that embedded education can help solve the financial capability gap, one important issue remains: where is the evidence of success? Does this approach really improve outcomes for clients and businesses?
Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) aimed to add to the knowledge base of “what works” in financial education with our evaluation of the Consumer Education for Branchless Banking (CEBB) project in Zambia. The evaluation applied a mixed-methods approach with multiple data sets. We analyzed information from in-depth interviews, focus groups, knowledge surveys, and transaction data from VisionFund and Zoona’s management information systems.
The data tell a compelling story. Qualitative interviews indicated that both clients and branch staff thought the education program was having a positive impact on how clients were interacting with the branchless banking service and on their overall financial capabilities.
> Posted by Guy Stuart and Julie Lee, Executive Director and Senior Technical Advisor for Financial Education, Microfinance Opportunities
Last week
we highlighted historic challenges to scaling financial education (FE) and offered the embedded education model as one viable solution. The embedded approach has the potential to benefit traditionally under- and unbanked populations and financial service providers (FSPs) alike. Of course, embedded education is about more than simply incorporating educational resources within providers’ existing delivery channels. In large part, the success of embedded education hinges on putting clients at the center of its design and implementation and understanding how financial capability is developed.
The first post in this series raised the importance of adult learning principles (relevance, dialogue, immediacy, and respect, to name a few) for the effective design of educational materials. These principles ensure that materials will reshape consumers’ attitudes and build their knowledge, skills, and self-confidence to act on their financial decisions. The approach is holistic and engaging, providing consumers with the opportunity to dialogue with others as they learn and to wrestle with their questions. The approach also provides the opportunity to apply new knowledge and skills, leveraging moments when consumers are positioned to act on what they are learning – for example, while transacting with the FSP. Finally, the approach ensures that the educational messages are reinforced, so that financial education is not a one-off event and clients are frequently exposed to key messages.
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