A Shared Vision for Impact at Financial Inclusion Week
Last week marked Financial Inclusion Week (FIW), an annual event organized by the Center for Financial Inclusion. It aims to be a forum for exchanging ideas among global organizations working to advance inclusive finance. This year’s week of events delved into whether inclusive finance is ready for the accelerating pace of change driven by artificial intelligence, climate change, and forced displacement. Panel discussions highlighted steps to responsibly embrace change and promote more inclusion rather than exclusion.
Advancing Financial Inclusion in the Context of Climate Change
FINCA was present on two panels during Financial Inclusion Week. In one that covered advancing financial inclusion in the context of climate change, Andree Simon, President and CEO of FINCA International, said: “It’s always important to put a face to the work that we do. We really want to make sure we’re leveraging that voice that our customers have in product design. We need to make sure that what we are delivering is something customers actually want. It needs to be simple, something they can use, and easy to understand. But it also needs to be financially accessible to them. And we need to make sure there’s a wider range of potential products we can offer to our customers.”
Building a Shared Vision for Impact
Since financial inclusion is closely correlated with poverty alleviation, FINCA presented about building a shared vision for financial inclusion impact. During the panel, Anahit Tevosyan, Director of Research for FINCA International, talked about how collecting customer insights and other data can help tailor products to meet the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people. Better customization of products can empower them to reach their full potential and break out of poverty.
“FINCA is reaching its 40th anniversary next year and our strategy is to solidify our legacy by using the knowledge we gathered over the years to meet the needs of today,” said Tevosyan. “The vulnerabilities of our clients require very careful profiling and reaching out with solutions that meet their needs with the highest level of precision and accuracy…so that they can get the expected utility of our services to be able to use their human potential fully,” she continued.
If you missed these FIW panels or would like to see other FIW content, you can register and view recordings on the event’s Swapcard site until mid-November. After that, they’ll be moved over to financialinclusionweek.org and CFI’s Youtube channel.
