Making Access Possible

Le Défi

Although financial transactions are an essential part of the lives of poor as well as rich, an estimated 2.5 billion working-age adults still lack access to formal financial services. Research has shown that in countries with developed financial intermediaries, the income of the poorest quintile grows faster than average GDP per capita, income inequality falls more rapidly, infant mortality reductions are larger, and child enrollment in primary schools increase. In this context, governments around the world and global bodies such as the G20 are now advocating for more attention to financial inclusion as a means to promote more inclusive and sustainable growth.  The G20, under the Chair, Mexico, is specifically calling for national strategies of financial inclusion. As a diagnostic and programmatic framework that results in national roadmaps or strategies, MAP can answer that call.

Que fait l'UNCDF pour aider ?

Making Access Possible (MAP) is a diagnostic and programmatic framework to support expanding access to financial services for individuals and micro and small businesses. The MAP framework creates the space to convene a wide range of stakeholders around evidence-based country diagnostic and dialogue and leads to the development of national financial inclusion roadmaps. The roadmap identifies key drivers of financial inclusion and includes specific actions that will contribute to greater financial inclusion. The framework has been developed by UNCDF in partnership with FinMark Trust and Cenfri and is intended to become a public good that can advance the global financial inclusion agenda.

MAP is designed to bring together a broad range of stakeholders from the public and private sectors, and is led by national authorities.  As financial inclusion moves beyond traditional providers of financial services, this means bringing to the table other providers and players in new value chains (such as insurance companies, mobile network operators, technology companies, agricultural suppliers) as well as the regulators and policymakers implicated (such as ministries of telecommunications, agriculture, education, social welfare) and other civil society actors (such as consumer associations, financial education providers). 

MAP can be a powerful catalyst for donor harmonization and coordination in supporting financial inclusion at the country level, consistent with the Paris Declaration, and for building on the lessons and recommendations from CGAP’s CLEAR exercises.  It also offers a promising platform of cooperation for UN agencies to work together to promote financial inclusion (e.g., moving transfers linked to social or relief programs from cash disbursements to electronic platforms).   MAP can complement other instruments, particularly the FSAP, by addressing financial exclusion at the bottom of the pyramid.

En détail