Financial Inclusion Week

Financial Inclusion Week (FIW) is an annual gathering of the global community working to advance inclusive finance.

FIW is a forum for exchanging ideas, developments, perspectives and convening stakeholders all around the world. It’s an opportunity for CFI and partner organizations to showcase our work, share ideas on what’s ahead, and more. CFI leads this convening every year by providing the space, highlighting our contributions along with the year’s themes. FIW 2021 will have over a dozen plenary events and likely more than 100 community events and asynchronous content — all hosted on its virtual platform.

FIW 2021 has concluded, but here are ways to remain involved:

• Visit financialinclusionweek.org to access the platform, view the 2021 agenda, live illustrations, and more
• Sign up for emails
• Follow/search #finclusionweek on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Watch recordings of the live and on-demand sessions
• Stay tuned in 2022 for announcements about next year’s event!

As a global community, we have witnessed the power of financial inclusion in helping people cope with the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Government-to-person payments were distributed at a level never before seen, using innovative approaches to identify recipients and disburse payments. With support from their investors, financial service providers worked closely with clients to restructure outstanding debt and provide information services on the health crisis. And fintech providers rapidly innovated to serve clients in the complex and evolving context of the pandemic.

Amid the crisis, we remain optimistic about the role financial services play in building financial resilience and helping people navigate difficult situations. Yet the crisis is far from over and threatens to reverse years of progress in reducing extreme poverty. We remain committed in our resolve to work toward a world in which all people are able to use financial services and access economic opportunities to improve their lives. And to do so requires partnership, learning from each other, dialogue, and community. This is the ambition of Financial Inclusion Week.

We tackled four themes we believe are crucial to a more financially inclusive world (+the pandemic’s impacts). These themes mirror CFI’s new strategic priorities:

• Women’s Financial Inclusion
• Data Opportunities and Risks for Financial Inclusion
• Financial Services for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Risk
• Consumer Protection
• Future of Financial Inclusion After COVID-19

(Visit financialinclusionweek.org for previous years’ themes, FAQ’s about FIW, and more.)