The Center for Financial Inclusion is expanding the reach and impact of Financial Inclusion Week (FIW) with the introduction of regional partnerships across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This effort marks an expansion of Financial Inclusion Week, offering opportunities for deeper collaboration and knowledge sharing across regions. AI-powered live translation and a dynamic agenda, shaped in collaboration with our regional partners, will prioritize context-specific voices and solutions. Click here to learn how to contribute to this agenda by submitting a session proposal before August 1.

We live in an increasingly interconnected world, where the unexpected has become the norm. Geopolitical pressures, climate shocks, societal disparities, economic challenges, and digital vulnerabilities, alongside key demographic shifts, are shaping people’s life choices. Countries are grappling with how to increase or maintain economic growth in the face of changing populations. For many people, their futures are constrained by poverty, their country of birth, and access to relevant skills.  

Extreme weather is likely to worsen these societal inequalities, leading to forced migration, or leaving those who are unable to migrate in an even more precarious position.  

Financial services, more specifically, can play a key contributing role in addressing emerging risks and promoting more resilient futures. However, this requires us to once again look beyond just access numbers, to design and deliver financial services that truly deliver for the world’s most vulnerable people. No single actor or nation can solve these problems alone. Locally driven partnerships have become more crucial than ever before to ensuring well-being and resilience.  

Expanding Financial Inclusion Week in 2025 

Financial Inclusion Week (FIW), a four-day global virtual event convened by the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, is approaching its 11th edition at a moment of widespread global change. In response, this year’s FIW 2025 focuses on the theme of “Building resilience and well-being during rising uncertainties.” As we pondered how to channel innovation to promote inclusive growth and achieve well-being and resilient futures, we asked ourselves a key ‘what if’ question: 

FIW has always been an event that is shaped by the global inclusive finance community, but our what-if question led us to explore new ideas to expand our reach and impact. For example, at FIW 2025, we will be piloting AI-powered live translation and welcoming several regional partners. We hope this will help build a stronger global network, share solutions that are working in local contexts, and further enrich the learning experience.   

To reflect this wider partnership element, we have expanded Financial Inclusion Week with the addition of Financial Inclusion Week +, emphasizing broader collaboration and deeper regional engagement through partnerships. The world we envision, where every individual, has access to financial tools, knowledge, and services that enable dignity, opportunity, and economic resilience requires local insights. Financial Inclusion Week + strives to be a platform and a catalyst for collaborative action across borders.  

The + means: 

+ global voices: that reflect the lived experiences and innovations of partners who are close to the communities they serve 

+ local solutions: so innovations that stem from grassroots and are developed for a local context can be shared as inspiration across the world 

+ collaboration: because no one institution or individual can solve these problems alone 

The Center for Financial Inclusion is thrilled to announce new Financial Inclusion Week + partnerships across Africa, Asia and Latin America. In Asia, we are partnering with Kaihatsu Management Consulting and Pakistan Microfinance Network . Our partners in Africa include African Financial Agent, Alliance of Digital Finance Associations, Amarante Consulting, Busara, and Jumo. In Latin America, our partners include AAvance, ANIF Colombia, and Superintendencia de Bancos de la República Dominicana.  

Together, our regional partners will: 

  • Help promote Financial Inclusion Week 2025 to encourage wider participation 
  • Contribute to Financial Inclusion Week content 
  • Bring out regional perspectives to highlight relevant topics from the regions they work in 

We believe that in these uncertain times, our collaboration will carry us forward. Join us at Financial Inclusion Week 2025!  


Authors

Jayshree Venkatesan

Head of Partnership Development, Accion

Jayshree Venkatesan is Senior Vice President and Head of Partnership Development at Accion, where she serves on the organization’s leadership team and leads its global partnership and resource mobilization strategy.

Previously, as Vice President of Consumer Protection and Strategic Industry Engagement at Accion’s Center for Financial Inclusion, Jayshree led the development and execution of CFI’s consumer protection research and broader partnership strategy, contributing significantly to their global portfolio. She led two of the industry’s premier global convenings: Financial Inclusion Week, one of the largest virtual events dedicated to financial inclusion, bringing together more than 3,000 participants from over 140 countries in 2024, and the Responsible Finance Forum, which convenes leaders from financial institutions, technology companies, governments, investors, and development organizations alongside the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion to advance responsible finance and consumer protection.

With more than 20 years of experience, Jayshree has built a career spanning investments, strategy, partnerships and public policy. Before joining Accion, she spent nearly a decade advising leading international organizations, including CGAP, the World Bank, JICA, and ITAD, on customer-centered financial services, digital innovation, and inclusive business models across emerging markets. Earlier in her career, Jayshree was a member of the founding leadership team at IFMR (now Dvara Trust), where she led the development of India’s first mezzanine investment fund for microfinance, pioneering an innovative financing structure that evolved into an alternative investment fund. She began her career at ICICI Bank.

Beyond Accion, Jayshree contributes to the advancement of responsible finance and digital inclusion through several global advisory roles. She serves on the Consumers International Digital Finance Advisory Council, the Advisory Board for the GSMA Mobile Money Certification program, and the Advisory Council of the Pranava Institute’s Youth Digital Cultures Lab (YDCL), helping shape industry standards and emerging leadership in digital financial services. From 2021 to 2026, she served as Senior Policy Fellow at the Leir Institute at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she focused on expanding financial inclusion for migrants, refugees, and other vulnerable populations. She also served as an adjunct faculty member at the Fletcher School, teaching decision analysis for business.

Jayshree is a recipient of the Chevening Fellowship for Leadership from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, completed at King’s College, London. She earned an MA in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, an MBA from the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon, and an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Mumbai University

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