MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Accion’s CFI to Hold 5th Annual Financial Inclusion Week; October 21-25, 2019

The Center for Financial Inclusion, an initiative of the US-based NGO Accion, will hold the fifth iteration of its Financial Inclusion Week (FIW) beginning on October 21. Last year’s FIW connected 160 partners with thousands of participants through 50 events. This year’s theme, “Financial Inclusion: For What?”, will examine elements of the industry’s vision for the future, such as helping to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The events planned as part of FIW 2019 include webinars and Twitter chats on subjects such as micropensions, financial inclusion for school leaders and ensuring technology doesn’t undermine inclusion. The Center for Financial Inclusion will document these events on multiple websites and in the form of an e-magazine.

The guiding questions of this year’s FIW are:

(1) What is the ultimate goal we are trying to achieve – financial health, sustainable development, equity, revenue generation? Or something else?;

(2) To what extent are our goals complementary or contradictory?;

(3) How do our efforts across the industry complement or counteract each other?;

(4) Do these goals align with what we aim to achieve as an industry?; and

(5) How should we measure our success?.

Founded in 2008, the Center for Financial Inclusion works with microfinance practitioners, regulators, banks, investors and academics in an effort to increase financial inclusion and promote client protection by connecting the microfinance community to capital markets, technology and advisory services. During 2018, Accion expended USD 6.3 million to support the center.

The mission of Accion is to “build a financially inclusive world” through services such as microenterprise loans, targeted advisory services, institutional partnerships and research. The NGO was founded in 1961 and issued its first microloan in 1973 in Brazil. Accion has 110 partner microfinance institutions (MFIs) providing financial services to entrepreneurs in 50 countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia. As of 2018, Accion had total assets amounting to USD 345 million.

To learn more about FIW or to participate, you may email c8[at]accion.org, visit https://www.financialinclusionweek.org or call +1 202 393 5113.

By Anna Gravois, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

FIW event page
https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/financial-inclusion-week-2019

CFI homepage
https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org

Accion homepage
https://www.accion.org

UN Sustainable Development Goals webpage
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

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