Presented by Cai Yiping at the First High-Level Follow-up Dialogue on Financing for Development in Asia and Pacific.
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
Thank you, Madam Chair, for this opportunity to speak on behalf of civil society. Thanks for all panelists to share your insights and good practice in addressing this issue. Indeed, financial inclusion is significant for ending poverty and reducing the inequality in order to achieve the sustainable development goals that leave no one behind.
In addition to responding to the three suggested questions in this session,[1] we also need to address the further questions as following:
- What mechanism needed to put into place to improve the regulation on the financial market and guarantee the quality of the financial services designed for the underserved population and small and medium size enterprises?
- What data need to be collected in order to identify the unmet financial needs of the social groups, as outlined in the 2030 Agenda, disaggregated by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability and geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts[2]?
- What indicators we should develop to assess and monitor the implementation of the financial inclusion strategies, in consistence with the indicators for SDGs, such as on Goal 1 — end poverty, Goal 5 — gender equality, Goal 10 — reduce inequalities and Goal 17 — means of implementation?
- How can we ensure the cohesion and consolidation of financial policies with other social policies, taking into account of multi-dimensional feature of poverty and intersectional discrimination based on different grounds? We can hardly imagine that an illiterate woman smallholder farmer suffering from domestic violence would fully benefit from the financial service without getting other needed support. Or an indigenous community in the disaster-ridden area or an urban poor community has no access to affordable health care and water and other service would be covered and benefit from such a policy. Financial inclusion policies and strategies can only work when they compliment the other relevant policies and strategies, such as poverty alleviation policy, universal health care and social protection floor, and disaster reduction policies, just name a few. For example, financial inclusion to promote entrepreneurship among poor women, given the absence of care services, ends up increasing women´s time use, overloading their working time, with negative consequences in their health and wellbeing. Financial inclusion cannot replace other relevant public policies, as those aim to promote women´s participation in the labor market. We should also be careful of avoiding the development of the vicious circle of debt, when poor need to ask for new loans to pay the old ones.
In conclusion, in the name of innovate and inclusive financing, we need to seek solutions that go beyond the current established formal financial system. First and foremost, we need emphasize and prioritize the public financing over the private and PPP. This is drawn from one of the good experience in China in achieving MDG 1 and 5. Secondly, in financial inclusion strategies, we need measures to support diverse forms of alternative economies emerged from the communities and societies across the Asia Pacific region, such as the community support economy, social solidarity economy and social entrepreneurship. In this regards, civil society organizations, which are grounded and work closely with respective constituencies, should be recognized as one of the most important partners in achieving the just equitable and sustainable development.
Thank you!
[1] Suggested questions and issues for this session:
(1) How can formal financial institutions be incentivized to provide financial services to households and firms that have no access to such services?
(2) Which business models and innovations are most effective for enabling financial services providers to engage in financial inclusion?
(3) What is the scope for peer learning and experience sharing among countries, including through the Alliance for Financial Inclusion and related institutions?
[2] Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A/RES/70/1, (Para. 17.18) (2015)