NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Today’s the day – Financial Inclusion Week 2016 has begun. An initiative of Financial Inclusion 2020, a research and advocacy project at the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) at ACCION, Financial Inclusion Week brings together nearly 40 organizations and stakeholders around the world to host events and share insights on advancing financial inclusion. This year, the conversations will focus on keeping clients first in a digital world, a theme which aims to bring clients to the forefront of the fintech discussion. Participants will explore a range of topics, looking beyond access and discussing how to build a financial ecosystem that empowers and protects clients.

We encourage you to get involved in the week’s activities and join representatives from banks, insurance companies, payment companies, telecommunication companies, policymakers, regulators, NGOs, microfinance institutions, investors, financial inclusion support organizations, financial capability experts, fintech companies, and more. We will bring you recap posts each day on the CFI blog. On the Financial Inclusion Week website you can find a comprehensive list of all the happenings and all the information you need about how to join the global conversation.

Here are a few ways you can get involved today and throughout the week:

Join a Webinar, Watch Live-Streaming Events, or Attend a Public In-Person Event: 

Click here for a full list of all public events including webinars, online conversations and in-person events that will be streamed live. We encourage you to explore these and attend those you find most interesting.

Talk to a Client:

We have issued a call for client visits. We encourage you to organize client visits for you and your staff, donors or other partners. This provides an opportunity for you to hear directly from your clients on how they are engaging with digital financial services, and what they need from providers and support organizations.

Share the Client Perspective:

In an effort to keep clients first in the global conversation, we will be collecting quotes and photos throughout the week and sharing them on the Client Perspective web page. These can be from a client visit you complete this week, or from previous conversations or research. If you are interested in adding the client voice, you can share your submission there or send it to Sonja Kelly at skelly@accion.org.

Share your Thoughts on Social Media:

Even if you cannot attend an event, you can still join the conversation by sharing your thoughts on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. The guiding question of the week is: What is most important to keeping clients first in an increasingly digital world? And we (@CFI_Accion) will be asking a variety of questions related to this topic throughout the week. Answer these questions or share other thoughts and insights using the hashtag #FinclusionWeek and we will capture them in our live Financial Inclusion Week feed.

Write a Blog Post: 

Throughout the week, we will link to and feature blog posts focused on the theme of keeping clients first in a digital world on the CFI blog. We encourage you to blog and share your blog posts with the hashtag #FinclusionWeek. (One such post will be featured later this week on NextBillion.)

For more information or questions on partnership email Allyse McGrath at amcgrath@accion.org.  We are excited to hear your thoughts and hope you will join the Financial Inclusion Week community!

Financial Inclusion Week is an initiative of Financial Inclusion 2020, a research and advocacy project at the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) to deepen the shared understanding of what financial inclusion is, where the gaps are and the roadmap to achieve it. Financial Inclusion Week aims to build momentum around addressing the most significant gaps in financial inclusion through a week of global conversation.

This post was originally published on the CFI blog. It is republished with permission.

Allyse McGrath is a senior associate for the FI2020 team at ACCION, a NextBillion content partner.