Our Mission:

Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) is an inclusive platform for all G20 countries, interested non-G20 countries and relevant stakeholders to carry forward work on financial inclusion, including implementation of the Financial Inclusion Action Plan, endorsed at the G20 Summit in South Korea.

Our History:

At the G20 summit in South Korea, the leaders of the G20, recognizing financial inclusion as one of the main pillars of the global development agenda, endorsed a concrete Financial Inclusion Action Plan. Financial Inclusion was not only prominently included in the Leaders’ Declaration, but was also highlighted as an important component under the Seoul Development Consensus and the financial sector reform agenda. Subsequently the leaders announced the establishment of the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) to institutionalize and continue the work began by the Financial Inclusion Experts Group (FIEG) in 2010. The GPFI was officially launched on 10 December 2010 in Seoul, Korea.

The GPFI is the main implementing mechanism of the endorsed action plan by G20 leaders during the Seoul summit and functions as an inclusive platform for G20 countries, non-G20 countries, and relevant stakeholders for peer learning, knowledge sharing, policy advocacy and coordination. It will be a crucial contribution to strengthen coordination and collaboration between various national, regional and international stakeholders as asked for in Action Item 6. Improve national, regional and international coordination, of the G20 Financial Inclusion Action Plan. Spearheading the implementation are the four Key Implementing Partners: the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank.

The GPFI’s efforts will include helping countries put into practice the Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion, strengthening data for measuring financial inclusion, and developing methodologies for countries wishing to set targets.

The GPFI Terms of Reference are available here

Our Structure:

At the launch meeting of the GPFI three sub-groups were formed to implement concrete actions:

1. Sub-group on the G20 principles and Standard Setting Bodies (SSBs)

This sub-group supports putting the Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion into practice through providing information on the Principles and supporting various implementation activities. The group also works to embed financial inclusion in the work of Standard Setting Bodies, as well as the private sector, and explores ways to improve the treatment of financial inclusion in various financial system assessments.

2. Sub-group on SME Finance

This sub-group focuses on identifying, scaling up, and improving the policy environment for successful models of SME financing, funding the winners of the SME Finance Challenge and launching an SME Finance Forum, a platform for knowledge sharing and dissemination of best practices. The sub-group will devote special attention to three focal areas: improving SME access to finance in the poorest countries, improving access to finance for agricultural SMEs, and promoting access to finance for women entrepreneurs.

3. Sub-group on financial inclusion data and target setting

This sub-group engages the different GPFI stakeholders with the goal of forming a general consensus on data and measurement issues, which include common definitions of the components of financial inclusion and consistent methodologies to inform, measure, and set targets. The group also facilitates actions to support countries to implement data initiatives and set their own targets.