THE ARGUMENTS FOR
We need to make a concerted effort to reach the excluded: Today, more than 2.5 billion adults in the developing world are financially excluded. This means that they do not have access to basic financial services, such as savings, bank accounts, or credit. The majority are women. If financial inclusion as a goal is not tabled on the international agenda, we will lack concerted efforts to ensure that systemic factors that exclude the rural and under-served segments are eliminated. Saloni Korlimarla, mobile technology programme manager, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, London, UK, @salonikor
Making it a goal means it will attract resources: Only by being a goal in its own right can we focus enough energy and resources into making sure services are available. Financial inclusion is a huge enabler of impact for smallholder farmers, but credit alone is insufficient. It needs to be bundled with other services (such as training) to maximise the impact on livelihoods. Mike Warmington, microfinance partnerships manager, One Acre Fund, London, UK, @oneacrefund
Individuals are limited without finance: The sustainable development goals are about unlocking the bottlenecks that are preventing individuals from reaching their potential – access to education, access to water/sanitation, global health challenges. Of course financial inclusion deserves a place among these goals. Access to finance can enable so many opportunities and without it, individuals are severely limited. Payal Dalal, head of education and girls programmes, Standard Chartered Bank, London, UK, @pdalal
Development is all about economic development: The economic development of a country is absolutely central to everything else and I believe that’s why it should be a goal in its own right. Business, education, mortgage and infrastructure loans; savings accounts and pensions; life, health, accident and property insurance have been essential to long-term and sustained economic growth in every country in the world. We should point out these facts to the development community and challenge them to dispute economic history in developed countries. Dennis Ripley, chief business development officer, Opportunity International, Chicago, USA, @OpportunityIntl
Mobile money transforms lives: I believe that financial inclusion is a goal in its own right, and it is mobile money technology that will allow financial inclusion to reach it’s full potential. For example, in Ghana today, a grandfather who lives in the countryside has to go every month to Accra to get his pension to pay for his medicine. Every month, he loses time and has to pay for travel expenses. When he arrives in Accra, he has to wait long hours in a line to get the cash. Once he receives his pension he has to be vigilant to not be attacked and have his money stolen. If he lived in a financially inclusive economy, he would have received his pension directly on his phone and been able to go to his local pharmacy to pay for his medicine that same day. Mobile money and financial inclusion would change lives. Estelle Eonnet, director, Micious, Paris, France, @micious
AGAINST
Financial inclusion is represented enough in the other goals: Financial services are at their best when they are in service of a larger development issue. The fact that financial inclusion is referenced in nearly all of the existing sustainable development goals (SDGs) demonstrates its central role in the development agenda. If we achieve universal financial access but the rates of poverty, hunger and disease don’t decline in turn, I doubt anyone will feel like celebrating. Robert Meloche, director, Global Financial Inclusion, Visa Inc, San Francisco, California, @robmeloche
It supports the other goals: Surely our goals are poverty eradication, overcoming inequality and sustainable development – financial inclusion is key to achieving all these things. Financing development is a big headache for donors and governments. If we can convince them and the wider development community that not only does financial inclusion enable other goals but that it also potentially contributes to raising domestic resources and reducing aid dependency we are on to a winner. Alice Allan, head of advocacy and policy, Care International UK, London, UK, @aliceallan3
Financial inclusion is not an aim in itself: Financial inclusion is a means to an end – or many ends – not an end in itself. It should therefore be considered an enabler of a number of the sustainable development goals. Greater financial inclusion contributes to poverty reduction, economic growth and jobs, greater food security and agricultural production, women’s economic empowerment, health protection through managing financial risks associated with prevention and cure. Beth Porter, policy adviser, UNCDF, New York, USA, @BethPorter19
Verdict: 5 for, 3 against
Read the full Q&A here.
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