CAF and CIM advance in the design of a model for women's financial inclusion

During the opening, the Vice President of Strategic Programming at CAF, Christian Asinelli, stated that "we want to shed light on the lessons learned from multilateral organizations to lay the foundations for the development of a model law for women's financial inclusion, and to continue committing to greater equality and increasingly inclusive and fair financial ecosystems." Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of CIM, Alejandra Mora Mora, highlighted the importance of moving towards regulatory changes, which represent a qualitative leap towards the consolidation of women's rights, as well as the cultural changes necessary for the advancement of substantive equality between men and women. Ana Baiardi, Manager of Gender, Inclusion and Diversity at CAF, noted that “laws can be improved, but the important thing is to start the process. This model law for financial inclusion is a starting point and must be innovative, challenging and promising.”

The meeting featured a presentation by Oxford expert on multidimensional poverty, Sabina Alkire, focused on the impact of multidimensional poverty on women and the importance of using the Multidimensional Poverty Index to design targeted public policies and coordinate multisectoral interventions and across various levels of government. Additionally, CAF expert Diana Mejía presented the main findings of CAF regarding women's financial inclusion and the gender gaps that persist across different dimensions of financial inclusion: access, use, quality, and financial well-being.

Subsequently, the technical table worked on three main axes for dialogue: 1) the goal sought with greater financial inclusion: the nature and scope of a model inter-American law on financial inclusion; 2) contents and mechanisms for promoting such a model law; and 3) enabling conditions for adapting a model law to national contexts.

The technical table included specialists from the Commission for the Financial Market of Chile, the Superintendency of Popular and Solidarity Economy of Ecuador, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Pro Mujer, Institute of International Finance, Centre for Financial Inclusion, and Alliance for Financial Inclusion.

CIM and CAF will continue to advance in the coming months in research, dialogue, and the drafting process of an inter-American model law on women's financial inclusion, which will be made available to the states of the region to propose legislative and regulatory changes aimed at closing the gender gaps in the various dimensions of financial inclusion.