UN to Publish Comprehensive Guide for Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development
“Blue Book” analyzes obstacles poor people and small enterprises face in obtaining access to basic financial services and recommends steps countries can take to increase access to these services
A much awaited UN report presents a new guide and tool designed to help policy makers around the world consider how best to build inclusive financial sectors for development.
These inclusive financial sectors would provide poor people and micro and small enterprises with access to a broad range of financial services. The result of such improved access is expected to be enhanced economic growth and development, the reduction of poverty, and progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
The report follows up on the Monterrey Consensus that Heads of State and Government adopted at the International Conference on Financing for Development in 2002 in which microfinance was explicitly recognized as “important for enhancing the social and economic impact of the financial sector”.
In addition, the report was an important part of the activities initiated in association with the International Year of Microcredit that the UN General Assembly established to “address the constraints that exclude people from full participation in the financial sector.”
During the International Year of Microcredit (2005), the UN called together a large number of global decision makers and financial sector leaders to explore why the majority of the worlds poor people are denied access to basic financial services.
This global consultative process invited participation from governments, international organizations, financial institutions, the private sector and members of civil society from more than 100 countries.
The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and many other development and microfinance institutions around the world contributed to this global consultation.
This global consultation was organized and sponsored by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
The result of this year-long activity is Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development, also known as “The Blue Book.” It is known as the “Blue Book” because it reflects the inclusive approach of the UN in facilitating and sponsoring this important global dialogue and thus uses United Nations blue on its cover.
– We are very proud of the global consultative process that we initiated and managed to produce the Blue Book, said UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervi?.
– It was truly a broad and inclusive consultation, and the results are indicative of the many institutions and individuals that we were able to bring to the discussion. We hope that the Blue Book will be a practical, excellent guide for policy makers around the world who want to include access to financial services as a critical part of their agenda, added he.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, José Antonio Ocampo, said the Blue Book “captures the emerging vision of an inclusive financial sector and suggests a variety of policy tools that national governments can use to extend the reach of the financial sector in their own national contexts”.
– It emphasized the importance of establishing a national vision of inclusive finance and that cooperation is required of all relevant stakeholders. Further, it explores important policy, regulatory, and supervisory issues that all policy makers will need to consider, noted he.
Richard Weingarten, the Executive Secretary of UNCDF said the Blue Book will “provide an invaluable tool and guide for policy makers in developing countries who seek to build inclusive financial sectors”.
– The challenge now before us is implementation. We now need to take the framework, guidance, and advice that the Blue Book provides and begin to use it where the poor have been excluded from participation in the financial sector, said he.
Weingarten added that UNCDF and UNDP are together moving forward to use the approach outlined in the Blue Book to begin building inclusive financial sectors in Africa.
The Blue Book is available online at www.uncdf.org/bluebook
For more information, contact Adam Rogers, [email protected] or at telephone 001 212 906-6082
Kilde: www.unric.org
