Toespraak van Koningin Máxima bij de tweede bijeenkomst van de ‘Group of Friends of Financial Inclusion’ in New York

Toespraak | 17-06-2014

Good morning, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, and other guests. I am very pleased to be at the second meeting of the Group of Friends of Financial Inclusion. Thank you all for making the time to be here during another hectic week.

I wish to thank our gracious host, Ambassador Meza-Cuadra Velazquez of Peru for inviting us into his home. It's a pleasure to be here.
I would also like to particularly thank him and his fellow co-chairs: Minister Fileri Cassidy of Indonesia and Manongi of Tanzania, for their great leadership and bringing this informal Group of Friends of Financial Inclusion to where it is today.

As we discussed the last time we met, financial inclusion is a cross cutting issue which enables broad development goals and which has not only global relevance, but also has a huge importance at the country level.

In the case of our host, Peru, as you just mentioned, Ambassador Meza-Cuadra, which I had the pleasure of visiting a few months ago, efforts are being set to expand financial services to rural areas by among other things, building on the country 's successes in microfinance. During the same trip I visited Colombia which, together with three different ministers, launched a National Financial Inclusion Strategy to address its own financial inclusion needs.

Regardless of what the challenges are in any country, appropriate financial services can help promote growth, jobs, innovation and efficiencies while helping to address poverty and overall inequality. This is why we need to stay the course with our efforts to advance financial inclusion in the post-2015 process.

I am very pleased that we have with us today Ms. Leora Klapper from the World Bank to elaborate in greater detail how financial inclusion contributes to broader development outcomes.
The World Bank together with other members of my Reference Group: UNDP, UNCDF, The International Finance Corporation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Alliance for Financial Inclusion, UNDESA and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor have worked with my office and the co-chairs to produce the technical and other background documentation that have supported our outreach and advocacy. I would like to thank them all for their support and hard work. We have spoken with one voice, one same language and same targets and have coordinated our efforts.

The importance of data and evidence has always been a key part of my efforts to make the case for financial inclusion. We need to do an even better job at measuring levels and impact of financial inclusion at the global and country levels. We are fortunate that experts like Leora can help us do that. This will be particularly important when discussions start on indicators in support of the proposed targets and goals.
In closing, so far so good. But it is too early to pat ourselves on the back.
The work of the Open Working Group Process is not yet complete, and it is likely that more changes and consolidation will occur to the draft goals and targets in the last few weeks of its work.

So during this critical final stretch of the post 2015 process, I hope that I can count on your support to ensure that relevant financial inclusion targets and references are incorporated in the key areas that are likely to emerge as the proposed goals such as poverty eradication, food security & agriculture, women's empowerment and economic growth, as well as in the means of implementation piece.

I hope that we can discuss today how to do this during our conversations, building on the extraordinary successes achieved up to this point thanks to your efforts. There are many processes going on and we could use your ideas on this!

Let me end by wishing you continued success with this historic and ambitious post-2015 process that you are engaged in.

My Office and I are ready to continue working with the co-chairs and all of you up to the very end when post-2015 development framework will be adopted.

Thank you again for your leadership and commitment to financial inclusion.