The Maya Declaration is a global initiative for responsible and sustainable financial inclusion that aims to reduce poverty and ensure financial stability for the benefit of all. It is the first global and measurable set of financial inclusion commitments by developing and emerging economies. Since its launch at the 2011 Global Policy Forum in Mexico, members of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, or AFI, have made concrete financial inclusion targets, continued to implement in-country policy improvements and regularly shared progress updates on the AFI Data Portal. As of July 2019, AFI member institutions have made a total of 734 Maya Declarations targets. AFI members include roughly 100 central banks and other financial regulatory institutions from nearly 90 emerging and developing economies.
Background
The Maya Declaration is broad in nature, focusing on creating the right environment; implementing the correct framework; ensuring consumer protection measures are taken and using data to inform and track financial inclusion efforts. The declaration was made through AFI's network of financial institutions and although no vote was taken, its common principles have been implicitly adopted by all of the network's members. Member institutions have followed up on the declaration with specific commitments for their national efforts. The Bank of Uganda, for example, committed to “increase the percentage of women formally financially included from 54 percent in 2018 to 75 percent by 2022”. While the Palestine Monetary Authority committed in 2018 to “increase the SMEs credit portfolio from 15 percent of total credit portfolio to 30 percent at least within 5 years”. The specific nature of these and other commitments under the broad principles of the Maya Declaration have attracted the attention of other organizations with an interest in financial inclusion, including the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, GSMA the World Bank, the Group of 20 and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands in her capacity as UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. The Maya Declaration has paved the way for the developments and implementation of various accords over the years, each of which emphasizes a specific aspect of financial inclusion, corresponding to the present needs of financial regulators and policymakers against the outlook of the financial sector.
