Yesterday, UNCDF together with its partners held the National Stakeholder forum for its Making Access Possible (MAP) programme in Thailand. Stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Finance, CGAP, AFI, National Statistics Office, came together to discuss the FinScope consumer survey to better understand the market needs and attitudes to financial offerings and usage in Thailand.

FinScope, as an integral part of MAP and the larger technical assistance, is an annual representative study of the demand for, usage of and access to financial services. The FinScope SA survey further sheds light on consumers and behaviour by exploring individuals’ interactions with the financial sector as a whole. Information provided by the survey helps understand the challenges to deepening financial inclusion in the country and implementing MAP as a diagnostic and programmatic framework to support expanding access to financial services.  The MAP methodology and process has been developed jointly by UNCDF, FinMark Trust and Cenfri to foster inclusive financial sector growth.

At country level, the core MAP partners, collaborate with Government, other key stakeholders and donors to ensure an inclusive, holistic process. MAP Thailand represents a partnership between UNCDF, FinMark Trust and ADB and is part of a larger technical assistance initiative of the Asian Development Bank (with funding from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction) for the Development of a Strategic Framework for Financial Inclusion in Thailand.

There was a fantastic response from stakeholders on the outputs of the diagnostic and the relevance of the findings to Thailand.  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expressed their happiness to have partnered with UNCDF to conduct MAP in Thailand.