Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development /
La création de secteurs financiers accessibles à tous
What is the Blue Book?
- Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development, also known as the "Blue Book," is the result of extensive consultations with expert microfinance stakeholders the world over.
- The Blue Book offers a vision of what inclusive finance could be. It does not dictate policy prescriptions to realize that vision. It is indeed a blue book, but it is not a "blueprint." While there are areas of consensus, there are also many issues on which there are diverging views and different solutions proposed and implemented in different countries.
- The Blue Book is intended to be a guide and companion to national dialogues among relevant stakeholders that individual countries may wish to convoke to develop their own national strategies.
What is the goal of the Blue Book?
The Blue Book seeks to answer the fundamental question:
Why are so many people and firms in developing countries excluded from full participation in the financial sector?
How did the Blue Book come about?
The United Nations General Assembly designated 2005 as the International Year of Microcredit to "address the constraints that exclude people from full participation in the financial sector." In this context, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and UNCDF undertook a project to analyse the obstacles to financial inclusion and to report on efforts to overcome those obstacles in a variety of countries.
Who contributed?
A multilateral agency group representing the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the International Labour Organization supported the DESA and UNCDF staff team.
This team was further supported by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, the Advisors Group of the International Year of Microcredit, the Group of Friends of the Year of Microcredit, the African Microfinance Network, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Women's World Banking, the World Savings Banks Institute, and the Microcredit Summit Campaign.
As an additional process, a series of regional "multi-stakeholder consultations" was organized in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The views of governments, international organizations, financial institutions, the private sector and civil society were gathered in informal roundtable discussions at these meetings.
A global e-conference in the spring of 2005 mobilized over 800 participants. Material was also gathered from an on-line questionnaire, in-depth interviews with experts in the field and seminars organized by partner organizations.
This consultative process culminated in a May 2005 Global Meeting on Building Inclusive Financial Sectors in Geneva.
"The stark reality is that most poor people in the world still lack access to
sustainable financial services, whether it is savings, credit or insurance.
The great challenge before us is to address the constraints that exclude people
from full participation in the financial sector... Together, we can and must
build inclusive financial sectors that help people improve their lives."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, 29 December 2003, following adoption of 2005 as the International Year of Microcredit
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Web site:
English | Français | Spanish
Entire Book [pdf]:
English | French | Spanish
Executive Summary [pdf]:
English | French | Spanish
Presentations from Blue Book Panel Discussion (17 July 2006):
Fouad
Abdelmoumni, Executive Director of the Association Al Amana [ppt]
Richard Weingarten, UNCDF
Executive Secretary [ppt]
Nancy Barry, President of Women's World Banking [ppt]
K.G. Karmakar, Managing Director, National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development, India [ppt]
Mark Bienstman, WSBI, World Savings Banks Institute: Presentation [pdf] | Access to Finance Paper [pdf]
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