Policy Specialist, Gender Inclusive Finance

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) is a global network of financial policymakers and regulators including: central banks; ministries of finance; and other regulatory bodies working together to increase access to quality financial services for the poor. The network enables its members to share their knowledge and to develop and implement financial inclusion policies that have proven potential to dramatically increase financial inclusion and reach scale. AFI has pioneered regional approaches to peer learning and capacity building among policymakers and stakeholders worldwide and developed a body of technical guidelines and policy recommendations under the leadership of thematic, member-run working groups.

AFI further works with its members to promote public commitments and setting of national targets for financial inclusion through the Maya Declaration, and to provide a range for support for the in-country implementation of members’ commitments. With more than 100 member institutions covering 85% of the world’s 2 billion unbanked population, AFI provides its members with the tools and resources to develop, share, and implement innovative financial inclusion policies. AFI is run by a small management unit providing a portfolio of value-added services for members to facilitate knowledge exchange and drive smart policy reform.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

The Policy Specialist will sit with the Gender Inclusive Finance (GIF) team and will report to the Head of Gender Inclusive Finance. The GIF team includes the Head of GIF, one Policy Specialist Position and one Senior Project Officer Position. The GIF team also works closely with other teams in the Policy & Strategy Directorate, including Monitoring & Evaluation, Capacity Building, Inclusive Green Finance, Policy Programs, Regional Initiatives and Membership Relations teams. There is also a close working relationship with the Finance team. You will be a key person in delivering the GIF annual work plan and meeting the target set in it.

The Policy Specialist position requires a high level of responsibility, capacity to work independently, personal drive and excellent organization. You will perform a leading role in working directly with senior level officials from AFI’s membership, managing relationships with key stakeholders including donors, and ensuring the timely delivery of all team outputs.

The Policy Specialist will be integral in providing subject matter expert policy analysis work in a range of new and emerging financial inclusion policy areas. You will not be expected to be an expert in the following topics but you will need to be able to provide gender focused analysis on the following thematic areas including the role of Digital Financial Services and FinTech in gender inclusive finance; financial literacy and education, closing the financial inclusion gender gap; balancing financial inclusion, integrity and stability through proportionate regulation; and the impact of de-risking strategies of financial institutions on financial inclusion & stability and inclusive green finance.

The GIF team also represents AFI in global engagements with the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and Women-20 (W20), as well as providing the secretariat to the AFI Gender Inclusive Finance Committee (GIFC), which oversees AFI’s policy work and engagement with the global standard setting bodies (SSBs). You will be able to provide technical solutions to support this work and engage with members of the GIFC at quarterly meetings.

Amongst the direct responsibilities of the Policy Specialist you will be able to lead the conceptualization and implementation of AFI’s workstream on Gender Inclusive Finance; research and policy analysis to support AFI’s commitment to supporting greater gender diversity and women’s leadership within AFI member institutions in line with the Denarau Action Plan adopted by the AFI membership in 2016; and advancing policy work on halving the gender finance gap by 2021. You will be accountable for achieving a number of targets in these areas.

The Policy Specialist is expected to perform the following tasks:

• Be directly responsible for supporting policy research, development and analysis in the AFI Management Unit across a range of policy areas as required, including support to the AFI Women’s Gender Inclusive Finance Committee, and policy analysis to support AFI’s work in representing members’ views to the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and global standard setting bodies (SSBs)
• Oversee the strategic implementation of AFI’s workstream for gender inclusive finance inclusion including being directly accountable for in country implementation support to AFI member institutions to develop national roadmaps and implement policy changes to advance gender inclusion. Working with the Global Partnerships team you will develop key partnerships with external stakeholders including across the gender inclusion and DFS/fintech sectors; tracking donor requirements and providing regular project status reports, alongside the Senior Program Officer.
• Contribute to the implementation of the Denarau Action Plan for Gender and Women’s Financial Inclusion, leading implementation of Action Point #10 on Gender Diversity and Women’s Leadership and generating evidence-based knowledge and analysis as part of the GIFC secretariat who are overseeing the Denerau Action Plan.
• Develop and manage relationships with key external stakeholders related to AFI’s policy analysis work, including from the World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund, United Nations, Swedish International Development Agency and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as academics, NGOs and private sector institutions.
• Provide in depth technical and research support to the Regional Offices, seven AFI Working Groups and all Regional Initiatives, as gender is a cross cutting theme in all their work streams. These working groups all have a gender focal point to co-ordinate with.
• Contribute to the series of AFI Policy’ Brown Bags’ which contribute to internal capacity building within the AFI Management Unit by inviting experts (who may be AFI staff, members, or external stakeholders).
• Assist the GIF and events team with conceptualizing, preparing and organizing regional and/or global conferences and events, including technical policy support to the annual Global Policy Forum (GPF).
• Perform a leading role in writing or contributing to the drafting of technical reports on financial inclusion policy topics. This may include quality control of or technical comments on drafts provided by others, and/or contributing to the review of AFI members’ draft national financial inclusion strategies.
• Occasionally draft communication materials such as blogs for the AFI website, presentations, briefs, and conference materials.