The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) is the first Spanish private sector organization to become a strategic partner of CGAP, a global partnership of more than thirty leading development organizations that work to advance the lives of people living in poverty, especially women, through financial inclusion. Its members include international organizations of the stature of the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the European Commission, as well as development finance institutions and major foundations.
“We are delighted to welcome BBVAMF as a strategic partner and look forward to their valuable contributions to our shared mission of advancing an inclusive financial ecosystem for excluded and low-income individuals through our partnership and their work in Latin America”, emphasized Sophie Sirtaine, CEO of CGAP.
This strategic alliance has been announced during the annual meeting of CGAP’s Council of Governors (GC) held these days in London under the theme Inclusive Finance and Climate Change, where Laura Fernández Lord, Director of Sustainability, Equity and Inclusion of BBVAMF, has participated as a speaker in the panel, Inclusive Finance for Adaptation.
Laura Fernández Lord, Director of Sustainability, Equity and Inclusion for BBVAMF in the panel, Inclusive Finance for Adaptation
The relationship between the two organizations has a long history, with more than a decade of collaboration in projects and research on financial inclusion. Currently, the Foundation is actively involved in Financial Inclusion 2.0., a project which aims to enhance the sector’s understanding of how financial inclusion contributes to development and identify what works, for whom and where, to inform better interventions that lead to positive development outcomes. Moreover, BBVAMF is a member of the Advisory Group of the Supply-Side Gender Disaggregated Data project, and plays an active role in CGAP’s Community of Practice on Climate Resilience and Adaptation for Inclusive Financial Institutions.
In addition, CGAP and BBVAMF collaborate in knowledge exchange spaces, such as FinEquity ALC, a community dedicated to empowering women in Latin America and the Caribbean through financial inclusion in which the Foundation has been a member of its Advisory Committee since its creation, and whose annual meeting was held at the headquarters of Bancamía, the BBVAMF institution in Colombia.
“We are very proud to join CGAP and to share and combine our expertise to advance financial inclusion and improve the lives of the millions of vulnerable people we serve; it is a unique opportunity to continue and enrich our learning process with the world’s leading development organizations” stated Javier M. Flores, CEO of BBVA Microfinance Foundation .
