Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to common questions about AFI Data Portal

Member

The Maya Declaration is the global initiative for responsible, modern, and sustainable financial inclusion that aims to reduce poverty and ensure financial stability for the benefit of all. As guardian of the Declaration, AFI is committed to supporting its members in fully achieving their commitments to contribute to more inclusive development and poverty alleviation across developing and emerging countries. It was launched at the AFI Global Policy Forum in Riviera Maya, Mexico on September 2011. Through the portal, AFI members will be able announce new commitments, report progress on their existing commitments, as well as check, compare, and benchmark the progress of their peers’ commitments. Read more about the Maya Declaration..

Commitments made under the Maya Declaration are have always been public as part of AFI’s effort to promote transparency and accountability in the financial inclusion sphere. All registered users of the Portal - AFI members, partners, and members of the public - can view all commitments and their corresponding progress updates.

Achievement of targets under the Maya Declaration is considered an important milestone. AFI will review your request to confirm completion of your institution’s target based on previous progress reports and may contact you for any clarification or elaboration to substantiate your submission.

Yes, to change or edit your progress report please contact progress@afi-global.org indicating your request to change a specific report.

Yes, to change or edit your target please contact progress@afi-global.org indicating your request to change a specific target.

AFI members are encouraged to report progress on their commitments as often as they wish, and once a year at minimum. Furthermore, we encourage submission of progress reports by the 31st of May each year going forward. Updates submitted before this date will be highlighted in the annual publication of the Maya Declaration Progress Report.

As soon as a member submits a new target under the Maya Declaration, the Portal will notify AFI of the submission. AFI will review the target and contact the responsible person for any clarification or elaboration, if needed. Once all the outstanding queries are satisfied, AFI will go ahead and publish the new target/s.

Only AFI Principal Members are allowed to add or update a target under the Maya Declaration. As principal members of AFI in their respective countries, they hold the primary responsibility and accountability in ensuring the integrity of their data in this platform and that their targets are current and relevant.

Under the Maya Declaration, targets are specific steps or goals that institutions pledge to achieve to further their financial inclusion objectives. The main difference between quantitative and qualitative targets is that the former come with numeric objectives. For example, “Ensuring that 80% of the adult population have bank accounts by 2018” is considered a quantitative target, whereas “Issue a new e-money regulation by 2015” is considered a qualitative target.

The AFI Country Policy Profiles is a global database containing information on the legal and regulatory status of financial inclusion in each country of the AFI network. The database allows regulators and policymakers to examine regulatory frameworks of their peers and to identify thematic, regional, and global trends in financial inclusion policies. Which policy areas does the AFI Country Policy Profiles cover? The Country Policy Profile database currently capture key policies and regulations in the five areas:

Financial Inclusion Data (FID)
Digital financial services (DFS)
Financial Integrity/ Proportionate AML/CFT Framework (FINT)
Consumer Protection & Market Conduct (CEMC)
National Financial Inclusion Strategy (FIS)

In the next round of the Policy Profile data collection, the questionnaire will expand to also cover the areas of SME finance, financial stability, and financial inclusion policy solutions for women.

The main operating language for the ADP is English. ADP will rely on Google Translation API to provide translation of content between English, French and Spanish. Users will be able to choose their language of preference; however, AFI could not assure and not be responsible for the quality of translation.

On you have log-in, in your “Dashboard” that page, you will be able to see a list of individuals from your institution who have Advanced Accounts. If your colleague is entitled to receive an Advanced Account but does not appear on this list, it probably means he or she has not signed up for an account on the ADP yet.

As a first step, you must sign up for an account to access the ADP at www.afi-dataportal.org. Once signed up, the account will be a Basic Account (i.e. ‘view-only’) by default for data security purpose. We will then convert your account to Advanced Account (i.e. with the ability to add/edit data). Finally, we will inform you directly via email that your account has been upgraded. At that point, you may start adding/editing data via the ADP.

AFI requested respective member institutions to nominate individuals who shall have the right to add/edit data associated with their institutions/countries. Only these nominated individuals, AFI focal points, and Maya Declaration focal points are entitled to receive Advanced Accounts. This process helps to ensure data integrity as ability to share data is restricted to few responsible individuals.

No. Even if you have an Advanced Account with the ability to add/edit data, you can only do so with respect to data associated with your institution/country.

Yes. As an interactive website, the ADP allows you to click through various links and elements to access more information. As you become familiar with the ADP, you will see that as you hover over many elements, they will appear with the hand symbol which designates that that object, word or space is selectable.

Every user of the ADP will be able view and export any data shown on the Portal, regardless of their AFI membership status. For staff of AFI member institutions, AFI has created two categories of ADP accounts to ensure data accuracy and accountability by allowing only designated individuals from a given member institution to add and edit data on the portal. The two types of accounts are:

Basic Account: This is a “view-only” account which means that users will not be able to add or edit any data on the portal. This is a default when you first apply for an account.
Advanced Account: This account allows users to be able to add or edit data associated with their institutions/countries.

The range of functionalities and access to the database depend both on the type of accounts as well as the type of AFI membership. The table below summarizes the key differences in users’ rights between Basic and Advanced Accounts, for each type of AFI member institution.

	Principal Member		Associate Members		Specialist Member*
	Basic	Advance	Basic	Advance	Basic
View and download any data	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Add new/updated Maya Declaration Commitments	No	Yes	No	No	No
Report progress on existing Maya Declaration Commitments	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Add financial inclusion indicators data	No	Yes	No	No	No

*There is no Advanced Account for a Specialist member

AFI strives for open access to data on financial inclusion to promote free knowledge exchange and discussion. Anyone, regardless of AFI membership affiliation, can apply for accounts to use the ADP, free of charge. To read this guide, you already have been signed up to the ADP.

Furthermore, the ADP is able to support any number of users from each AFI member institution. In fact, given a wide range of policy areas covered in the ADP ranging from financial integrity to financial inclusion strategy, multiple individuals across different departments/units from the same institutions are encouraged to apply for accounts to use the ADP.

Members may add or edit data as often as necessary and as soon as they have new data. They can also report data from earlier years.

You can contact the AFI Data Portal administrator at progress@afi-global.org to ask any questions regarding all aspects of the ADP.

Any users of the ADP will be able to view and download any countries’ financial inclusion indicators data.

Only AFI financial Inclusion Indicators such as the AFI Core Set are prepopulated on the ADP. However, we understand that countries face different financial inclusion challenges and therefore may use country-specific financial inclusion measurement frameworks that are not consistent with the AFI Financial Inclusion Indicators. We encourage all members to add and report on their own indicators via the ADP.

Only AFI Principal Members are allowed to add new financial inclusion indicators and report values on existing indicators with data associated with their countries. For example, only AFI Principal Member from Thailand (in this case, the Bank of Thailand) is allowed to report financial inclusion indicators data associated with Thailand. The main reason for this is accountability as the Principal Members of AFI are the primary financial regulators or policy makers in their respective countries. The focal person at the Principal member institution is expected to reach out to all other members or government agencies who may have data that can be reported.

On the ADP, financial inclusion indicators comprise AFI indicators and Other indicators. AFI Financial Inclusion Indicators are the indicators created by the members of AFI Working Groups, primarily Financial Inclusion Data Working Group (FIDWG), to help the members collect data on key aspects of financial inclusion. Examples of AFI Indicators are the AFI Core Set Indicators and the AFI SME Finance Base Indicators. The AFI Indicators are prepopulated on the ADP, so that members can start reporting their data right away. Other indicators are essentially everything else besides the AFI Indicators. These indicators are added to the ADP by the AFI members themselves and may be country-specific.

We strive to collect Policy Profiles data from every country in the AFI network. For some countries, we work with a law firm partner but also rely on critical input from a relevant AFI members themselves to ensure high quality of data. For other countries, we work directly with the members to collect the data. As of August 2016, we are in a process of launching a new round of AFI Country Policy Profile Survey to cover all countries within the AFI network. We will reach out to the heads of the member institutions and/or focal points once the survey is ready.

AFI aims to update the Country Policy Profiles data every other year to reflect policy or regulatory changes that may take place over time. The survey period also varies by countries. AFI may also update the data based on desk research and bilateral consultation with the members, as new policy/regulatory changes take place. Can I change and edit the my country’s policy profiles data? Yes. AFI Principle Members are now allowed to submit changes to their Country Policy Profiles directly on the ADP. This help facilitate members to easily update their Policy profiles as new policy/regulatory development take place. If you find that your country’s Policy Profile contains error or outdated information, please contact progress@afi-global.org.

AFI has created a questionnaire with key financial inclusion policy indicators that encompasses five policy areas: financial inclusion data, digital financial services, financial integrity, consumer protection and market conduct, and national financial inclusion strategies. The questionnaire was developed together with policymakers and regulators to ensure that it captures policy aspects most critical to financial inclusion in the context of developing countries. To collect the data, AFI has partnered with the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice and Linklaters LLP in 2014, and with White and Case LLP throughout 2015, in both cases under a pro bono basis to engage their local counsels’ network, and offices at each AFI member jurisdictions to provide responses for this questionnaire. Furthermore, they collect relevant primary legal sources for each policy domain. Effort is currently underway to complete the 2016 AFI Country Policy Profiles to include all countries within the AFI network.

Non-Member

On the ADP, financial inclusion indicators comprise AFI indicators and Other indicators. AFI Financial Inclusion Indicators are the indicators created by the members of AFI Working Groups, primarily Financial Inclusion Data Working Group (FIDWG), to help the members collect data on key aspects of financial inclusion. Examples of AFI Indicators are the AFI Core Set Indicators and the AFI SME Finance Base Indicators. The AFI Indicators are prepopulated on the ADP, so that members can start reporting their data right away.

Other indicators are essentially everything else besides the AFI Indicators. These indicators are added to the ADP by the AFI members themselves and may be country-specific.

To collect the data, AFI has partnered with the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice and Linklaters LLP in 2014, and with White and Case LLP throughout 2015, in both cases under a pro bono basis to engage their local counsels’ network, and offices at each AFI member jurisdictions to provide responses for this questionnaire. Furthermore, they collect relevant primary legal sources for each policy domain.

Effort is currently underway to complete the 2016 AFI Country Policy Profiles to include all countries within the AFI network.

If you are a financial policymaker/regulator from a non-AFI member country and would like your Country Policy Profile collected and shown on the Portal, please contact progress@afi-global.org

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