The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) convened a summit on financial health in the Middle East and North Africa in Abu Dhabi on 30 September and 1 October. The event was organised with the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health, the World Bank, the Arab Monetary Fund, CGAP and the Centre for Financial Inclusion. Its stated aim was to move regional discussion beyond counting accounts and transactions toward considering whether individuals and businesses can cope with financial shocks, save over time and borrow responsibly. The framing also includes informed financial behaviour. It places the quality and resilience of people’s financial lives alongside access to formal services as a policy concern.

One of the main announcements on the first day was a National Financial Literacy Strategy for 2027–2031. The CBUAE described it as a roadmap to equip people at different life stages, as well as micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, with knowledge and skills for confident, responsible and safe financial decisions. The central bank also announced that it had joined CGAP’s Council of Governors, making the UAE the first country from the region to join that body. A letter of intent with the United Nations Capital Development Fund provides for cooperation in sharing expertise and building institutional capacity in financial health, financial sector development and digital public infrastructure governance. These are policy and cooperation steps announced at the summit, not measured results.

The summit presented CGAP’s financial health measurement framework and findings on the use of artificial intelligence in regional financial services. It also included findings on women’s financial health based on the World Bank Group’s Global Findex Database. A Financial Health Innovation Challenge was announced for the second day, seeking practical ideas to improve the financial health of individuals and micro, small and medium-sized businesses. The plan is to test selected solutions with licensed financial institutions and support providers through grants, partnerships or other assistance. Applications were to remain open until 30 November. The announcement does not yet identify selected projects, the funding available or any results from pilots.

The partners’ approach treats financial inclusion as more than the number of accounts opened or transactions processed. It brings resilience to shocks, long-term savings, responsible borrowing and informed choices into the definition of financial health. How that approach affects regulation and national programmes will depend on implementation and on the indicators published later. The strategy and the UNCDF letter are separate instruments: the former sets a national direction for financial literacy, while the latter describes knowledge exchange and institutional-capacity cooperation. The summit announcement did not give an attendance total, a budget, quantified targets for the strategy or a baseline measure of financial health across the region. The announced initiatives should therefore be understood as planned work, rather than as evidence that household or business outcomes have already changed.