Blog

Rethinking Impact Measurement and Management: Fit for Outcomes

IMM isn’t just about collecting data—it must fit the investment context. This blog explores CGAP’s use cases, which link specific investment decisions to right-fit measurement strategies, helping stakeholders generate evidence that supports smarter, outcome-focused decisions.

Celebrating 30 Years of Collaborative Impact

CGAP is 30. We reflect on the progress made in advancing the lives of people living in poverty through financial inclusion over the past 30 years, and what comes next.

Tailored and Systemic: Navigating Climate Risks With Market-Aligned Responses

Climate risks pose challenges for vulnerable communities, FSPs, and their supporters. Understanding these risks—and how public and private actors can respond—is key to advancing climate adaptation and building resilience.

Four Ways Funders Can Support Climate-Smart Women’s Financial Inclusion

Inclusive finance is a critical, yet underutilized, tool for supporting low-income women’s climate adaptation, and funders can play a key role by helping FSPs overcome key barriers to delivering climate-smart, gender-responsive financial products and services.

Revised FATF Guidance on Inclusion Finalized

The FATF just adopted a revised version of its guidance on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and financial inclusion. Several other updates came out of the meeting, with implications for financial inclusion work - CGAP offers an analysis of these updates.

How Can Financial Authorities Use Gender Data to Fulfill Diverse Mandates?

As the financial landscape grows more complex, integrating gender into regulatory data will help financial sector authorities fulfill their mandates more effectively, contributing to a more inclusive, responsible, safe, and sustainable financial sector.

Financial Services are the Key to Gender-Inclusive Carbon Markets

As carbon markets evolve from niche climate interventions into a multi-billion-dollar industry, a critical truth is emerging: gender inclusion is no longer optional. It is essential to the permanence, equity, and scalability of carbon projects.

Implementing Gender-Smart Strategies: A Guide for Financial Providers

Financial institutions often neglect the specific needs of women, despite evidence showing women are valuable clients. We advocate for a gender-sensitive approach to financial inclusion to address these issues and improve women's economic potential.

Unpacking Effects of Gender Norms on Women's Financial Lives in Uganda

How do gender norms impact not just women’s behavior, but the behavior of all market actors in the financial system? Recent findings from Uganda offer some insights.

When Does Financial Education Work Best? Evidence-Based Insights

CGAP’s Impact Pathfinder consistently identified financial education as a factor for the uptake and use of financial services, prompting us to ask: Could it be playing a more central role in what works, for whom, and in what circumstances?

How Digitization Is Disrupting Collateral-Based Lending

Data is upending traditional lending models and can broaden access to finance.

The Hidden Costs of Forex Funding: Do Women Pay a Higher Price?

Smaller lenders serve women borrowers best but face high costs, forex risk, and limited scale. In light of this fact, donors and DFIs must expand local currency funding and strengthen risk management to close the gender gap in finance.

Competition as a Catalyst for Financial Inclusion

Healthy competition in the financial sector is essential for advancing financial inclusion, as it lowers costs, spurs innovation, improves access and service quality—especially for underserved populations.

Is Climate Change Undermining Financial Inclusion? Early Evidence Says Yes

Early evidence from Pakistan confirms the need to shore up the financial institutions that serve vulnerable populations facing climate impacts, as climate risk threatens to undermine global progress on financial inclusion.

RDFE Lessons From the UK's Open Banking Journey

The UK’s open banking approach demonstrates how digital finance can be harnessed responsibly to promote innovation and competition while safeguarding consumers and their data, aligning well with CGAP’s Responsible Digital Finance Ecosystem framework.

AI and Responsible Finance: A Double-Edged Sword

Artificial Intelligence can transform financial inclusion and digital financial services, but it can also increase consumer risks like fraud, data misuse, and lack of transparency.

Finance Meets AI: Considerations for Public Authorities

How can public authorities support the financial sector to harness the power of AI while ensuring it operates within safe and ethical boundaries? Here, we propose three key considerations that could enable the responsible use of AI in finance.

Beyond the Balance Sheet: How Data is Rewriting the Investment Playbook

Inclusive credit fintechs can help narrow the financial inclusion gap—but their path is challenging. New data-driven asset managers are stepping in with transaction-based financing, offering the capital and credibility fintechs need to scale responsibly.

Granular Data for More Equitable Financial Systems

As financial systems evolve, so must the tools for oversight. Suptech is helping supervisors harness better data, spot trends (including by gender), and guide smarter decisions. Countries like Rwanda are showing how tech can drive more inclusive, effective financial systems.

Will FATF’s Travel Rule Revisions Affect Financial Inclusion?

The FATF is consulting on revisions to its travel rule that will affect all payments. However, the changes pose a threat to the speed, cost, and inclusiveness that the international community expects from global remittances. So why the change?