The Essential Role of Finance in Education, Housing and Health Care

CGAP’s research suggests that financial services are important tools for advancing equitable access to quality essential services like education, housing and health care.

Let’s Talk About Resilience

While the need to expand opportunity for the poor has historically animated the financial inclusion community, it is high time we recognize the equally critical role of resilience building and expend similar effort in service of that goal.

Small but Mighty: CGAP and the Future of Financial Inclusion

In her final leadership essay as CGAP’s CEO, Greta Bull shares her perspective on the impact COVID-19 has had on global development and some lessons she’s learned about financial inclusion.

Women and Finance: Enabling Women’s Economic Empowerment

Reducing the gender gap requires that we put a gender lens on everything we do. CGAP CEO Greta Bull writes that without fully including women, we won’t solve financial inclusion or, for that matter, end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.

Beyond Access and Usage: Financial Services for Livelihoods

Not only have financial services have changed dramatically over the last 30 years, so have the ways people earn a living.

After the Storm: How Microfinance Can Adapt and Thrive

There has been a need for traditional microfinance to face the challenge presented by digital technology for some time. COVID has simply accelerated this process.

The Best Laid Plans...CGAP's Response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

CGAP spent time thinking about how we can add unique value to a coordinated crisis response. The work we are doing to combat the effects of coronavirus is refocusing those efforts in new and unanticipated ways.

What’s a Donor to Do? The Financial Impact of COVID-19 on the Poor

Inclusive financial systems are understood to be part of the solution to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, donors are often unclear how most effectively to tailor their interventions. In this Leadership Essay, Michael Tarazi outlines a path forward.

Open Data and the Future of Banking

Although growing numbers of low-income people are entering the formal financial system, many are not yet leveraging its full value. Emerging regimes for data sharing and payments flexibility have the potential to bypass traditional financial sector development and give poor customers better products and more choices.

It’s Time to Change the Equation on Consumer Protection

For financial inclusion to work for the poor, it’s time to move beyond consumer protection frameworks that are more about protecting providers than customers.