The world faces urgent challenges as risks intensify and interconnect, amplifying vulnerabilities, especially for low-income populations and small and medium enterprises (MSEs). If left unaddressed, these vulnerabilities can create ripple effects with national, regional, and global consequences. This paper highlights the importance of inclusive finance as an indispensable component of resilience responses, and calls on everyone working on increasing resilience to leverage inclusive finance to enhance the reach, speed, and impact of their work.
As climate-related shocks become more frequent, communities need access to finance that helps them cope with and recover from damage and loss, yet current efforts to strengthen financial systems’ resilience often overlook the importance of inclusion. This paper outlines how governments and funders can foster inclusive financial systems that enhance climate adaptation and resilience.
Cash transfers are among the most effective tools for social protection but delivering them in fragile contexts remains a major challenge due to interruptions in financial sector development efforts, limited government capacity, and difficulties reaching remote communities. Leveraging the financial sector for cash transfers improves outcomes for both programs and recipients. Drawing on emerging evidence from highly fragile contexts, the paper presents ways that social protection funders can invest to achieve these gains.
Already reaching over half the world’s population, social protection systems present an untapped opportunity to channel climate funds to help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, enhancing the reach, efficiency, and impact of climate finance.
Addressing gender biases in financial products is crucial. Financial institutions should understand gender dynamics, build organizational capacity, and design inclusive products. This report offers ten guidelines for financial institutions to adopt a strategy that enhances the financial inclusion of women, recognizing them as a profitable yet underserved customer segment.
Women-led nano and micro enterprises (WNMEs) are vital for providing livelihoods, boosting communities, and driving local economies. However, they face barriers like insufficient start-up capital and limited networking. This publication delves deeper the tailored solutions needed to support their growth based on in depth research in India, Kenya and Uganda.
Segmentation and market sizing helps in allocating development efforts, guide investments, and identify policy gaps for women-led nano and micro enterprises (WNME). This technical guide offers steps to understand the WNME landscape, design targeted products, and foster inclusivity for growth.
This paper introduces a menu of 19 indicators to measure Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) through increased financial inclusion. Developed with experts and the FinEquity community, it provides actionable guidance for stakeholders to assess and track WEE outcomes, generating evidence to drive more effective financial inclusion interventions across diverse contexts.
Lebanon’s 2019 crisis plunged many into poverty. In 2021, the World Bank launched a $246M social safety net, and the Government of Lebanon, with Siren Associates, developed DAEM—a digital platform for social assistance. In this episode, we hear from key players about how collaboration made DAEM a success and how, even in crisis, solutions can go beyond relief to build a more inclusive financial system.
Inclusive credit fintech can help address the US$4.9 trillion global credit gap for MSEs. However, early-stage fintechs face significant challenges in securing diverse funding sources. This focus note explores financing strategies for inclusive credit fintech in Africa, highlighting recent innovations and case studies. It also identifies knowledge gaps that hinder strategy design for international donors and impact investors eager to support digital innovations in MSE credit markets.