Searching: Research & Analysis

Climate Risk and Financial Inclusion: A Regulatory Perspective

Climate change risks may drive the financial sector away from serving the least profitable and most climate-exposed clients, namely low-income, rural households, and micro, small, and medium enterprises. This new working paper outlines how inclusive green finance policies can help reduce these risks, creating a more stable and resilient real economy.

Emerging Trends in National Financial Inclusion Strategies that Support Women’s Entrepreneurship

Women entrepreneurs continue to face persistent gender-based barriers that impede their success – such as unequal access to financial accounts, constrained credit, and normative roles that keep women in the role of primary caregivers. Improved financial inclusion can help reduce some of these barriers. This WBL-CGAP Brief presents data collected by the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law (WBL) project on how National Financial Inclusion Strategies can spur policy and regulatory reforms in support of women’s entrepreneurship. 

Igniting SDG Progress Through Digital Financial Inclusion (2023 edition)

Building on the success of the first edition in 2018, the 2023 edition of Igniting SDG Progress Through Digital Financial Inclusion looks at evidence-based examples for the 13 global goals relevant to digital financial inclusion. This work is a collaboration between the Office of United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA Queen Máxima), Better Than Cash Alliance, the United Nations Capital Development Fund, CGAP and the World Bank. 

PAYGo PERFORM: Financial, Operational, and Portfolio Quality KPIs for the PAYGo solar industry

With the help of 600 colleagues from the PAYGO offgrid solar sector, a new set of 36 standard metrics covering portfolio quality, unit and firm-level economics, and company operational indicators are available today.

Testing the Waters: Digital Payments for Water and Sanitation

A growing number of water providers are experimenting with digital payments to reduce operational expenses and streamline service delivery. This paper extracts lessons learned from 25 water providers across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Digital Finance for the Real Economy: Introduction

This slide deck describes how digital financial services can contribute to international development across several sectors like energy, water, education and health.

Digital Finance for the Real Economy: Water

Digital financial services have enormous potential to achieve universal access to safe water and sanitation. This presentation is part of a series that synthesizes what we have learned and our insights into the power and challenges of digital finance.

Digital Finance for the Real Economy: Education

Education is a powerful tool to combat poverty. This slidedeck describes how digital finance can remove systemic barriers to high-quality global education in at least three ways.

Digital Finance for the Real Economy: Energy

This slidedeck describes how digital finance can help achieve universal access to clean, affordable energy (SDG 7) in three major ways.

Social Norms Change for Women’s Financial Inclusion

Social norms can have a profound impact on financial inclusion for women because they can limit women’s ability to work outside the home, engage with male agents, or even own a phone. Knowing exactly how norms apply is critical for closing the gender financial inclusion gap.