Maximizing the Potential of Financial Inclusion
The world has recently faced many unprecedented shocks and stresses that have exacerbated existing development challenges—all of which have disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable, especially women and girls. Against the backdrop of such a challenging global context, financial inclusion is an essential foundation for building a more inclusive, resilient, and green world. The advancement of digital economies and digital inclusion, as well as the increase of socially minded investments, provide hope, while innovations in digital financial services are helping redefine what inclusive financial ecosystems look like, and how they can be used as an enabler of many UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and broader development outcomes. CGAP works on many aspects of financial inclusion and on its intersection with many development challenges. Below you’ll find more information about the topics we have been working on.
Women's Financial Inclusion
Despite growing global efforts, women’s financial inclusion has made little progress over the past decade. We seek to make sense of the challenges and opportunities that pave the way to women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment. Read more >>- Rural women face disproportionate threats from climate stresses and shocks compared to men.
- What does it mean to financially include young women? Discover pioneering research, real-world examples, and actionable strategies that are reshaping financial inclusion for young women worldwide.
- Gender norms affect everyone in the financial sector, shaping how women are perceived and treated, influencing everything from policies to business practices.
- A global community of practice that aims to empower women through financial inclusion by sharing experiences, documenting emerging best practices, and solving common problems.
Micro and Small Enterprises
Millions of low-income households in emerging markets rely on micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to pursue economic opportunity and build resilience. We explore the enabling role of digital finance in strengthening MSEs as a pathway to improved livelihoods. Read more >>
MFIs play a vital role in delivering credit and other financial services to low-income customers, including closing the financing gap for micro and small enterprises (MSEs).- MSEs have diverse financial needs, even when considering size alone. However, when gender is factored in, this complexity only deepens.
Building Resilience
It is vital for any development agenda, including financial inclusion, to consider how poor and vulnerable households, who will be amongst the most affected by crises and have the least strategies and tools to anticipate and cope with them, can build resilience and adapt to the crises impacting their lives. Read more >>
An inclusive financial system empowers vulnerable people to pursue their own climate resilience strategies, making it an absolute necessity for a just transition.- Fragile countries are behind—and falling further behind—their nonfragile peers in measures of poverty and financial inclusion. Inclusive finance plays a critical role in building resilience for low-income people living in fragile contexts.
- Rural women face disproportionate threats from climate stresses and shocks compared to men.
- The next frontier for improving food security lies in financing investments that drive sustainable productivity gains among more nutritious agricultural value chains, resulting in more affordable nutritious food that is produced sustainably.
- Access to insurance plays a crucial role in building resilience. Insurance is an essential risk management tool that helps individuals prepare for, cope with, and recover from shocks.
- A2ii is a global partnership that works with insurance supervisors to promote inclusive and responsible insurance, thereby reducing vulnerability. As of July 2025, CGAP convenes A2ii in close coordination with IAIS.
Climate Change
CGAP sees an increasingly urgent agenda for research and action at the crossroads of climate change and financial inclusion and is working to find and test solutions that can help poor people manage and adapt to the changing world. Read more >>-
An inclusive financial system empowers vulnerable people to pursue their own climate resilience strategies, making it an absolute necessity for a just transition.
- Rural women face disproportionate threats from climate stresses and shocks compared to men.
- Asset finance helps households and small businesses afford the things they need to improve their income and wellbeing - including in the face of climate change.
Digital Innovation
Digital innovation has transformed the way we live, work, and interact with each other. By leveraging digital technology such as mobile banking, digital payments, and access to credit and insurance services have made financial services accessible to individuals and businesses that were previously excluded. Read more >>
Cash-in/cash-out agent networks are key to extending digital financial services and ultimately financial inclusion. Providers have struggled to extend these agent networks in rural areas, where sparse populations lead to lower transaction volumes and weaker financial incentives for businesses to serve as agents.
While many fintechs claim to advance financial inclusion, the link between specific innovations and financial inclusion is often assumed rather than proven. The reality is that it is hard for funders, investors and social entrepreneurs know which innovations matter for low-income, underserved customers.- Across emerging markets, millions of informal workers are joining gig platforms in sectors like ride-hailing and deliveries. CGAP’s engagement with platforms, fintechs and gig workers offers a glimpse into what the future could look like.
Digital financial services providers will find here information to help them decide whether open APIs make sense for their business and, if so, how to implement an open API strategy.
With vast amounts of revenue and data at stake, merchant payments are widely seen as one of the key battlegrounds in the struggle over the future of digital financial services (DFS).
CGAP's interoperability work seeks to help low-income users transact more easily across digital financial services networks.
CGAP estimates that two billion low-income customers in low- and middle-income countries are digitally included, but a significant portion remain financially excluded or underserved. Open finance, with its potential to revolutionize the financial services sector, can be a substantial catalyst for financial inclusion.
Enabling and Responsible Financial Policy
Building responsible, inclusive financial systems requires a policy and regulatory environment that protects low-income customers, fosters innovation and has the flexibility to adapt in face of rapid changes brought about by digital technologies. Read more >>
Digital financial services (DFS) have become the leading driver of inclusion for the unbanked around the world, particularly in developing countries. What makes this possible is not only innovation in products and technology but regulation.
CGAP’s research highlights the evolving financial consumer risks in digital finance, urging a reassessment of current consumer protection approaches. Is it time for a change? We think so.
Building an enabling regulatory framework is fundamental for fostering inclusive digital financial services (DFS), but it is not enough. Supervision...
Market conduct supervisors (MCSs) charged with protecting consumers of financial products and services place great value on identifying, understanding, and tracking industry developments and market-level consumer risks and consumer behavior—the activities collectively known as market monitoring.
The Customer-Centric Guide is a collection of practical, tested tools and case studies designed to help digital financial services (DFS) providers deliver products and services that low-income customers will use—and that create sustainable business value.