Interviews with CFI Advisory Council members.

CFI Advisory Council Member Rosita Najmi has over 20 years of experience in global development, but she attributes her initial connection to financial inclusion to a personal relationship with poverty as a young refugee who came to the United States from Iran with her family.

Originally a field researcher and social entrepreneur, she has also worked across leading international NGOs to advocate for and employ financial services as a tool to empower and improve the lives of low-income people. As a development economist, she helped stand up the first World Bank global practice for financial inclusion. She then transitioned from operations and development policy functions to funder roles -- across impact investing, private philanthropy, and now corporate philanthropy. She is a long-time and devoted champion of gender equality, and her contributions include efforts to advance women’s economic empowerment, including the creation and funding of <a href="https://www.findevgateway.org/finequity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FinEquity</a> and the <a href="https://data2x.org/financial-inclusion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Data2X Women’s Financial Inclusion Data Partnership</a>. Currently, Rosita serves as a VP of Social Impact at The UPS Foundation, leading strategy, innovation, grantmaking, and measurement, evaluation, and learning (MEL).

As Rosita reflects on her career, she contemplates the meaningful way that her professional roles, and the specific order in which they happened, have enabled her to optimize her impact. As a CFI Advisory Council member since January 2022, she continues to work toward achieving a goal that her late mother regularly encouraged: “Make your life count!”
<h3>1. How did you become involved in inclusive finance and what are you working on now? </h3>
RN: My connection to financial inclusion is rooted in a personal relationship with poverty. My family — my late mom, three older siblings, and I — <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/mba/student-life/people/Pages/portrait-project.aspx?profile=rnajmi~pp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">came to the United States from Iran as refugees</a>. We brought three suitcases and $3,000 cash, which my then 15-year-old brother carried in his pockets.

I remember well the judgment and discrimination my family and I faced while living in poverty. I grew up in Tennessee, where there was racism and judgment of families who received government welfare, such as food stamps, which mine did. At that time, food stamps were pieces of paper so it was easy for others to notice when my mom used them at the grocery store.

As early as elementary school, I used to help my mother with her bank account and finances. I couldn’t even reach the counter to see the bank teller! But, because of her accent and English being her second language, my mother was not confident, and I would often help communicate with the bank teller on her behalf.

This personal journey with access to financial services and resources has shaped my priorities and instilled a strong desire to help and empower others, with an emphasis on designing for dignity. I have worked in social and economic development for many years, but my top priority has been to transform financial services into a tool to empower low-income and marginalized people.
<blockquote class="pullquote--right">This personal journey with access to financial services and resources has shaped my priorities and instilled a strong desire to help and empower others, with an emphasis on designing for dignity.</blockquote>
I started my career as a field researcher, social entrepreneur, and founder of an international NGO. These experiences were the best education I could have asked for — more than my formal education — to understand families’ financial hardships around the world and the impossible choices that so many are forced to make every day. When I joined the World Bank as a development economist, I helped develop the Bank’s first global practice for financial inclusion. We created the support template to help countries develop and measure progress against national financial inclusion strategies. After that, and for over a decade, I have been a funder of different types of capital, from impact investing to private and corporate philanthropy.

Currently, I oversee grantmaking, strategy, innovation, and measurement, evaluation, and learning (MEL) at <a href="https://about.ups.com/us/en/social-impact.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The UPS Foundation</a>. <a href="https://about.ups.com/us/en/social-impact/the-ups-foundation/the-ups-foundation-mission-and-purpose.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">One of the four focus areas</a> is equity and economic empowerment, which includes a focus on women. Whether in accessing finance or moving their goods to markets or across borders, women face unique challenges because of <a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/normative-constraints-to-womens-financial-inclusion-what-we-know-and-what-we-need-to-know">social and cultural norms</a>, limits on mobility and agency, and time poverty, among other barriers. We seek to do our part to remove such barriers. UPS’ equity and economic empowerment portfolio also includes career and college readiness for youth, entrepreneurship, and workforce development.
<h3>2. What key lessons have you learned from past work experiences?</h3>
RN: While funding the <a href="https://www.betterthancash.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Better than Cash Alliance</a> (BTCA) during my tenures at both the Omidyar Network and the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, I deepened my understanding of the potential of advocacy. Advocacy is a skill set -- a combination of art and science -- that can transform lives, change policies, and move resources to support underserved or marginalized communities. I also learned how blended finance can play a vital role in global sustainable development. I believe we need varying types of capital — a mixed capital stack — for scale and long-lasting impact.
<blockquote>Advocacy is a skill set -- a combination of art and science -- that can transform lives, change policies, and move resources to support underserved or marginalized communities.</blockquote>
Furthermore, learning and sharing experiences through coalitions and alliances is much more efficient and effective than doing it alone. I am a collaborator and connector and have worked on building and supporting multiple global coalitions and alliances around different topics like impact investing, <a href="https://www.findevgateway.org/finequity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">women’s economic empowerment</a>, <a href="https://www.ictd.ac/programme/digitax/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tax policy and administration</a>, and <a href="https://www.cifaralliance.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate equity and resilience</a>.

Finally, because of my tenure at <a href="https://www.mercycorps.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mercy Corps</a>, I became a strong believer in market-based approaches that lead to sustainable development and empowerment. In contrast to a beneficiary-focused approach, market-oriented models position populations living in poverty as consumers, producers, employees, or entrepreneurs. Market-based approaches use business models and work to catalyze markets to solve development and humanitarian challenges more sustainably and at scale than time and resource-bound interventions. 
<h3>3. If you weren’t in your current professional role, what would you be doing right now?</h3>
RN: I would spend more time advocating to end human rights violations in Iran, especially in support of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160229174442/https:/www.hbs.edu/mba/student-life/people/Pages/wdydwyd.aspx?profile=rnajmi" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">women and girls</a> and members of the religion the <a href="https://www.bahai.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bahá'í Faith</a>.
<h3>4. What unique expertise do you bring to CFI’s Advisory Council? </h3>
RN: I strive to bring the following to CFI: (i) my network so I can be a connector for CFI’s applied research; (ii) strategic thinking, especially around creating intersectional outcomes; and (iii) personal experience and passion for designing for dignity and empowerment.

If I had the chance to re-design my career, I would take the same path. The order of my experiences was meaningful; I am a better funder, because I was a grantee first, and I can be an innovator, because I worked in the field, in operations, and on the front lines. I aim to bring my experience wearing these diverse hats to CFI’s Advisory Council.
<h3>5. In one word, what is the current state of financial inclusion today?  </h3>
RN: Transitioning. Many people and organizations have worked hard to build the case for why the sector needs to go beyond solely advancing access. It’s now understood that we cannot declare victory simply when someone opens a bank account and that instead, the customer must build towards resilience to escape poverty and stay out of poverty. Digital financial inclusion can be a tool for both empowerment and equity in development, and it supports government accountability and fiscal transparency, particularly for government subsidies to its citizens and tax administration. Lastly, when I think about the future, especially in terms of climate shocks and war, the need for humanitarian response is increasing at a rapid pace and scale. We must swiftly integrate digital payments into humanitarian responses.  
<h3> 6. What can we learn from fintech that can be applied to financial inclusion?</h3>
RN: Friction management is important. Typically, the goal of payments, especially for access to credit and savings, is to be as frictionless as possible. However, I believe there is a role for friction when it comes to credit. For example, providing notifications or other reminders highlighting an outstanding debt balance would be advantageous when a customer has multiple loans or payment plans. This approach serves the dual purpose of protecting consumers' interests and empowering consumers to stay informed about their financial obligations. In this way, the financial provider is signaling its focus on its bottom line and its commitment to the financial health of its customer.

On the data side, people are already researching and discovering issues related to data misuse, especially data privacy. Fortunately, new laws are helping, but the financial services industry and development actors could also have proactive strategies for the misuse and missed use of data. 
<blockquote class="pullquote--left">The effectiveness of AI relies on the quality of the data employed. If marginalized groups, such as women or people with disabilities, are invisible in the data, these groups are at serious risk of being left further behind.</blockquote>
There is an abundant amount of data being produced, but unfortunately, not all data is used or used optimally. This underutilization can be because of a fear of breaking the rules, especially around data management and governance. Other times, the barrier can be because skill sets are missing in data science. Nevertheless, like how we developed frameworks to guide countries to develop national strategies for driving and measuring financial inclusion, I think there is a need to develop diagnostics and templates that help governments and financial services providers use data to benefit their customers. For example, financial services providers can use data to measure product equity — showing who is using products and services and to what outcomes. Further, governments, academia, civil society, and development organizations can leverage anonymized and aggregated data sets to triangulate with other data sets for insights, innovations, and consumer protection.

I would like to see more ‘data for good’ strategies in the private sector, which can include disaggregating data by <a href="https://data2x.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">gender</a>, race, and other classifications and considering the quality of data sets that educate artificial intelligence. The effectiveness of AI relies on the quality of the data employed. If marginalized groups, such as women or people with disabilities, are invisible in the data, these groups are at serious risk of being left further behind.
<h3>7. What are the most crucial issues in inclusive finance that we should prioritize over the next five years?</h3>
RN: We are seven years from the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) deadline, and the COVID pandemic eliminated years of progress. We must compensate for this loss by pursuing interventions with intersectional outcomes. Therefore, the issues I would prioritize in the next five years include:  
<ul>
 	<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="35" data-list-defn-props="{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1">The misuse and missed use of data</li>
 	<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="35" data-list-defn-props="{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1">Climate risks related to food security, a just transition, adaptation, and resilience</li>
 	<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="35" data-list-defn-props="{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1">Gender equality issues related to health and education outcomes, and the social and cultural norms that thwart the full contributions of women and girls</li>
</ul>

Designing for Dignity: Creating Equal Opportunity through Financial Inclusion – Q & A with Rosita Najmi, CFI Advisory Council Member

CFI Advisory Council Member <a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/bio/david-ferrand">David Ferrand</a> has had a prolific career. Educated as an engineer and trained as a commercial banker, David shifted his focus to financial inclusion in 1993. After working in the space for 12 years, he became the director of <a href="https://www.fsdkenya.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya</a>, a multi-donor program established to support the development of inclusive financial markets. Now an independent consultant, David’s primary interest is in enhancing the impact of inclusive finance on the real economy and developmental outcomes. David joined CFI’s Advisory Council in July 2020.

As he reflects on how financial inclusion has evolved, David believes that we are at a turning point with potential for far greater developmental impact than has been seen to date. He also shares what he’s learned from nearly three decades in the Kenyan finance ecosystem, and what he believes are the crucial issues our community should prioritize.
<h1>How did you get involved in financial inclusion and what are you working on now?</h1>
DF: While I was working in banking in the UK, I received an opportunity to be posted to Kenya. I spent just over a year in corporate banking and it was there that I became interested in international development and financial inclusion. I decided to move out of the banking industry and return to the UK, where I got involved in microcredit enterprise development through the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

After working with DFID, I joined FSD Kenya where I worked until 2019. I then spent the next two years working with the FSD Network on strengthening how FSDs across Africa could work more effectively together. Most recently my focus has been on how we practically link the new possibilities for finance offered by digital technology with the pressing need to find new development pathways that work for Africa.

I’m interested in sustainability and the role of inclusive finance in accelerating or facilitating a more sustainable economic basis for developing economies. The green economic agenda is obviously critical now. And though I claim no expertise, I'm also very interested in gender – the question of gender and inclusive finance has become much more significant lately, and rightly so.
<h1>How has financial inclusion changed since you first became interested in the subject?</h1>
DF: It has changed massively. There's been sustained interest in financial inclusion for three decades which, in international development, is perhaps unusual. The space started with credit, broadened into savings, and then insurance was “discovered”. The idea of microcredit was replaced with microfinance to become, broadly, financial inclusion. And now today, I tend to talk about “inclusive finance” because, if our objective is to achieve positive developmental change, one aspect of finance – the direct delivery of financial services to underserved populations – cannot be separated from the rest of the financial system.

When I was first involved, things were positioned around microcredit and micro-enterprise, and the approach was very supply-side driven. We all felt there was a recipe: if we could build the financial institutions to deliver finance, then we’d have a massive development impact.

But we realized there was a need to instead be outcome-oriented. Our aim is to deliver a financial system that is more inclusive and delivers on economic and social empowerment objectives. There has been a necessary shift toward the demand side to understand how finance plays a role in the real economy.

Another major change is commercialization. Three decades ago, the field was dominated by nonprofits. Then there was an explicit attempt to move towards commercialization to scale. In recent years it feels like we’ve been far more successful here than we dared hope. However, our challenge is to bring the work back to the development objectives that underpinned the original policy interest in the space without losing the power of markets to create far-reaching change.
<h1>In one word, what is the current state of financial inclusion today?</h1>
DF: Exciting. The possibility of really impacting low-income people is better now than ever. Digital technology has the potential to enable a radical reduction in transaction costs and we can imagine the creation of much more sophisticated holistic financing solutions. There are many more possibilities. We do, however, need to be on our guard against the risks these changes bring. Finance is a powerful tool that can wreak havoc as well as enable constructive change, and we must effectively protect vulnerable consumers of financial services in the new digital world. Even as technology brings new risks, it also provides new ways to improve consumer protection.
<blockquote>Finance is a powerful tool that can wreak havoc as well as enable constructive change, and we must effectively protect vulnerable consumers of financial services in the new digital world.</blockquote>
<h1>From your early experience in the banking industry, do you think banks have become more inclusive?</h1>
DF: I think they have. Thirty years ago, banks did not see 90 percent of the population in Africa as a viable market; they were focused on the top 10 percent. The inherent conservatism of the banking industry has often prevented the industry from taking advantage of the potential that technology offers.

However, this has changed dramatically in the last few decades, and the extent to which mainstream commercial banks across Africa have adopted channels that effectively enable outreach to underserved communities is tremendous progress. I think the inclusive finance community can take some credit for demonstrating the market potential. More recently, fintech has started to provide a compelling threat to the status quo and banks realize that they need to adapt if they are to remain relevant in a digitally-transformed world. 
<h1>What lessons can be learned from the Kenyan inclusive finance ecosystem? </h1>
DF: A lot. I don't think there is necessarily a “Kenya model” but it is useful to reflect on elements of what happened in Kenya. For example, there was a dominant mobile phone provider in Kenya that helped enable mobile money to become ubiquitous. Critical mass must be reached for mobile money to take off and to encourage further rounds of innovation. While that was achieved in Kenya, it has also come at the cost of a highly concentrated market which also creates challenges.

Besides the digital financial revolution in Kenya, we also see some of the darker sides of digital finance and how there can be unanticipated outcomes. For example, the rise of overindebtedness has been exacerbated by the ready availability of digital credit. While it is important not to overstate the point, there are nevertheless significant and growing cases of real harm. It is important to harness the powerful tools that have been created to ensure they are applied in a constructive way and risks are controlled.
<h1>What are the most crucial issues in inclusive finance that we should prioritize over the next five years?</h1>
DF: I think the number one challenge is how to carry over innovations from finance into the real economy; how new forms of partnerships can enable funds to flow effectively to solve real-world issues. As we get into the new frontiers of finance and development, it's going to be difficult to find effective ways to take the capabilities of the private sector-driven finance industry and efficiently deliver, innovate, and address the needs of inclusive development. There has been increasing attention on blending finance – combining private, philanthropic, and public resources – but the experiences demonstrate how difficult it is to get right. It will continue to be challenging because it takes us into new organizational territory and causes us to reexamine our assumptions.
<blockquote class="pullquote--left">The tools we have been developing can and should play a role in increasing resilience, but they will be at best a modest supporting part if not allied with others.</blockquote>
Additionally, adaptation to climate change is critical and finance will play a central role in achieving a sustainable future. This requires thinking beyond yesterday’s conception of financial inclusion and instead thinking at a systems level. How is finance needed at various levels –global and national, sectors and communities, firms, and individuals – to increase resilience? The tools we have been developing can and should play a role, but they will be at best a modest supporting part if not allied with others.

Finally, we should prioritize achieving more effective forms of market conduct. This will require getting away from today’s largely rules-based regulation, which is frequently costly and practically ineffective. Politically challenging as it may be, an outcomes-driven approach is essential to successfully navigate the complexities of creating a genuinely inclusive financial system. This matters to directly protect consumers and ensure that markets are open and competitive.
<h1>What unique expertise and experience do you bring to the Advisory Council?</h1>
DF: As CFI seeks to influence systems change at a global level, I bring many years of experience wrestling with the practical challenges and opportunities of supporting change in what proved to be quite a dynamic system. There is a lot to be drawn from the Kenyan market – both good and bad – and there are many competing narratives of Kenya’s financial system development over the last 30 years. I hope I can bring at least one of those perspectives to bear as a member of CFI’s Advisory Council.
<h1>What advice would you give to young people in the banking industry today regarding financial inclusion?</h1>
DF: It is an exciting, but turbulent, place. The industry needs to change and I hope young people who have a long-term vision of what banking should become are attracted to the space. With respect to inclusive finance, banks are at the heart of where it needs to change. For too long, the primary attraction of a career in finance has been the considerable financial gain. This has fueled an approach to finance which has destroyed, rather than created, value. Financial inclusion clearly has not been immune to this. We need young people who are visionary and value-driven and who understand that finance has a key role to play in creating a better future.
<h1>Any final thoughts for our readers?</h1>
<blockquote>We must go beyond the idea of financial inclusion as a narrow concept and instead look at how we can re-engineer our financial systems to be more inclusive.</blockquote>
DF: It's a time to be brave and bold. We face huge challenges, but these are surmountable. CFI is in a great position to play a catalytic role in influencing the emergence of the new paradigm. We must go beyond the idea of financial inclusion as a narrow concept and instead look at how we can re-engineer our financial systems to be more inclusive.

It’s a Time to Be Brave and Bold: Q & A with David Ferrand, CFI Advisory Council Member

With more than 30 years of financial experience, CFI Advisory Council Member, <a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/bio/joanna-ledgerwood">Joanna Ledgerwood</a>, has witnessed dramatic changes in the inclusive finance space. Originally a banker interested in women’s studies, she entered the field hoping to contribute to improving women’s lives and alleviating poverty. After working at various organizations, including the World Bank and the Aga Khan Foundation, and eventually establishing and managing <a href="https://www.fsdzambia.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Zambia</a>, Joanna now focuses primarily on women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment.

Joanna is a member of CGAP’s gender team, contributing most recently to understanding how gender norms affect women’s financial inclusion and building gender-transformative solutions. She also advises several organizations within the FSD Network in Sub-Saharan Africa. Joanna joined CFI’s Advisory Council in July 2020.

As she reflects on lessons learned and progress made, Joanna emphasizes the need to clearly define what success means for inclusive finance, and the importance of moving beyond access and use to actively assess and measure impact.
<h3>How did you get involved in inclusive finance and what are you working on now?</h3>
JL: After completing my MBA in the late 1980s, I found myself working as a private banker while taking women’s studies classes in the evenings. Quite a contrast! I had always been very interested in women’s empowerment and found it increasingly difficult to separate what I was doing in my career with what I really cared about. I decided to give up banking and joined <a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/institutional_partnerships/calmeadow">Calmeadow</a>, a Canadian NGO and forerunner in microcredit.

About 15 years ago, I met Alan Gibson and learned about Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P). This approach, which I ended up writing a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Making-Market-Systems-Work-Poor/dp/1788531418" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">book</a> about, changed my entire perspective on development. Now, working almost exclusively in women’s financial inclusion and empowerment, I use the M4P approach – now referred to as market systems development –in everything I do; I believe it is the only way to make progress in development.
<h3>How did you find yourself working on women’s financial inclusion?</h3>
JL: The genesis of my getting into microcredit was joining Calmeadow. However, for most of my development career, I didn’t focus on gender because I assumed that if the poor were benefiting, then women must be benefiting. It wasn’t until FSD Zambia that I became more involved in gender after securing funding from Sida for a women’s inclusion program. A couple of years after I left FSD Zambia, I spent about a year in an advisory role at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, focused on their gender and policy work. There, I gained an understanding of what various funders and others were working on with regard to women. A few months later, I joined the CGAP gender team, where I focus on gender and market systems development.
<h3>How has inclusive finance changed since you first became interested in the subject?</h3>
JL: For one, the name and focus have changed. When I first joined Calmeadow, it was all about microcredit – the idea being if you provide a small amount of credit to (primarily) poor women, they could start a business that would reduce their poverty. After a decade or so of microcredit, we realized that savings were also important and shifted to microfinance. However, we were still very much centered around supply, and to some extent, I think we still are.

At the time this shift was taking place, I was working with the World Bank and wrote “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-Microfinance-Handbook-Financial-Perspective/dp/0821389270/ref=asc_df_0821389270/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=266118767273&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=8536880947652654858&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9061285&amp;hvtargid=pla-613592886641&amp;psc=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Microfinance Handbook</a>” in 1998. The field has continued to evolve and eventually the term “financial inclusion” made more sense as (micro)insurance and payments were recognized as important financial services for the poor. Now, you often hear the term ‘inclusive finance’, indicating a shift in emphasis and a deeper focus on inclusivity.

I’ve also seen a big movement towards adopting a market systems development approach: recognizing how the various functions and actors necessary in financial market systems must work together to include those underserved and excluded and, ultimately, benefit the real economy.

The other big change has been the acknowledgment of the informal financial sector and its importance in providing financial services to the poor, particularly women and particularly in rural areas. Donor investments made to develop the savings groups sector have been transformational. I think we can learn from the informal sector how to make the formal financial sector work better for women.
<h3>What is your view on the current state of inclusive finance?</h3>
<blockquote class="pullquote--right">If we don’t proactively consider why these groups are underserved or excluded, and then do something about it, inclusive finance won’t be “inclusive”.</blockquote>
JL: What immediately comes to mind is “we’re getting there.” Although much progress has been made, there has recently been an acknowledgment that some marginalized groups are not as included as we assumed. If we don’t proactively consider why these groups are underserved or excluded, and then do something about it, inclusive finance won’t be “inclusive”.

Gender equity, for example, is at the core of development and therefore fundamental to our work in finance. Many people are now talking about a shift toward the “real economy” and how financial services can contribute to inclusive economic growth, access to basic services, and resilience. However, if we’re not intentional and don’t fully consider women and the need for gender equality, real economic impact will be less and will be inequitable.
<h3>What unique expertise do you bring to CFI’s Advisory Council?</h3>
JL: Probably my work in women’s financial inclusion, which is useful since it’s one of CFI’s key focus areas. I love the work CFI is doing on women’s financial inclusion and it’s great to be able to be more actively involved. Also, market systems development, because I believe it’s the only approach that will result in sustainable change that benefits the poor.
<h3>If you weren’t in your current professional role, what would you be doing right now? </h3>
JL: I love my work and the people I have met through it. So, fortunately, I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing. However, if I didn’t work in inclusive finance, I would do something to combat human trafficking. I actually retired about four years ago, but I somehow morphed back into working and got really into women’s financial inclusion and empowerment. I am probably the most inspired and passionate about my work now as I ever have been.
<h3>What lessons did you learn as the founding director of FSD Zambia?</h3>
JL: I learned that to effect market system change, you need to be close to market actors, and I don’t just mean in the private sector. Market actors also include the public sector and civil society. We must consider all the actors (and functions) that either contribute to or constrain the financial market system from working well for everyone – so policymakers, ministries, payment platforms, collateral registries, data management providers, and many others.

Facilitating change requires knowing what’s going on. You need to conduct the research, talk to people, have your ear to the ground. So, when the opportunity for change comes, you’re informed and can influence change in market actor behavior.
<h3>What are the most crucial issues in inclusive finance that we should prioritize over the next five years and why?</h3>
<blockquote class="pullquote--left">The end game is not just about closing the gender gap; it’s about identifying and measuring the benefits of financial services for women.</blockquote>
JL: We need to reach marginalized groups. I think it’s key that we figure out how to define success and how best to measure it. And in measuring it, we pay attention to what is and is not working and adapt what we are doing. The end game is not just about closing the gender gap; it’s about identifying and measuring the benefits of financial services for women. It’s not just about access and use. We need to understand what poor people use financial services for. Are their lives improving as a result? Is poverty being alleviated? That requires not only defining impact but also measuring it and developing an evidence base of what works. Inclusive finance must be inclusive.
<h3>In these recent times of uncertainty, what keeps you up at night and what keeps you inspired?</h3>
JL: A key development objective is poverty alleviation, and gender equality is right at the heart of it. Women simply do not have the same opportunities as men – they have less access to education, health services, finance, etc. ­­– and this inhibits their equal chances to succeed. Women are expected to provide the lion’s share of (unpaid) childcare and domestic work which in turn limits their mobility, their time, and access to market resources and information. They have limited ownership and control of assets, which limits their economic participation as producers. All of this results in income inequality. Therefore, gender inequality is not just a symptom but a cause of poverty. The more research I do, the more I realize that if we’re not making progress on gender equality, then we’re not making progress on the bigger development objectives.
<blockquote>If we’re not making progress on gender equality, then we’re not making progress on the bigger development objectives.</blockquote>
What keeps me inspired are the people. My colleagues, many of whom I consider friends, are really smart and really dedicated. I also think that COVID, despite all the harm it has done, presents an opportunity to ‘build back’ differently. In these uncertain times, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to understand women’s experiences, needs, preferences, capabilities, and constraints and how they differ from men’s, and design interventions that will result in products, services, policies, and behavior change that work for women.

Inclusive Finance Must Be Inclusive: Q & A with Joanna Ledgerwood, CFI Advisory Council Member

Evelyn Stark is assistant vice president at MetLife Foundation and a CFI Advisory Council Member. She leads MetLife Foundation’s financial health strategy which seeks to improve outcomes for low- and moderate-income people by advancing the use of high-quality financial services. Before joining MetLife Foundation, she held leadership roles at the Gates Foundation, USAID, and the World Bank. Before that, she spent several years implementing financial inclusion programs in East Africa.
<h2>Responding to COVID-19</h2>
When COVID-19 emerged in early 2020, the foundation worked quickly to commit $25 million to support partners with urgent needs and longer-term relief efforts. For projects such as <a href="https://bfaglobal.com/finnsalud/insights/covid-19-y-las-microempresas-mexicanas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FinnSalud</a>, this meant a shift in research focus to understanding how people were coping as the crisis deepened and became the new normal. For financial institutions, such as credit unions, this meant stress testing and managing risks to survive the crisis. And for the foundation’s early-stage fintech partners, the focus was on helping manage their funds and hold onto savings, and pivoting their products and services to meet changing needs and the inability to meet customers in-person.

A common trend for many of the foundation’s partners was a shift to digital. Stark credits the existing partnerships in the industry between microfinance institutions and credit unions, for instance, and nonprofit partners such as Accion and BFA, in helping institutions adapt. These trusted partnerships fostered knowledge sharing and allowed institutions to learn from others in the industry. Many funders, like MetLife Foundation, also worked closely with grant partners to adjust grant agreements to determine how funds could be most effective in the changed context.

“The pandemic demystified things for microfinance institutions and traditional banks that have been cautious to get on board with digital. Boards and senior management were already thinking about digital, but COVID brought with it a sense of urgency,” Stark notes.
<h2>Behavioral Science and the Promise of Digital</h2>
Stark was an early proponent of behavioral science in financial health and believes that understanding how people make decisions is key to improving outcomes. One of the Foundation’s current partners, <a href="https://advanced-hindsight.com/commoncents-lab/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Common Cents Lab</a> at Duke University, leverages behavioral science to increase the financial well-being of low-income people in the US, Mexico, China, and Turkey. Common Cents Lab has been working closely with fintechs, nonprofits, and credit unions to design innovative products that incorporate behavioral insights to improve financial health.

The combination of behavioral science, fintech, and digital services has the potential to be highly effective at improving the financial health of low-income consumers. Keeping the customer at the center is essential to make sure that the industry doesn’t get caught up in the "cool stuff” that technology can deliver, but remains focused on what low-income people want and need to improve their financial lives, Stark points out.
<blockquote class="pullquote--right">Together, behavioral science, fintech, and digital services can improve the financial health of low-income consumers.</blockquote>
“We need to think of behavioral science as much more than automation or nudging. Identifying the real issues that make saving money difficult, or that make digital funds susceptible to less optimal spending decisions, is how we’ll be able to create the right fintech environment to encourage the behaviors that enable individuals and families to succeed in reaching their financial goals.”

Likewise, Stark is concerned about the over-hype of what data can deliver, especially where most transactions still happen in cash. The data available to the institutions about their customers is often only a sliver of their financial information; cash transactions and transactions from other institutions are not visible.

“We have a long way to go in making the data useful for our customers while making sure that we protect customers now.”
<h2>Financial Health Through the Lens of Jobs</h2>
Income is a significant driver of financial health; without living wages, the ability to save, repay debts, and plan for the future is much more difficult. Stark is working with the foundation’s grant partners, who are focused on jobs and employment to embed financial services at the source of income.

“Whether people earn their jobs through formal employment or through gig work, there are opportunities to leverage the ‘paycheck’ (even if there is no actual paycheck). Opportunities to designate income – before or when it’s received – toward emergency, education or retirement savings, to debt repayment, or to purchase insurance or other benefits – enables people to take more control over their financial health.”
<blockquote class="pullquote--left">Working with grant partners in the jobs and workforce space has helped the foundation focus on financial lives of different kinds of workers.</blockquote>
Several of the foundation’s partners focused on tech jobs. Whether they are based in Chile or New York City, tech jobs offer decent wages and don’t necessarily require a college degree. Partners have historically focused on the hard and soft skills, and on working with employers to ensure a hiring pipeline, but they hadn’t considered the students’ financial health. After the partners started talking to the students about their financial health using structured interviews, they realized not only how indebted many of their young people were when they entered the classes, but also that they did not have plans for how they would manage their significantly larger incomes once they obtained full-time tech work. With that knowledge, these partners are incorporating planning and money management discussions with their students, and with the employers who will hire them.

“Working with grant partners in the jobs and workforce space has really helped us -- and them -- focus on the financial lives of different kinds of workers, and seek to tailor financial solutions for them.”
<h2>Looking Ahead: CFI’s New Strategy</h2>
The COVID crisis has prompted Stark to think about how we create solutions for bigger problems in our markets – the income gap, food insecurity, education, and health care. Being truly cross-sectoral in focus is essential.

Stark believes CFI’s new strategy is right for the moment. CFI’s newer focus areas -- <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/about/what-we-do/financial-inclusion-week/financial-services-for-mitigating-and-adapting-to-climate-risk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a>, <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/rethinking-financial-inclusion-at-the-data-margins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">data for inclusive finance</a>, and <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/about/what-we-do/womens-financial-inclusion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">women’s financial inclusion</a> – will help inform how the inclusive finance community navigates the post-pandemic world.

“COVID has made all of us even more aware that there are roles for players in the public and private sectors and for nonprofits, and there are benefits to forging partnerships. COVID has made it even more clear that there are systemic issues that cannot be resolved by a single product and require systemic change.”

Behavioral Science for Financial Health in a Digital World: An Interview With Evelyn Stark

Jennifer Tescher, CEO of the <a href="https://finhealthnetwork.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Financial Health Network</a> and CFI <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/about/advisory-council/">advisory council</a> member, is used to drawing the attention of regulators, policymakers, bankers, and financiers to financial health inequities in the U.S. With the pandemic raging, these inequities have only become more evident – and the need to draw attention to them even more urgent.

Tescher’s passion for financial health research and consumer advocacy has been at the forefront of her work since founding the Financial Health Network (formerly the Center for Financial Services Innovation) in 2004. Recently, Tescher has been hosting leaders on her <a href="https://emerge.finhealthnetwork.org/explore/emerge-everywhere/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EMERGE Everywhere podcast</a>, writing <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifertescher/?sh=6d85aef6612a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">articles</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFkLqcZd0g8&amp;feature=youtu.be" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">speaking</a> about building financial health ecosystems so everyone can benefit.
<h2>COVID-19’s Impact on Racial and Financial Inequities</h2>
As Tescher sees it, the typical data used to gauge the overall health of the economy bears little resemblance to the financial lives of most Americans. Compare the stock market’s recent rally to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/weekly-jobless-claims-coronavirus-01-14-2021-11610573648" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rising unemployment claims</a> and the disconnect becomes clear. Adding in COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on people of color, the ramifications of the current economic crisis -- including the loss of wealth and unemployment -- also become clear.

"What's different this time around is that we're having a conversation about systemic racism and the numerous structural challenges Americans face,” Tescher said in a recent interview with CFI.
<blockquote class="pullquote--left">Over two-thirds of Americans are still not considered financially healthy.</blockquote>
While the Financial Health Network’s <a href="https://finhealthnetwork.org/research/u-s-financial-health-pulse-2020-trends-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Financial Health Pulse: 2020 Trends Report</a> indicates that financial health has actually improved, Tescher highlights that over two-thirds of Americans are still not considered financially healthy, and much of the improvement can be attributed to the decade-long financial recovery finally trickling down to middle and lower-income Americans – a recovery that is now over. The report further highlights that financial health disparities have widened when considering race and income. “Taking into account COVID-19, Black Americans, people with low incomes, and women are bearing the brunt of the economic burden,” the report states.
<h2>“Breaking Silos” with the EMERGE Podcast and Platform</h2>
Highlighting COVID-19’s impact on racial and economic inequity is just one way Tescher champions the need for meaningful action to address financial health. Another way has been hosting the <a href="https://finhealthnetwork.org/programs-and-events/emerge-financial-health-forum/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EMERGE: Financial Health Forum</a>. Given the restrictions of COVID-19, EMERGE was reimagined this year. The Financial Health Network team created a new platform for the forum and has since leveraged that platform for a range of content such as blog posts, virtual events, and the podcast.

The idea behind the podcast, as listeners quickly learn, is the need to “break silos” to further financial health. And the diversity of professionals Tescher has on the show indicates that she means it: Dan Schulman of PayPal, Mayor Melvin Carter III, Jelena McWilliams of the FDIC, and Bill Bynum of HOPE are a few of her recent guests.

“The leaders that I’ve been privileged to interview during the first few months of Emerge Everywhere are flourishing during these challenging times precisely because of their ability to embrace complexity, demonstrate empathy, and act boldly. They see in 3-D,” Tescher points out.

Although the topics Tescher addresses in her podcast are focused on financial inclusion, she makes it a point to discuss topics relevant to leadership, industry partnerships, gender, and community engagement. For example, in the episode “<a href="https://emerge.finhealthnetwork.org/podcasts/episode-5-banking-with-empathy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Banking with Empathy</a>” with McWilliams, the pair discuss disenfranchisement and inclusion in financial services as well as Jelena’s personal and financial challenges after immigrating to the U.S. with only $500.

It may seem like there isn’t much her guests have in common, but each episode includes key requirements to creating a holistic approach to financial health and (re)building the economy to work for everyone. For example, we learn in one episode that one of those requirements, feeling what it’s like to go without, is taken literally for employees at PayPal: Dan Schulman requires his staff to spend a day living without digital financial services.
<h2>Tescher on CFI’s Priorities in Inclusive Finance</h2>
With regard to <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/about/what-we-do/financial-inclusion-week/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CFI’s four strategic priorities</a> – data risks and opportunities, mitigating and adapting to climate risks, consumer protection, and women’s financial inclusion -- Tescher believes that although these areas could be tackled individually, the intersection and interconnection amongst these topics are what interest her.

“Thinking about CFI’s priorities together as one is where the geographic boundaries become less relevant, which creates an opportunity for the financial inclusion industry to collaborate.”

Climate change is still an evolving topic that Tescher and her team are thinking through. The U.S. is lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of both the ramifications -- i.e. droughts and food shortages, and risk management -- as they relate to climate change’s impact on financial services and consumer financial health. When it comes to climate change, it is important to recognize the connection between physical and financial health, Tescher notes.

On gender, Tescher points out that women historically have not had the same financial health outcomes as their male counterparts, yet <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X10002330" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">women have shown</a> they are better at repaying debt like mortgages or microloans. The challenge now is connecting women to tools that are aimed at helping them become entrepreneurs and financially healthy.

Financial Health Network’s <a href="https://finhealthnetwork.org/research/consumer-data-sharing/">data work</a> continues to be one of its main policy priorities. Tescher sees the importance of data rights as a means to <a href="https://finhealthnetwork.org/research/give-consumers-control-of-their-financial-data/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">empower consumers</a> to have control over, and access to, the information they need to make better decisions and leverage data for good.

“Consumer protection is certainly an aspect of financial data; however, the focus shouldn’t be solely on how data is used for bad, but also how to use data for good.”

Breaking Silos and Challenging Inequities in America: An Interview with Jennifer Tescher

Following nearly a year of limited direct access to the lives of the vulnerable people who are the subject of his research, Prof. <a href="https://wagner.nyu.edu/community/faculty/jonathan-j-morduch" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jonathan Morduch</a> -- economist, co-founder of the <a href="https://www.financialaccess.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Financial Access Initiative</a> (FAI), scholar of the lives of the poor and <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/about/advisory-council/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CFI Advisory Council</a> member – has been working beside a white-hot forge of projects, continuing to help shape the global body of knowledge about the lives that inclusive finance seeks to improve.

“It’s been a very busy time, even though we haven’t been able to do what we really want to do, which is being in the field: doing surveys, doing research, getting to know people and better understand problems.”

For Prof. Morduch and his <a href="https://www.financialaccess.org/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">team</a>, co-led by Timothy Ogden, that’s meant building partnerships and assembling teams for four different projects focusing on people from a range of backgrounds: from ultra-poor workers migrating to Dhaka from northwest Bangladesh, to families in Compton, California, struggling in a pandemic-scarred economy.
<h2>Small Firm Diaries: Applying the “Portfolios” Model</h2>
Perhaps the most visible of these so far is the <a href="https://www.smallfirmdiaries.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Small Firm Diaries</a> project. Morduch, co-author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Portfolios-Poor-How-Worlds-Live/dp/0691148198" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Portfolios of the Poor</a>” and <a href="https://www.usfinancialdiaries.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Financial Diaries</a>, is part of a team that will apply the financial diaries model -- collecting data from hundreds of poor households frequently and regularly over a long period of time (at least a year) -- to firms with 1 to 20 employees, in contrast to CFI’s <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/covid-19-and-msmes-data-and-analysis-to-understand-impact/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">research</a> on MSMEs, which has been focused on collecting and analyzing survey data on COVID-19's impact on the financial health of owners of a broader range of business sizes.

“There’s a lot of great research available on small firms from different angles – liquidity, gender, how they use digital services... The diaries instead present a chance to look at firms holistically, without imposing a particular agenda from the start. The diaries are a way to understand the lives of firms and whom they employ, whom they serve – and whom they are served by – and try to understand them on their own terms.”
<blockquote>The diaries present a chance to look at firms holistically, without imposing a particular agenda from the start.</blockquote>
With financial support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Argidius Foundation, the team will collect data for one year from firms in Colombia, Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria. In addition to following cash flows, the researchers will also complete qualitative interviews in roughly 100 households per country from a variety of sectors.
<h2>From South Asian Cities: Researching Digital Remittances Back Home</h2>
A second project Prof. Morduch is leading is digitally connected and builds on a <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20190067" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pilot in Bangladesh</a> that connected ultra-poor families – whose working-aged children were employed mostly in garment factories in Dhaka and who were largely excluded from technology -- with digital networks to send money home easily. This pilot intervention revealed a 25 percent boost in money going to home villages; the team also found that consumption was smoothed during the lean season and increased overall. The project was spearheaded to fill a knowledge gap in the impact of domestic remittances. Beyond the numbers, it has also changed the way Prof. Morduch has viewed microfinance interventions, which have traditionally been about bringing resources like microcredit to grow businesses in villages.

“This project shows other ways to improve rural conditions. One is to make it easier for younger people to move to cities where they can be more productive and earn higher wages. What about the people who are left behind in rural areas? They can benefit if migrants have reliable ways to send money home.” In addition to introducing the technology to urban migrants and their rural families, the team translated the digital interfaces (which were mostly in English) and gave users hands-on experience. The initial result? Active use of the product went from 20 percent to 70 percent.

The team hypothesized that urban-to-rural remittances would become more frequent as a result of the digital ease of transacting. Surprisingly, the frequency remained largely the same, but the amounts grew.

While the financial and usage results were positive, the treatment group of migrants reported worsened physical and emotional health. The team suspects that migrants started working longer hours as expectations to remit were increased by the digital technology.
<blockquote class="pullquote--left">The team suspects that migrants started working longer hours as expectations to remit were increased by the digital technology.</blockquote>
“It’s a reminder that digital financial services can disrupt social relationships. All of a sudden, migrants are available to their families all the time, both to talk and to send money. This changes how we go through life. These technologies can be powerful, but they disturb a social balance.”

With support from the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, the team will replicate the work in six other sites in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
<h2>To the Homes of Compton: A Guaranteed-Income RCT</h2>
Prof. Morduch is also part of a group that’s working on a guaranteed-income randomized control trial in Compton, California, involving several hundred families whose incomes are below twice the U.S. poverty line. The purpose of this RCT is to test a premise about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw4jRO5rYf8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">being poor and facing instability</a>: while financial services’ role in smoothing consumption via saving and borrowing is critical, the poor also need a “<a href="https://www.microsave.net/files/pdf/BN_13_Money_Managers_The_Poor_and_Their_Savings.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">usefully large sum</a>” from time to time.

As Morduch says, families need to both “smooth” and “spike” during the year.

“These are different savings problems. We tend to focus on smoothing, but both smoothing and spiking are really hard for poorer households, and they call for different solutions.” So for the duration of the experiment, some families will get a check every couple of weeks (smoothing), and another group will get a larger disbursement of funds less frequently, which Prof. Morduch and his collaborators hope will allow them to support important purchases.

Morduch points out that even though the U.S. has the Earned Income Tax Credit (a de facto lump sum payment in the form of a tax refund) and programs -- like SNAP -- to support food purchases for low-income families (a smoothing mechanism), “we never really step back and think about them as financial mechanisms, and that’s what the Compton project is all about.”

Indeed, thinking about stability’s role has been a common theme throughout his planning and executing of projects. “One of the great inequalities in life is that people who have better paying jobs also have more stable jobs. People who earn the least have the least protection and stability.”
<blockquote class="pullquote--right">"People who have better paying jobs also have more stable jobs. People who earn the least have the least protection and stability.”</blockquote>
With that instability and seasonality of employment for the poor, there needs to be more frequent measurements to understand poverty, be them quarterly, or monthly, as opposed to yearly. And the kind of instabilities we saw in "Portfolios of the Poor" are also faced by American workers as the power of labor (i.e., declining unions, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monopsony.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">monosponies</a>) falls away, Morduch points out. The Compton project could help inform ways to better collect data frequently.
<h2>A New Primer on Financial Inclusion</h2>
As if that weren’t enough to keep them busy, a new book is also in the works. "Financial Inclusion: What Everyone Needs to Know," by Prof. Morduch and Ogden, will be an explainer organized in Q &amp; A form, a chance for the pair to “pull together ideas and evidence that we talk about all the time, but that may be new to readers.” Prof. Morduch pointed out that while organizations like CFI implicitly explain topics by offering solutions, a book that explains the problems for a broader audience will help advance financial inclusion objectives even more. The book is slated for fall 2021 release.
<h2>CFI’s Strategic Shift</h2>
In some ways, Prof. Morduch’s strategizing and planning is similar to that undertaken by CFI, for whom he has advised for many years. And the excitement is shared.

“CFI’s strategic priorities show an organization that’s truly looking forward, while also looking back. CFI is not losing sight of unfinished agendas in women’s financial inclusion and consumer protection while looking forward to challenges like climate risk, where there doesn’t yet exist a well-formulated agenda.”
<blockquote>"CFI is not losing sight of unfinished agendas in women’s financial inclusion and consumer protection while looking forward to challenges like climate risk, where there doesn’t yet exist a well-formulated agenda.”</blockquote>
For the latter topic, Morduch urges CFI to make it clear why climate risk is important for people concerned with financial inclusion. “If everyone worried about finance also understands why they should get excited about climate risk, then they will follow CFI, and they will push CFI to push harder, and I am excited about that possibility.”
<h2>Wanted: Closer Public Sector Involvement</h2>
Whether it’s CFI, FAI or other organizations advocating for inclusive finance, Morduch believes that public sector interventions need more prominence.

“The microfinance ethos, in some sense, got us off on the wrong foot. It seemed very anti-government in the beginning -- a private sector intervention. Politically, that was aligned with the moment, but it cut off important conversations. Instead of minimizing connections to public action, financial inclusion should be coming alongside steps by governments to support citizens. That’s one of the great omissions of the financial inclusion conversation: it has been too optimistic about the power of finance alone to address inequality.”

We at CFI agree that the conversation must go beyond private sector interventions: “How are public policy, social safety nets, systemic discrimination or other underlying issues influencing people’s financial health circumstances?” Mayada El-Zoghbi, CFI Managing Director, <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/covid-19-reveals-the-limits-of-individual-action-and-market-based-solutions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">asked</a> readers of this blog last June.

And we’re looking forward to learning and comparing what we’ve discovered.

Prof. Jonathan Morduch’s Four New Projects

Interviews with CFI Advisory Council members.

Eda Dokle

Edi Bardhollari

Rima Patel

Shradha Modi

Garrett Jaso

Ezra Mannix

North America

United States

Bangladesh

Colombia

Ethiopia

Fiji

India

Kenya

Latin America and The Caribbean

Nigeria

Pakistan

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Uganda

Alternative Data

Enabling Environment

Financial Inclusion Strategy

Fintech

Fintechs

Digital Financial Services

Underserved Groups

Women

Challenges and Crises

Financial Capability

Financial Health

Personal Financial Management

Policy, Regulation and Government Initiatives

Resilience

Digital Payments

Refugees and Migrants

Remittances

Savings

Small Business Owners

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