The increasing prominence of financial inclusion as a tool for development and growth has spawned extensive data-gathering initiatives to measure, understand and improve it. The result is a variety of new measurement frameworks that leverage this data.
Early indications suggest that financial inclusion targets (such as the percentage of adults with a bank account) remain valid, but they don’t tell you much when tracked in isolation. Are people actually using their financial services, can serve as a useful measurement of consumer status or outcomes, and, more importantly, what is the impact on livelihoods?
See how we are working to change the way financial inclusion is viewed and the data used to measure it.
Whereas financial inclusion has seen a steady increase over the past few years, this positive trend has not necessarily taken women along. A gender gap in financial access and usage persists, and has not decreased over the years. Our efforts at understanding and closing the gender gap are hampered by
A better way to measure financial inclusion – see why we believe financial needs and usage matter. insight2impact (i2ifacility) was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The programme was established and driven by Cenfri and Finmark Trust.
Jonathan Zinman explains why he thinks further research is required in order better understand the drivers of decision-making and the ways in which technology can be used to test behaviourally inspired innovations. According to available research, which factors have proved to be the most powerful influencers of financial decision-making? This is
Joseph, a smallholder sugarcane farmer in Swaziland, stopped contributing to his funeral insurance cover – preferring to rely on his neighbours in the event a death in the family occurred. Questioned about this, it became clear that his decision boiled down to trust; “I just don’t trust the insurance business,”
Prof. Hal Hershfield shares some insights on how trade-offs between the present and a future state affect the financial decisions that people make. i2i has a specific interest in financial decision-making. What are the links between behavioural science and individual behaviour when it comes to the take-up and usage of financial services?
Why is it that 80 percent of bank account holders in Madagascar only use their accounts once a month or less? What makes the parents of a child requiring unforeseen medical treatment in the DRC choose to approach their mutualitée (a local form of informal mutual aid society) for a
In 2014, the Bank of Ghana (BOG) granted permission for reduced KYC requirements for a new Fidelity Bank product that targeted consumers at the bottom of the pyramid. The product, Smart Account, required only one form of national identity and no additional document to open the account, and so became
During my tenure at South Africa’s National Treasury, the discussions around financial inclusion often focused on seemingly straightforward questions: What is the state of financial inclusion in the country? What are the most critical areas requiring policy interventions? What targets are appropriate for what we want to achieve? How will
(Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series.) “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us” – Marshall McLuhan In 2010, the leaders of the G20 launched the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) at the G20 Summit in Seoul. It was a watershed moment for financial inclusion, which
You manage what you measure and thus it is important to have a measurement framework that drives the right behaviour. Financial inclusion has strong established measurement frameworks dealing with access to and usage of financial services. (e.g. AFI’s access and usage indicators, FinDex’s formal account ownership indicator and FinScope’s access
Whereas financial inclusion has seen a steady increase over the past few years, this positive trend has not necessarily taken women along. A gender gap in financial access and usage persists, and has not decreased over the years. Our efforts at understanding and closing the gender gap are hampered by
A better way to measure financial inclusion – see why we believe financial needs and usage matter. insight2impact (i2ifacility) was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The programme was established and driven by Cenfri and Finmark Trust.
Jonathan Zinman explains why he thinks further research is required in order better understand the drivers of decision-making and the ways in which technology can be used to test behaviourally inspired innovations. According to available research, which factors have proved to be the most powerful influencers of financial decision-making? This is
Joseph, a smallholder sugarcane farmer in Swaziland, stopped contributing to his funeral insurance cover – preferring to rely on his neighbours in the event a death in the family occurred. Questioned about this, it became clear that his decision boiled down to trust; “I just don’t trust the insurance business,”
Prof. Hal Hershfield shares some insights on how trade-offs between the present and a future state affect the financial decisions that people make. i2i has a specific interest in financial decision-making. What are the links between behavioural science and individual behaviour when it comes to the take-up and usage of financial services?
Why is it that 80 percent of bank account holders in Madagascar only use their accounts once a month or less? What makes the parents of a child requiring unforeseen medical treatment in the DRC choose to approach their mutualitée (a local form of informal mutual aid society) for a
In 2014, the Bank of Ghana (BOG) granted permission for reduced KYC requirements for a new Fidelity Bank product that targeted consumers at the bottom of the pyramid. The product, Smart Account, required only one form of national identity and no additional document to open the account, and so became
During my tenure at South Africa’s National Treasury, the discussions around financial inclusion often focused on seemingly straightforward questions: What is the state of financial inclusion in the country? What are the most critical areas requiring policy interventions? What targets are appropriate for what we want to achieve? How will
(Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series.) “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us” – Marshall McLuhan In 2010, the leaders of the G20 launched the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) at the G20 Summit in Seoul. It was a watershed moment for financial inclusion, which
You manage what you measure and thus it is important to have a measurement framework that drives the right behaviour. Financial inclusion has strong established measurement frameworks dealing with access to and usage of financial services. (e.g. AFI’s access and usage indicators, FinDex’s formal account ownership indicator and FinScope’s access
