Author: Rani Deshpande Studies show that if a woman is not financially included by age 24, her chances of entering the financial system later in life plummet. In this study on financial inclusion among women in Uganda, Ghana, and Tanzania, Rani Deshpande addresses critical questions on pathway prediction and strategic support, sheds light on understanding needs in various countries and communities down to access to technology and service adoption, and explores potential financial usage pathways with an eye on which factors really need our attention on the path towards financial inclusion. This blog is part of the Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance (LAIF) 2026 (formerly the European Microfinance Award), on the topic of ‘Unlocking Youth-Inclusive Finance’. Claire, Mercy, and Saida* are all in their mid-twenties and live in Uganda. Claire uses a range of formal and informal financial services; Mercy uses only mobile money, while Saida uses only a cash box. Three young women using three very different sets of financial tools—and yet just a few years earlier, all of them were unserved by the financial system. Why did these three young women end up in such different places in terms of financial inclusion, when they all started out totally financially unserved not so long ago? Now or Never This question is critical because Findex analysis across low-income countries shows that if a woman is not financially included by age 24, the chances of becoming so later in life drop dramatically. Of course, financial inclusion is not actually binary: Research in Uganda, as well as Ghana and Tanzania, shows young women fall into distinct segments when it comes to financial services use: Those who use a range of both formal and informal tools (Formal & Informal Users, who represent 33% of all young women aged 16-24); Those who use only formal services in their own names (Formal-only Account Holders, 28%); Those who use formal services through someone else (Formal-only Users, 20%); Those using financial tools that are Informal Only (5%); and The Unserved, who use no structured money management mechanisms (14%). What is striking is how consistently this diversity presents across countries. In Uganda, deeper financial inclusion tended to correlate not only to age but also to urbanity, mobile phone usage, and educational (especially secondary) attainment. In Ghana and Tanzania, financial inclusion is also generally associated with age and urbanity, as well as with economic status, with those earning their own income more likely to be financially included. Mobile phone ownership has also been a key factor in Uganda and Tanzania, though it was less of a differentiator in Ghana. All three countries register adult mobile phone ownership rates of between 75-80%, though per capita income varies widely between Ghana (at just over USD 9,000 PPP) and Tanzania and Uganda (both at USD 4,000-5,000 (PPP)). How to Know Who Needs the Support Young women’s financial inclusion is thus highly correlated with characteristics like mobile phone ownership and education. These characteristics present over time, however, making them of little predictive value on an individual level. Is there a way to predict which financial inclusion path an individual young woman is likely to take before she starts down that path? And therefore, is it possible to put in place strategic support to maximise the number of young women who can benefit from financial services? Qualitative research commissioned by FSD Uganda and conducted by Gmaurich Insights suggests there might well be. Through in-depth interviews, researchers observed three distinct sub-segments within the Unserved segment of young women, each facing very different constraints when it comes to financial inclusion: The “Resource-stable” (RS), who generally come from more affluent, educated families with banked parents. Such young women might not be allowed to have a phone during adolescence, but would usually be supported to acquire not only a phone but a mobile money and/or bank account when they’re older. Their exclusion is therefore likely to be a temporary function of age. The “Supported Middle” (SM), who have often had to make more personal financial contributions in order to acquire a phone, which would then allow them to access mobile money. Like the RS group, their exclusion is therefore also a function of age but also related to access to the foundational enablers (i.e. a phone and line), which are within reach but not at all guaranteed. The “Struggling and Isolated” (S&I), many of whom have trouble meeting basic needs and therefore consider financial inclusion or even phone ownership more distant concerns. Their exclusion is less age-based and more driven by access to social and financial resources, which may not simply increase over time. In the terms of the Uganda segmentation, it is therefore easy to imagine the RS group progressing to the most financially included segments, the S&I segment remaining Unserved, and the SM accessing some kinds of financial services but not others, depending on the barriers to entry (e.g. need for a phone, an independent line, a national ID, or even sufficient social capital in the case of informal groups). But this progression is not inevitable. With the right supports, all three sub-segments of Unserved young women can be set on a path to deeper, more impactful financial inclusion. As each has different levels of need and readiness for financial inclusion, the different supports must be provided to the right sub-segments in the right sequence. Some of these actions fall squarely within the purview of financial service providers, but governments and development partners may be best placed to sponsor, or at least collaborate on, others. The Right Supports in the Right Order The S&I sub-segment will need the most intensive support, beginning with psychosocial and income-generation assistance to establish the conditions under which financial inclusion can be most impactful. These efforts often involve participation in informal savings and lending groups. By contrast, the SM sub-segment evinces a clear desire and readiness to enter the financial system but often requires assistance to acquire the foundational enablers. Such young women could be good candidates for layaway or save-to-borrow plans for phone purchases, and appropriate targets for programs that help with the administrative steps required to obtain an ID. The S&I may also benefit from such initiatives, but after basic needs have been met, so that support is provided in a sequenced, “laddered” way. The next rung in the ladder is financial and business education, from which all sub-segments can benefit provided the content and delivery are tailored. For example, young women with less guidance from family and friends may need basic information about financial services, while others, e.g. in the RS sub-segment, might be ready to compare products, and those already earning an income may be specifically interested in how money management tools can be used in business. Finally, even young women who are ready will not enter the formal financial system without products that actually serve their felt needs. While much attention is focused on productive credit, research across all three countries indicates that better savings and insurance products might be as or more important. In the next blog, we’ll discuss why non-credit products may be the real key to closing the financial inclusion gender gap where it begins: in young adulthood. *Not their real names Rani Deshpande is an independent consultant with over twenty years of experience in financial inclusion and youth economic strengthening. Her recent research has focused on how financial inclusion can be leveraged to promote young women’s well-being, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Her background includes management and technical roles at a range of large international organisations, as well as research and consulting work for financial inclusion funders, practitioner organisations, and think tanks.

This blog, originally published by MSC, builds on several years of work by the e-MFP WASH Action Group to strengthen impact measurement in WASH finance. Led by e-MFP and Aqua for All, the Action Group has worked with MSC since 2024 to test, refine and operationalise a harmonised WASH Impact Indicator Framework, including through pilots with financial service providers in Asia and Africa. In the blog, MSC’s Rasika Chopra, Mansi Sharma and Sanika Sayali Talekar consider this work through the lens of a wider challenge for the sector: how to unlock private capital for WASH at scale. They argue that fragmented reporting, inconsistent indicators and limited evidence on investment performance and outcomes continue to constrain investor confidence. Drawing on the Action Group’s work, they set out how a common, practical approach to impact measurement can reduce reporting burdens, improve comparability and provide investors with better evidence on where capital goes, how it performs and the outcomes it delivers. We’re pleased to be able to re-publish this excellent piece, and for the important partnership we continue to have with MSC. Access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) remains one of the world's most persistent development challenges. According to the WHO–UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (2025), 2.1 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water, 3.4 billion lack basic sanitation, and 1.7 billion lack basic hygiene. Closing these gaps by 2030 will require nearly tripling current investment, an additional USD 100 billion annually that public budgets cannot provide. The shortfall is structural. Developing countries spend nearly USD 165 billion annually on water infrastructure. Of this, public finance accounts for 91%, private investment for less than 2%, and the remainder comes from tariffs, taxes, and transfers, including Official Development Assistance. Scaling up public expenditure is constrained by fiscal priorities, high debt, and the long payback cycles of WASH. Even within climate finance, WASH lags behind. Of the USD 1.9 trillion tracked in 2023, only USD 49 billion went to water and wastewater management. Mobilising private capital is therefore a necessity, not a convenience. The sector stands at an inflection point. Impact investment in WASH grew 33% between 2015 and 2019, the fastest-growing sector tracked by the Global Impact Investing Network, and Development Finance Institutions such as International Finance Corporation (IFC), FMO, and DEG are co-investing with private partners across Asia and Africa. Yet capital flows remain modest. The constraint is not in appetite but in the evidence generated. The Evidence Gap: How Fragmented Reporting is Holding WASH Investments Back Credible impact measurement is essential for private capital to scale in WASH. Investors and development finance institutions rely on standardised metrics to assess portfolio performance, compare investments, and demonstrate results to their stakeholders. The absence of a harmonised measurement framework means financial service providers (FSPs) face fragmented reporting requirements, leading to duplicated effort, reporting fatigue, and limited comparability across portfolios and geographies. While WASH benefits from well-established frameworks for service access and public expenditure, these were not designed to meet investor needs or assess investment performance. A review of existing monitoring tools identified four critical gaps that continue to constrain private capital mobilisation in the WASH sector: Track service-level and policy indicators, but capture limited data on private finance flows and loan performance to be useful for capital allocation decisions Require FSPs to track and report on indicators that sit outside their existing MIS systems, creating a reporting burden Measure outputs at the institutional or portfolio level but lack the granularity to attribute health, income, or service outcomes to individual clients or loans Leave each investor or framework to define their own indicators and methodology, leaving no common measurement language for comparing investments across portfolios and sectors. Other sectors show what becomes possible when this is resolved. The Green Bond Principles helped grow the green finance market from under USD 1 billion in 2012 to over USD 500 billion annually within a decade, and harmonised reporting did the same for microfinance. WASH needs the same foundation – a common measurement language that gives investors confidence to commit capital at the scale the sector requires. Closing the Evidence Gap: The e-MFP WASH Action Group Impact Indicator Framework The e-MFP WASH Action Group impact indicator framework was developed to address the gaps identified above. It is practical, grounded in global standards, and built for institutions in resource-constrained environments, with three goals: Reducing reporting burdens on FSPs Improving data comparability across portfolios Strengthening the link between finance deployed and outcomes generated Grounded in internationally recognised standards, including the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program, the UNICEF Global Framework for Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, and WHO guidance on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, the framework provides a consistent basis for measuring WASH investments across geographies. The framework comprises eleven core indicators across four dimensions: financial, social, climate, and service levels. Financial metrics show how capital performed, while the remaining three reveal what that capital has changed on the ground. Together, they build the holistic evidence base that responsible investors need. Each indicator is supported by sub-indicators, enabling disaggregation by borrower segment, enterprise size, gender, geography, WASH subsector, loan characteristics, climate contribution, and service levels. This level of granularity allows financial institutions to understand not only how much capital has been deployed, but also who it reaches, how it performs, and the outcomes it generates. From Design to Reality: Pilot Testing and Operationalisation The framework was developed in three phases. In Phase 1 (2022–2023), e-MFP and Aqua for All commissioned the financial advisory firm Rebel to develop the WASH Handbook and a draft indicator framework, establishing the conceptual foundation for standardised WASH impact measurement. In Phase 2 (2024), MSC evaluated the draft framework with asset managers, financial institutions, and WASH SMEs to assess its practicality and alignment with existing measurement practices. Phase 3 focused on refining and operationalising the framework based on these findings. The framework was piloted with financial service providers (FSPs) across Asia and Africa and with data platforms to assess whether it could be embedded within existing institutional systems without creating an unsustainable reporting burden. The process involved mapping existing institutional data, reviewing MIS systems, and assessing data granularity to identify reporting capacity and gaps in WASH-related information. Rather than creating parallel reporting structures, the pilot integrated missing data fields into existing MIS wherever feasible. Where FSPs lacked WASH or climate classifications, it explored tagging mechanisms and targeted system modifications that could be incorporated into routine reporting. Figure 1: Classification of indicators by reporting effort and data collection method The pilot also refined the original 16-indicator framework to 11 core indicators by retaining, redefining, merging, and dropping indicators based on operational feasibility and analytical relevance. To facilitate implementation, the framework is translated into a suite of practical tools, including an operational manual with standardised indicator definitions and reporting guidance, standardised MIS reporting templates for capturing portfolio and financial indicators consistently across institutions, and structured survey instruments with digital data collection tools for outcome indicators that are not captured through MIS. Indicators are classified as MIS-based or survey-based and further categorised by reporting effort as low (MIS-derived), moderate (survey-based), and high (requiring retrospective classification), enabling phased adoption based on institutional readiness. Together, these tools support integrating the framework into existing reporting systems while promoting consistent, comparable, and practical reporting of WASH outcomes across institutions. Figure 2: Phases in the development of the WASH AG framework The Road Ahead: From Framework to Ecosystem Adoption The e-MFP WASH Action Group has built data architecture, tools, and guidance to make WASH impact measurement credible, comparable, and decision-useful. The pilot reinforced the critical lesson that impact measurement delivers value only when built into investment decision-making, not treated as a compliance afterthought. Figure 3: Scaling adoption of the framework The next step is ecosystem-wide adoption, with investors, financial service providers (FSPs), asset managers, and data platforms converging on a common reporting approach. Implementation should follow a phased pathway, integrating indicators into existing MIS while progressively expanding to survey-based outcome measurement. Establishing baseline values for social, climate, and service-level indicators will enable meaningful impact assessment over time. Periodic evaluations and framework reviews can further strengthen comparability, improve investment decisions, and mobilise greater private capital for the WASH sector. With the framework now ready, what lies ahead is ecosystem-wide adoption, bringing investors, FSPs, and other stakeholders together around a common approach, and refining it continuously as field experience accumulates. The investment community holds the most leverage here, and with it, the responsibility to lead. Converging on shared impact metrics is a collective action that can reduce fragmentation, strengthen the sector’s evidence base, and unlock private capital at the scale required by the global water and sanitation crisis. The framework is ready, and so is the opportunity for the sector to move together and put it to work.

2025 was a big year for e-MFP. It was the year we transitioned from European Microfinance Week to Inclusive Finance 25 (IF25), reflecting our broadening scope and commitment to remaining relevant. At IF25, we welcomed 760 participants from 69 countries both on and offline over three days. The impact didn't end there: following the conference we curated and published a wide range of post-event materials to ensure continued access to the knowledge generated, and to support ongoing learning and dialogue within the community. It was also the year in which we truly strengthened our support for peer-to-peer exchanges through Action Group Collaboration and partnerships. Throughout 2025, members of our Action Groups for Gender Lens Investing, Green Finance and WASH contributed their expertise and experience, resulting in more informed publications, events, and dialogue. Our media and communications reach stepped up with widespread media coverage, regular newsletters, blog series and almost 50 articles and news posts, all of which demonstrate our commitment to keeping our audience and the greater public informed. And still there was plenty more: Another inspiring European Microfinance Award, this time focused on Building Resilience through Inclusive Insurance. We also welcomed new institutional and individual members, and we reinforced our role as a knowledge hub, convenor and collaborative platform for inclusive finance. We've very glad to have had you with us as a partner or supporter, and we can't wait to see what we accomplish together this year! We invite you to review our e-MFP Activity Report 2025,where you'll find details of all of the above and more.

Author: Danielle Hopkins On March 16th, e-MFP was pleased to open applications for the Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance (LAIF) 2026 (formerly the European Microfinance Award), on the topic of ‘Unlocking Youth-Inclusive Finance’. This 17th edition of the Award, launched in 2005 by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs — Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, is jointly organised by the Ministry, e-MFP, and the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg (InFiNe.lu), in cooperation with the European Investment Bank. The first prize is EUR100,000, with EUR10,000 – and lots of positive exposure – to the runners-up. Next in e-MFP’s series of guest blogs on this topic, Danielle Hopkins from Inclusive Finance Consulting presents seven lessons she’s learned through experience with youth financial inclusion programmes across the world. Youth in developing countries face many challenges related to employment and entrepreneurship including market opportunities, access to capital to promote business growth, access to affordable savings and insurance products to build resilience, business skills, ability to save and plan for their future and financial and digital financial literacy. In this blog, I’m going to focus on business skills and financial and digital financial literacy. There is a clear pathway from financial literacy to financial behaviours and outcomes among youth that can provide a smooth transition to adulthood. Indeed, a PISA Survey conducted by OECD in 2022 found that students who have higher financial literacy are more likely to save money and compare prices before making a purchase. Financial education helps youth to understand financial and digital financial products, know their rights and responsibilities, and practice behaviors that increase their successful usage of these products. An entrepreneurship programme helps youth to launch and grow a small business, ultimately increasing their overall use of financial and digital financial services. Here’s what I’ve learned about what works in developing and implementing these types of programmes for youth: Use What You Have When it Matters Most Leverage existing infrastructure such as training or loan staff, mobile agents, training space and technology and touchpoints for youth such as extracurricular activities or civic classes at school, groups or clubs, weekly meetings with loan officers and common meeting places for youth like community centres or markets. This should be done during teachable moments such as when youth earn income from their first job, open their first savings account, start a business, take out their first loan, make their first loan payment, purchase their first home or start a family. School-based models are effective for achieving scale and depth and take less time to implement at a national scale if they are integrated into an existing subject. UNCDF is working with the Ministry of Education in Vanuatu to integrate digital financial literacy as a strand in the existing national Enterprise Education curriculum for grades 7 to 10. This includes topics on the digital economy, hardware and software, digital financial services and digital protection. Keep it Simple Use simple, bite-size messages that are standardised across short sessions, minimal materials, and simple training techniques for in-person training or education. For digital training or platforms, gamification (which presents a series of smaller tasks with rewards or promotions to the next level) promotes a greater sense of accomplishment and progress toward achieving a larger goal. Heuristics and rules-of-thumb make it easy for young people to remember and translate the new knowledge into behaviours. Financial terms, language and information should also be simplified to promote better understanding among youth. Several international Youth NGOs such as Aflatoun International, Plan International, Opportunity International, Making Cents International, Save the Children, Junior Achievement and BRAC International employ these techniques in their training programmes for youth. This includes simple rules and heuristics such as ‘spend, save, share’ buckets, ‘save a little regularly’ rule, ‘earn, save, spend’, labelling accounts for money, spend less than you earn and school-based nudges. Leverage Technology Use technology such as digital platforms, apps and social media to reach many young people. This can be done through partnerships with business incubators/accelerators which have existing online platforms and networks of youth entrepreneurs and mentors, or through partnerships with Fintechs. All share common features such as practical application, social/peer engagement, income or financial product linkages and mobile-first design. NGO-led models are also very effective. Strive Women, a four-year programme led by CARE and supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth strengthens the financial health of women-led small businesses in Pakistan (V-CARE), Peru (Maxima and EmpreSara), and Vietnam (SoBanHang), through digital apps and platforms with free courses in financial literacy and financial management, an AI assistant for business support, financial tools and video tutorials. User data revealed that women often complete training early in the morning or late at night due to their busy schedules, indicating the value of flexible channels. INJAZ Al-Arab, a regional NGO in the MENA region part of the Junior Achievement network, offers online entrepreneurship training modules and financial literacy and work readiness courses for youth. One of the more successful recent models integrates embedded finance with education. Fintech Zazu in Zambia offers a prepaid debit card linked to a digital wallet and gamified financial education lessons on saving, budgeting and financial planning for students, early earners and informal workers. Branch International targets youth and gig workers in Kenya, Nigeria and India, and provides digital loans along with credit score progression and nudges to repay on time to increase loan size. BIMA provides microinsurance bundled with mobile services for youth segments across Africa and Asia combined with SMS/voice messages that explain insurance benefits and remind youth about claim processes. Include Their Support System and Influencers Key influencers for youth are found in the home (parents, spouse, in-laws, other family members, caregivers), school (teachers, other students or peers), community (shopkeepers, community leaders, church leaders) and work (employers, employees, other youth entrepreneurs, mentors). The type of influencer shifts as youth go through different life-stages. When they are younger (10-14), parents serve as a central form of influence through modelling financial behaviour such as paying their bills on time, parent-child financial discussion and experiential life learning of finances. The 2022 PISA study found that students who discuss their saving or purchasing decisions with their parents are much more financially literate. As they age (15+), youth influencers shift to include peers, employers, spouses, and in-laws. As they age (15+), youth influencers shift to include peers, employers, spouses, and in-laws. The peer educator model promotes motivation, trust and participation among youth, particularly if they are a little older and with more experience and can be scalable and cost effective. CGAP’s recent research revealed that many young women who had accessed financial services by age 24 had received financial mentoring from their family and social networks. Mentoring should be consistent, leverage existing networks, use local champions, consider gender and include a monitoring component. Today adolescents (15-18) and young adults (19-25) are turning to ‘Finfluencers’ on social media as financial advisors for guidance on investing decisions, spending, income generation and risk-taking which raises some concerns regarding the credibility of these sources. Take a Multi-Channel Approach Use various channels that raise awareness, provide direct training, present opportunities for youth to practise what they’ve learned and reinforce the learning. High-touch, in-person channels are effective in terms of depth and building networks but are more expensive while low-touch, digital channels can achieve scale and can be less expensive but lack the depth in terms of learning. Using a mix of both low touch and high touch channels can achieve both depth and breadth. Junior Achievement follows this approach by raising awareness through school outreach and business competitions, providing direct training on entrepreneurship through schools, providing opportunities for students to create and run real businesses and then reinforcing the learning through mentorship from local business leaders. While expensive, high-touch, in-person channels are effective in terms of depth and building networks, less expensive low-touch, digital channels can achieve scale but lack depth in terms of learning. Know Your Audience Adapt the content and delivery channels to the local context and needs of the target segment. A segmentation strategy based on life stage, gender, socio-economic status, geographic location, type of employment or business stage is key for programme development but can also be adopted for product and partnership development. Personas are a useful tool for any type of segmentation strategy. For early adolescents (10 to 14) basic financial literacy concepts such as the value of money, earning, saving and spending in the form of short, targeted sessions that include spending prioritisation games, role plays and other interactive activities may be more appropriate. For older adolescents (15-18) and young adults (19-25) with growing experience and dependence on money more complex topics may be more appropriate such as financial planning, budgeting, use of financial and digital financial services, consumer protection and soft skills such as planning, negotiation, problem-solving and decision-making through small group discussion, case studies and simulations. Youth entrepreneurs in the launch phase may need training on developing a basic business plan and basic financial literacy while those in the operations phase may need business management, financial management, technology management, in addition to interpersonal or personal initiative skills. Youth entrepreneurs in the growth phase may need capacity building for more advanced business management skills such as risk management and investments. Teenagers in the Dominican Republic creating a persona. Partnerships are Key Business Development Services (BDS) providers and Youth-Serving Organisations (YSOs) can partner with financial institutions to scale up these programmes. They can also partner with industry associations to develop employer-funded apprenticeship programmes. It is important that the mission and incentives are aligned along with the socioeconomic characteristics of the target group and geographic coverage. For example, Ecobank Ghana initially partnered with OZE, a FinTech in Ghana and UNCDF to develop a mobile business app (OZE) for MSMEs to track sales, expenses and customer information. It has now become a fully embedded finance platform providing MSMEs with access to loans across a range of providers, bookkeeping dashboards, downloadable financial reports and an e-commerce storefront. OZE has since expanded to Nigeria, Rwanda, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. These lessons can be adopted by policymakers, donors, financial institutions, telcos and practitioners alike. The 2026 Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance offers a chance for stakeholders serving the youth population to showcase some of these key global lessons. About the Author: Danielle Hopkins is the Founder of Inclusive Finance Consulting (IF Consulting). She is a financial inclusion and financial health leader with 20+ years of experience advising governments, regulators, and international organisations on policy, programme and product design, implementation to advance inclusive, resilient financial systems. She has designed and implemented best practices and evidence-based recommendations for developing more youth-inclusive programmes and policies with Aflatoun International, Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Center for Financial Inclusion, ChildFund International, CGAP, FHI 360, IDB, IREX, Making Cents International, Microfinance Opportunities, Save the Children, SEEP, UNCDF and Women’s World Banking.

Author: Katrin Fakiri. In 2022, the European Microfinance Award was on Financial Inclusion that Works for Women. As part of e-MFP’s priority to continue focus on Award topics beyond a particular year, and to welcome contributions from members, the following guest blog is by Katrin Fakiri, a recent e-MFP member, on what financial institutions can expect of Boards – and vice versa – when it comes to leading on financial inclusion for women. Hundreds of studies confirm what we already know: financial inclusion for women drives better outcomes for institutions, clients, and communities. Women who control financial resources reinvest up to 90% back into their families and communities. Institutions that serve women borrowers consistently report lower default rates. Closing the gender gap in financial services represents one of the largest untapped market opportunities in global banking. Yet despite this evidence, progress remains painfully slow. Products get designed. Campaigns get launched. Impact reports get written. And still, the needle barely moves. From personal experience, strong governance along with product design, determines whether women’s financial inclusion efforts deliver lasting impact. It's not enough to design products for women or run inclusion campaigns. Without board-level oversight, without directors asking the right questions and receiving the right data, these efforts risk becoming performative. If financial inclusion for women is truly a top priority, it must be tracked, measured, and governed accordingly. The Governance Gap Nobody Talks About Ask the leadership team in any financial institution about their commitment to women's financial inclusion. You'll get enthusiastic answers. Ask to see the board dashboard, which board committee has oversight, or what metrics were reviewed at the last board meeting, and you are not likely to get clear answers. This is the governance gap. Structural failure to embed inclusion into the institution's accountability architecture, not a lack of will, is where most institutions fail. A board that cannot measure women's financial inclusion cannot manage it. And a board that cannot manage it cannot lead it. Boards set the tone for what gets taken seriously. When directors ask about inclusion metrics, management responds. When inclusion appears on board agendas alongside capital ratios and risk frameworks, it acquires institutional weight. When it doesn't, even the most passionate CEO is swimming upstream. What Boards Must Understand First Before boards can govern women's financial inclusion effectively, directors need a foundational understanding of what inclusion means in practice. Women's financial exclusion is simultaneously a business risk and a missed opportunity. Regulatory environments globally are increasingly focused on fair access and equitable outcomes. Institutions that fail to demonstrate genuine progress face reputational, regulatory, and competitive exposure. Directors should be able to answer seven baseline questions: What percentage of our loan portfolio, savings accounts, and insurance products are held by women? What is the approval rate disparity between male and female applicants, and how has it changed over three years? Are our product terms, collateral requirements, and digital access channels genuinely accessible to women in the markets we serve? What barriers do women customers most commonly report, and what concrete actions have we taken in the last 12 months to address them? What does our customer complaint data tell us about the experience of women customers specifically? Are our financial literacy or client engagement programs reaching women, and how do we know? Where is our business case for women's inclusion, and what investment decisions has it actually changed? If your board cannot answer these questions, you have identified the scale and scope of your task ahead. From that, here are six specific actions that boards can take to truly lead on women’s financial inclusion: Assign Clear Oversight Responsibility Designate a specific board committee, whether the risk, audit, or a dedicated ESG or strategy committee with explicit responsibility for women's financial inclusion. Ensure the committee's terms of reference include oversight of gender-disaggregated data and progress against inclusion targets. Without a named committee and a named director champion, accountability is diffused. Require Gender-Disaggregated Data as a Standard Reporting Item Management will report what boards ask for. If your board has never requested gender-disaggregated data on loan origination, account ownership, digital adoption, and product usage, the board has signaled that it is optional. Instead, make it mandatory. Require that every major management report to the board includes a gender lens. This single step reshapes what data management collects, how products are designed, and where resources are allocated. Set Measurable Targets and Review Them Publicly Vague commitments produce vague results. Boards should approve specific, time-bound targets. For example, increasing the percentage of women loan applicants by 15% over two years, or achieving parity in digital account onboarding rates within 18 months. These targets should be disclosed in annual reports and investor communications. External accountability dramatically increases the likelihood of follow-through. Integrate Inclusion into Executive Compensation Institutions move fastest on the metrics that are tied to pay. Boards that link a portion of executive compensation to measurable progress on women's financial inclusion will see it treated as a strategic priority rather than a compliance exercise. This is not a radical idea. Many leading institutions already tie executive pay to climate metrics, customer satisfaction, and employee diversity. Women's inclusion belongs in that same category. Commission an Independent Inclusion Audit Boards should periodically commission an independent review of the institution's products, processes, and practices through a gender lens. This means examining credit scoring models for gender bias, assessing whether digital channels work for women with limited connectivity or shared devices, reviewing collateral requirements that may systematically disadvantage women, and evaluating branch and agent network accessibility for women in rural or conservative communities. The results of this audit should come directly to the board, not be filtered through management. Build Board Competency on Financial Inclusion Directors cannot govern what they do not understand. Boards should invest in education sessions on gender and financial inclusion by bringing in external experts, hearing directly from women customers, and engaging with research on what works. Board composition itself matters. institutions with women directors and directors with lived experience of financial exclusion ask better questions and make better decisions. Board recruitment should treat inclusion expertise as a valued competency, not an afterthought. From Compliance to Competitive Advantage The gap between the institutions that say they care about women's financial inclusion and those that govern it is where the competitive opportunity lies. The institutions that will win in financial services over the next decade are those that identify and serve underserved markets better than their competitors. Women in emerging markets and among lower-income segments represent the largest underserved market in the world. Boards that govern women's financial inclusion with the same seriousness they bring to credit risk and capital adequacy will build institutions that are more resilient, more profitable, and more trusted. They will attract better talent, stronger partnerships, and more loyal customers. The tools exist. The evidence exists. The business case is clear. What has been missing in too many boardrooms is the governance structure to turn intention into impact. Additional Resources: For practical guidance on implementing these principles, the CGAP Advancing Women's Financial Inclusion is an essential tool. For ongoing governance insights in financial inclusion, subscribe to The Boardroom Brief on LinkedIn. About the Author: Katrin Fakiri is a board director, chair, and governance advisor with more than 20 years of experience in inclusive and development finance, MSME, and institutional leadership. She is the founder of Elucidate Board Services, where she supports boards and leadership teams on governance effectiveness, board development, and board performance. Her board experience includes current and past roles with organizations in Afghanistan, including Harakat, Shahy Khazana Microfinance, and Da Afghanistan Bank’s Supreme Council. Katrin brings a combination of boardroom judgment and executive leadership shaped by work across Afghanistan, Tunisia, the United States, and multiple African countries through the CFI African Board Fellowship Program. She holds an MBA from Barcelona Executive Business School and a BA in English Literature from San Jose State University.

Author: Sam Mendelson & Marcela Perez. In 2021, the WASH Action Group - co-led by e-MFP and Aqua for All - set out to address a structural problem in the sector: while WASH finance was expanding, impact measurement was not keeping pace. Across the ecosystem, financial institutions, investors, and enterprises were being asked to report similar outcomes using different indicators, definitions, and formats. This fragmentation made comparison difficult, increased reporting burden, and limited the ability of investors to interpret results across portfolios. At the same time, this constrained learning and weakened the case for scaling investment.  For the past five years, the Action Group has been trying to address a major challenge: the absence of a shared, practical approach to measuring the impact of WASH finance: to support better WASH outcomes by making WASH finance more credible, more comparable, and easier to scale . A harmonised indicator framework is not an end in itself, but a necessary condition for achieving this. Without it, it becomes significantly harder to manage performance, identify trends, allocate capital effectively, or build confidence among decision-makers.     A phased approach   So, what has happened up to now? In 2023-24, an initial set of indicators was developed to capture the financial, social, climate, and service-level dimensions of WASH investments, followed by a feasibility assessment that examined how these indicators aligned with existing practices across asset managers, financial institutions, and SMEs. This earlier research highlighted persistent challenges, including inconsistent reporting requirements, limited data availability, and the operational difficulty of capturing more complex outcomes.   Building on these findings, Phase III - which has just wrapped up - focused on pilot testing the framework with financial service providers (FSPs) in real-world settings, and refining them iteratively based on feasibility and usefulness. Working with participating FSPs, indicators were integrated into operational workflows and tested through a combination of MIS-based reporting and targeted survey tools. The process was iterative: indicators were assessed against criteria such as clarity, feasibility, ease of adoption, data availability, and analytical relevance, and then retained, refined, merged, or dropped accordingly .   This iterative approach was essential. Earlier phases had already shown that some indicators - particularly those related to health outcomes or climate - are inherently more difficult to measure, often requiring primary data collection and additional resources. Others, particularly those integrated into routine MIS collection and reporting systems, are significantly easier to capture.   The result, produced with the invaluable support of Microsave Consulting (MSC) is a validated and field-tested framework, now presented in a new report entitled Unpacking Impact to Unlock Scale: Pilot Testing the WASH Impact Indicator Framework that reflects both the ambition of standardised impact measurement and the practical realities of implementation.  The output of this research has been not only the refined WASH impact indicator framework, but also an operational manual, providing clear definitions, data sources, and reporting guidance on all 11 indicators and 44 sub-indicators, and standardised data collection tools and templates.  The indicator framework and associated tools were launched at a webinar on February 11th , and now the WASH AG must turn attention to the next important objective - adoption and use of these indicators, and development of a harmonised data collection framework for WASH finance.    So what comes next? From framework to real-world adoption  Achieving meaningful scale will require buy-in from investors, asset managers, and other ecosystem actors who shape reporting expectations and capital flows. If widely adopted, a shared approach to WASH impact measurement has the potential to reduce reporting fatigue for investees while improving transparency and comparability for investors. More importantly, it can help shift the framework from a tool used by a small number of institutions to a common language for the sector.   The next phase of work will focus on operationalising data collection and reporting at scale . The Action Group will convene an online roundtable on May 20th of WASH investors and investees to demonstrate data submission processes and explore the value proposition of standardising WASH impact data - particularly through integration with the ATLAS data platform . This will be a chance not just to demonstrate this process using real but anonymised data collected during Phase III, but a chance to hear from these participants about their pain points, capacity and priorities. We are currently having discussions with relevant stakeholders in advance of this meeting, to gather feedback, address practical considerations, and shape how this next phase is implemented.  e-MFP and Aqua for All are proud of what this AG has achieved so far, and are looking forward to taking this from framework to practice. If you would like to discuss the indicators, the round-table, WASH finance generally, or if you wish to support this work (including via funding the AG generally or any specific project in particular), please get in touch with the co-heads Sam ( smendelson@e-mfp.eu ) and Marcela ( m.perez@aquaforall.org ).  Photo credit: Masudar Rahman via pexels About the Authors: Sam Mendelson & Marcela Perez are the co-heads of the WASH Action Group.

Author: Tim Nourse, Making Cents International. On March 16 th , e-MFP was pleased to open applications for the Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance (LAIF) 2026 (formerly the European Microfinance Award), on the topic of ‘Unlocking Youth-Inclusive Finance’. This 17th edition of the Award, launched in 2005 by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, is jointly organised by the Ministry, e-MFP, and the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg (InFiNe.lu), in cooperation with the European Investment Bank. The first prize is EUR100,000, with EUR10,000 – and lots of positive exposure – to the runners-up. Kicking off e-MFP’s annual series of guest blogs on this topic, Tim Nourse, President & CEO of Making Cents International, which is supporting the e-MFP Award team, describes what the inclusive finance community has learned from over fifteen years of initiatives, what gaps remain, and what the evaluation teams are hoping to learn from the Award entries.  When I joined Making Cents International almost fifteen years ago, the coming “youth bulge” was all over the airwaves. Could developing countries achieve the “demographic dividend” of accelerated economic growth by leveraging the potential of their large youth populations? Or would this opportunity be wasted in a demographic “bomb” of instability and further poverty? Access to finance was seen as critical to facilitating the dividend, and with funding from the Mastercard Foundation, CGAP, and USAID, Making Cents and others began initiatives and research to unlock finance for youth. Since then, the inclusive finance community has learned the fundamentals of youth finance and achieved key successes. Nonetheless, gaps remain that continue to inhibit youth access to important financial products and services. The First Steps of Youth-Inclusive Finance Our initial work focused on the basics: what is youth demand for finance, who is meeting these demands, and how are institutions serving young people? From there, activities deepened to explore youth-inclusive finance within larger ‘ecosystem’ approaches, the role of non-financial services in encouraging uptake, and how to leverage technology for greater outreach. Through these collective efforts, we learned five key lessons [1] : Youth demand for financial services changes over time.  Youth is a transitory stage – from child to adult, learner to doer, dependent to contributor – and youth demand for financial services naturally changes accordingly. When they are in school, opportunities to save and experiment with borrowing are necessary; as they begin a business or first job, loans and payment solutions become more important; and as they mature and start a household, longer-term debt and investment products become paramount. To reflect this transition, youth finance must meet youth where they are and evolve with them. There is a business case, but it depends on for whom. Quantitative research has confirmed that financial institutions can serve youth profitably, but the business case is strongest for “near adults” - youth aged 25-35 who are already established and mimic the characteristics of other adults. [2] For younger youth populations, the case is weaker, but it still exists if institutions exploit cross-selling, leverage brand loyalty, and factor in the lifetime value of customers. Understanding each institution’s specific situation and business case is thus a necessary first step to determine which segment they can serve, and how. Successful products are designed for specific youth . While we talk about “youth” as a homogeneous group, their demand profiles differ depending on whether they are urban, rural, male, female, on the move, or have started a family. Designing tailored products for these specific sub-segments of youth is critical to successful delivery and uptake by young people. Youth develop in a system; products should be considered in them as well. Positive Youth Development frameworks have shown that youth develop best when engaged directly and in a supportive environment of parents/families, mentors, and community members. Market system approaches recognise that successful service delivery is dependent on identifying and addressing challenges at the enabling environment, supply, and demand levels. Successful youth finance initiatives take both frameworks into account as part of their design and delivery process to ensure they meet the needs of youth and the market in a holistic manner. Non-financial services are critical. Throughout this period, youth are developing financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Responsible institutions recognise that providing (or partnering to deliver) non-financial services to build knowledge, support healthy attitudes, and encourage positive financial behaviours is important from both a consumer protection and product success perspective. Milestones Achieved These lessons have moved the needle on youth finance. According to the World Bank’s Findex, since 2011, account ownership among youth worldwide has increased significantly, from 37% to 69%. While this remains lower than that of adults, the gap in access between them has decreased from 19% to 12%. In lower middle-income countries (LMIC), the gap is even lower - only 8%. This difference in ownership is largely driven by formal financial institutions, as mobile money accounts are generally used by the same proportion of youth and adults. Formal savings rates have also gone up significantly, more than doubling from 8.5% to 19% among youth in LMICs. The gap between youth and adults saving formally has also shrunk, from 4.5% to 1.5%. On the flip side, the area with the least progress for youth is formal lending, in which rates have increased by only 1% since 2011 and remain half that of adults. The Next Generation of Learning Topics These improvements are significant, but work remains to decrease these gaps further and truly support youth as they transition to adulthood.  What must we do to continue progress? Effectively leverage technology . The rise of mobile money and digital finance has been a major driver of increased access to finance for youth. Further leveraging technology to promote nano-lending, use data analytics for improved underwriting, and link youth to on-line education and training all promise to accelerate trends in youth financial inclusion. Go beyond “near adults” for lending. The gap in financial inclusion for youth remains largest in the area of lending, and youth consistently point to a lack of credit as a key impediment to their livelihoods. Cracking this nut will require further innovations around technology, partnerships, and financial capability building. Serve adolescent girls and young women effectively . Recent CGAP research has uncovered that gaps in financial access between girls and boys begin at age 17 and deepen through age 25 due to higher risk perceptions among girls, lower access to identification documents, and restrictive social norms. [3] Supporting adolescent girls with additional non-financial services to build financial capability or with tailored products to meet risk perceptions are avenues to explore more deeply. Provide services that “grow” with youth. While there are many examples of a single youth segment being served successfully, it’s rare that an institution or larger initiative “grows” services with youth, helping them to move from savings to borrowing or from consumer to enterprise credit. Taking a lifecycle approach to youth may provide insights that can unlock additional services for youth that will support their transition to productive livelihoods. Unlocking the Dividend Through Youth-Inclusive Finance Time is running short for countries to unlock their demographic dividend. The 2026 Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance offers our community an important opportunity to take stock of whether youth-inclusive finance has finally “come of age” and is able to effectively support young people as they transition to productive adults. I look forward to participating in the process, seeing what is being done today, and sharing progress that can finally bring this market to maturity. All relevant supporting materials, application guidelines, eligibility criteria and links to the application forms are available at www.inclusivefinanceaward.lu . Applications close on April 12 th at 23h59 CEST. About the Author: Tim Nourse is President & CEO of Making Cents International, and is supporting e-MFP in the design, delivery and evaluation of the Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance 2026.    ______ [1] More detail on these lessons can be found in: Y Initiative: Finance for Youth; a compendium of global good practices , FMO 2022 [2]   Building the Business Case for Youth Financial Services ;  UNCDF, 2015 [3]   Pathways to Financial Inclusion for Young Women: Opportunities for Financial Service Providers and Funders | CGAP Research & Publications ; 2026

Author: Audrey Joubert, Advans International. Across Africa, agriculture contributes 32 percent to Africa's GDP   and employs 65 percent of the labour force on the continent, according to the World Bank. That notwithstanding, the people who drive the sector, smallholder farmers, rural entrepreneurs, and cooperatives, are part of the most financially excluded communities on the continent. Data from the International Telecommunications Union  (ITU) shows that in 2024, internet usage in African urban areas reached 57 percent, but only 23 percent in rural areas, creating the largest urban-rural gap in the world. This limited connectivity, along with geographical isolation and low financial literacy, results in millions of farmers with little to no access to mainstream credit or financial services.   Without affordable and reliable credit, many farmers struggle to invest in irrigation, essential equipment, seeds and fertiliser. Persistent economic fluctuations, including inflation that raises the cost of inputs and volatile market prices for produce, further erode already thin margins. And where local processing and transformation capacity is limited, farmers are forced to sell raw commodities at lower prices, missing out on added value. Without adequate savings or insurance, a single flood, drought, or price shock can wipe out years of effort, fundamentally undermining both livelihoods and broader rural development across Africa.   To overcome this challenge, financial inclusion in rural areas must go beyond access to accounts or credit. It must focus on building resilience, and that’s where microfinance institutions are stepping in to reengineer the future of rural financial inclusion across the continent.   Designing the right approach: The case of Advans’ High-Tech, High-Touch Traditional banks have long struggled to serve rural populations because of high operational costs, isolated communities, and the informal nature of farming incomes. The rise of digital finance has not significantly changed the narrative, as few farmers still have reliable internet access. With a 26 percent increase in agricultural loans in just one year, Advans, a leading microfinance group active in several African countries, recognized this early on, and adopted a high-tech, high-touch approach in rural areas.   First, by partnering with cooperatives and village associations, Advans built a model rooted in proximity and in-person relationships, to inform, educate, and share risk. Technology was then introduced gradually to facilitate transactions and loan repayments, and to provide school loans. This expansion is driven by digital innovations tailored to rural realities. For instance, in Ghana, Mobibank, a USSD-based platform, has become the primary channel for rural loan repayment, allowing clients to transact without internet access. In Côte d’Ivoire, Advans Mobilité offers mobile banking features that enable farmers to check balances and manage finances through basic feature phones.   In rural Africa, cooperatives have proven to be the key intermediaries between microfinance institutions such as Advans and communities. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, cocoa farmers can expand their plantations thanks to loans secured through their cooperatives and support from Advans Côte d’Ivoire. The story of Herve , one such farmer, illustrates how financial institutions can build with existing community groups.    “Through the 700 cooperatives and village associations (AVEC) we partner with, we reach and serve close to 40,000 farmers; not only in the cocoa value chain, but increasingly in other farming activities such as corn, pineapple, mango, and rice. We are also exploring additional value chains,” says Albert Dah, Agriculture Director at Advans Côte d’Ivoire.   The impact of such a collaborative approach is also evident in neighbouring Ghana, where Advans worked with women’s cooperatives in the shea butter value chain, offering both financing and financial education. In two years, more than 2,000 cooperative leaders have been trained in financial management and savings, leading their members to reinvest profits, strengthen their businesses, and gain greater financial independence.    A New Urgency: Climate Change and Agricultural Resilience The challenge of rural development is now inseparable from the challenge of climate change. Rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and floods are disrupting production across the continent. In Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producer, output for the 2024/25 farming season is estimated to have dropped to 1.7 metric tonnes due to heat stress, drought, and pests. In Tunisia, prolonged drought and water scarcity are threatening key crops such as olives and dates.   Climate change is not only an environmental threat, but it is a financial one. For farmers, it means unstable incomes and higher debt risks. For lenders, it demands new tools to secure both livelihoods and portfolios.   Microfinance institutions are emerging as vital drivers of climate resilience. Advans Tunisia, for instance, has developed an individual loan called “Crédit Saba” enabling smallholder farmers to borrow up to €13,000, with a flexible repayment plan adapted to the seasonality of their activities and their cash flows, as well as a grace period in case of an extreme climate event. As a result, more than one in two Tunisian clients say they feel more prepared for a future climate shock thanks to their loan from Advans, and 30 percent talk about purchasing and installing irrigation systems. 1 Agricultural finance now represents one-third of Advans Tunisia’s portfolio.   Advans Côte d’Ivoire takes a comprehensive approach to helping farmers adapt to climate risks. The institution has provided training to over 1,000 farmers on managing hazards, from diversifying crops to adopting agroforestry practices. One key initiative, the Agroforestry Credit program, offers loans through four partner cooperatives to fund agroforestry projects, The project is supported by AFD and benefits from technical assistance from the NGO AVSF.   In addition, farmers are gaining access to climate index insurance through a partnership with AssurTech OKO. Following a pilot phase that tested two distinct insurance models, the new solution now protects more than 800 producers through their respective cooperatives. Payouts are automatically triggered by low rainfall. The coverage period runs from October 2025 to March 2026, aligning with the seasonality of agricultural activity.   Building a Resilient Future for Rural Finance The lesson is clear. Africa’s agricultural growth requires a rethink and redesign of rural financial solutions to ensure access to financial services even in areas with limited connectivity. With a strategy rooted in local realities, Advans combines technology with proximity—whether through individual support in Tunisia or by leveraging cooperative and village association networks in Côte d’Ivoire.   Rural financial inclusion is advancing. Advans’ High-Tech, High-Touch  approach illustrates how to drive it forward, combining innovation, proximity, and partnerships to help farmers move toward a more resilient future.  ______ 1  60 Decibels survey conducted with 280 clients in Tunisia in 2024.   This blog was first published by Advans International. Photo credit: Advans International.   About the Author: Audrey Joubert is a Business Expert at Advans International, specializing in agrifinance, digital financial services, and deposit products. She supports Advans affiliates in defining their strategies and in the design and deployment of new projects. Prior to this role, Audrey spent three years as a Project Manager at Advans Côte d’Ivoire, where she notably contributed to a financial inclusion program within the cocoa value chain. She holds a Master’s degree from ESCP Europe.

Author: Caterina Giordano, Alterfin. In the last of our blog series to celebrate the International Year of Cooperatives taking place in 2025, Caterina Giordano of Alterfin reflects on three decades of cooperative finance rooted in people rather than profit. Drawing on its experience as a Belgian cooperative investor in sustainable family farming and microfinance, the post introduces the concept of “human yield” — a cooperative-driven approach to measuring impact that places dignity, resilience and lived outcomes at the heart of investment decisions. For over thirty years, Alterfin has demonstrated that finance can generate value beyond financial returns. Founded in Belgium in 1994, the cooperative invests in sustainable family farming and microfinance across Latin America, Africa and Asia, guided by a simple conviction: capital should serve people . Alterfin was created by Belgian NGOs and ethical banks who believed that finance could strengthen dignity, resilience and opportunity for those excluded from formal financial systems. Choosing the cooperative model was a deliberate act. Ownership, governance and purpose are aligned with long-term value creation rather than short-term profit maximisation. Today, nearly 6,000 cooperative members — citizens and institutions — invest not as donors, but as co-owners. Their capital supports organisations working with smallholder farmers and micro-entrepreneurs, reinforcing food security, local economies and long-term resilience where access to finance remains limited. Smallholder coffee producer, member of Casil cooperative in Peru - Alterfin's partner since 2006. Human yield: impact rooted in cooperative logic In 2025, the International Year of Cooperatives, Alterfin gives clearer expression to what has guided its work from the beginning: human yield . Human yield complements financial performance by focusing on what investment enables in people’s lives — income stability, resilience to shocks, empowerment and dignity. In a world where investment performance is often reduced to numbers, human yield invites a different question: what is the human return on my investment? Who benefits, and how? At Alterfin, this question guides us to reinterpret return itself as human yield because we want to understand and quantify our social impact. At the same time, as impact finance risks becoming increasingly standardised and metric-driven, human yield offers a way to reconnect investment decisions with lived realities – without sacrificing financial discipline. It goes beyond standard ESG metrics or portfolio-level impact indicators by grounding assessment in lived outcomes and the perspectives of farmers and entrepreneurs reached through Alterfin’s partners. This ensures that impact remains human, contextual and meaningful. This approach is inseparable from Alterfin’s cooperative structure. As a cooperative, Alterfin is guided by its members — not by external shareholders seeking short-term returns. Shared ownership also means shared responsibility: members help guide the cooperative’s direction through democratic governance, accept informed risk where impact is highest, and support patient, long-term investment. This alignment allows Alterfin to reinvest value into impact rather than extraction, maintain commitments through crises, and support organisations that may be smaller, earlier-stage or operating in fragile contexts — precisely where human outcomes matter most. Microentrepreneurs, clients of Chamroeun a microfinance institution in Cambodia - Alterfin's partner since 2014. Impact as a driver of better investment decisions Human yield is not a communication concept; it is a management tool. Alterfin has embedded impact studies into its investment cycle to test impact likelihood assumptions, understand how change occurs, and assess whether capital is being allocated where it can generate the greatest social value. We don’t ask superficial questions. We meet people in the field. We listen. We try to understand what has changed in their lives, and why. Nearly 1,000 farmers and entrepreneurs have been interviewed through these studies, providing insights that link household‑level outcomes with institutional and financial performance. These insights directly inform investment decisions, partner support and risk assessment. By linking qualitative outcomes at household level with institutional and financial performance, Alterfin strengthens its ability to invest responsibly over the long term — particularly in contexts exposed to economic, social and climate-related shocks. For cooperative members, this translates into greater transparency and accountability. Alongside financial results, members receive a Human Yield Statement  that connects their investment to concrete human outcomes. This allows members to see, in a personalized way, how their investment impacts human lives. Finance rooted in people After three decades, Alterfin’s founding intuition remains unchanged: sustainable finance must remain rooted in people’s realities. Human yield captures this commitment by affirming that solidarity through cooperative investment is not charity, but a driver of shared and durable progress . We can summarise this philosophy simply: finance is, above all, about investing in human beings — helping them move forward, seize opportunities, protect their families and build long‑term resilience. As Alterfin enters its fourth decade, human yield serves as both a measure and a compass — guiding capital toward organisations and communities that transform opportunity into resilience, dignity and long-term development. About the Author: Caterina Giordano is Chief Impact officer at Alterfin and has 20 years of experience in sustainable development and impact investing. She manages the impact department including steering of the global microfinance and sustainable agriculture portfolio at Alterfin; supervision of the Investment unit; management of the TA unit; management of the Environmental and Social Impact Unit; management of the portfolio analytics Unit and Marketing & Communication one. Caterina joined Alterfin in 2013 at first as Africa and then Asia Regional Manager, to become, in 2017, Head of Investments and in 2022 CIO. She started her career in microfinance with K-Rep Bank (Kenya) conducting an extensive survey to understand the Bank’s outreach and assess its mission drift risk. She spent 6 years in Kenya first managing an agri-financing project under an Italian NGO and then as Africa Regional Manager for Microfinanza Rating. In 2010, she finally joined the social investment sector. Prior to Alterfin, she worked for an Equity Investor and participated to the set-up of a microfinance institution in Zambia. She holds a master’s degree in economics of public Administration and International Administration at Bocconi University.

Author: Andrea Camargo, World Food Programme (WFP). On March 12th, e-MFP was pleased to launch the European Microfinance Award (EMA) 2025  on ‘Building Resilience through Inclusive Insurance’. This is the 16th edition of the Award, which was launched in 2005 by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, and which is jointly organised by the Ministry, e-MFP, and the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg, in cooperation with the European Investment Bank. This year, e-MFP is also delighted to welcome as a strategic partner our friends at Microinsurance Network (MiN). In this 7 th  piece in a series of blogs that we’ll be running throughout the year on this topic, Andrea Camargo from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) explains why closing the crisis protection gap requires a full range of tools to building resilience, including cash transfers, livelihood development, and of course an integrated approach to inclusive insurance. In 2024, 343 million people faced acute hunger – 1.9 million of them in catastrophic conditions. With conflicts, climate extremes, and economic shocks on the rise, these numbers are likely to grow unless we adopt urgent actions, such as closing the crisis   protection gap . Without financial tools – including insurance – families are left vulnerable, unable to rebuild when disaster strikes. Inclusive risk financing instruments that are accessible, affordable, and tailored to the needs of underserved populations, can be critical to close this protection gap. Protecting Food Security and Strengthening Resilience Through Financial Inclusion In today’s world of cascading crises, building resilience isn’t optional – it’s essential. WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian organization, is addressing this challenge not only through food assistance but by empowering people to better withstand and recover from shocks – and central to this effort is a focus on financial inclusion , as a way to enhance livelihoods and empower millions of people, leveraging its food security programmes through:   Interventions unlocking access to inclusive financial services through humanitarian cash transfers or government-to-person payments (G2P): WFP is increasingly transferring funds directly into individuals’ digital financial accounts, connecting people to formal financial services, often for the first time, and advancing their digital financial inclusion . As the world’s largest provider of humanitarian cash transfers – disbursing US$2.2 billion to 47 million people across 75 countries in 2024 alone - WFP has significant potential to drive transformative change. By 2030, WFP aims to support 10 million women and their families through their own financial accounts . Interventions unlocking access to inclusive financial services through livelihoods and resilience programmes (non-cash transfer specific) : WFP promotes access to financial services such as credit, savings, and insurance as part of broader programmes promoting resilience and livelihoods, such as: * Smallholder Agricultural Market Support (SAMS)  programme, which is WFP’s value chain development approach aiming at improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, promoting local value chain development and strengthening the resilience of local food systems; * Inclusive Risk Financing (IRF) work , previously known as the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative (R4); * The Youth in Work (YIW) programme, which aims to strengthen youth and women’s jobs food systems to promote increased value chain employment opportunities for young people in vulnerable communities; * The SheCan  intervention, which aims to improve economic and income-generating opportunities for women and their communities by supporting their access to affordable micro-loans tailored to their needs and enhancing their financial capabilities through gender-sensitive financial education programmes.   Inclusive Risk Financing On Inclusive Risk Financing, over the past decade WFP has established itself as a global leader, reaching more than 10 million people with access to insurance, savings and credit to manage climate risks. This effort began with the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative  and has since evolved into a comprehensive IRF approach. This shift marks a move towards a more integrated strategy, drawing on past learnings to strengthen the sustainability and resilience of food systems in the face of increasing weather and economic shocks. In 2024 alone, over three million people in 16 countries were covered by WFP-supported inclusive insurance programmes, with more than US$248 million in financial protection [1] . When weather-related shocks struck, US$41 million in insurance payouts provided timely support to 1.5 million people—demonstrating the power of insurance to protect lives and livelihoods when it matters most. In addition to insurance, 320,000 people engaged in savings and loans activities, with 68 percent of them being women. Together, they saved a total of US$17 million and accessed loans worth US$10.2 million, reinforcing the role of integrated financial services in building long-term resilience and economic empowerment—especially for women.   More Than a Safety Net: Insurance Builds Long-Term Resilience These financial tools don’t just offer a safety net—they build a foundation for long-term resilience . For instance, a 2023 study of WFP’s R4 Rural Resilience Initiative  in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, and Zimbabwe carried out by TetraTech found that insured households were better equipped to cope during weather-related shocks. They were less likely to reduce food intake and more likely to recover quickly, invest in improved farming practices, and report higher food security. Insurance can foster resilience and restore confidence . In the highlands of Kyrgyz Republic , livestock herder Aijan Talantbek saw her hay harvest plummet due to shifting seasons. In 2023, a severe drought left pastures barren and reduced fodder supplies, leaving her and many pastoralist families with few resources to sustain their livestock through the harsh winter. Thanks to WFP’s climate risk insurance that empowers local governments to provide support to vulnerable pastoralists, nearly 800 families received over 26 metric tons of barley when the drought triggered an insurance payout. This in-kind assistance was vital in bridging the fodder gap and ensuring the survival of their animals during the winter months.  "Insurance is good,"  Aijan said. “ We would have spent money on barley, but instead, the programme triggered payouts that we received through barley distribution - which really helped.” WFP is now transitioning this programme in Kyrgyz Republic to a forecast-based model , releasing payouts before disasters strike. By promoting earlier action and increasing local government involvement, WFP is helping communities respond faster while supporting long-term sustainability.    Aijan Talantbek, beneficiary of the climate risk insurance programme in Kyrgyz Republic. ( WFP/Giulio D’Adamo) Scaling Resilience Through Integration Success lies not in standalone solutions, but in smart integration . WFP integrates insurance with complementary services—like savings, access to credit, financial education, improved agricultural practices and market access. This comprehensive approach enhances financial resilience and encourages broader adoption. In Guatemala , savings groups have played a vital role in raising awareness about insurance and improving the ability to pay for it. In just three years, the number of people contributing to insurance premiums rose from 1,600 to over 9,000, while average contributions more than doubled. These groups not only build trust and financial literacy around insurance, but also help participants save and grow their incomes – enhancing their capacity to afford and sustain such services. In Senegal , WFP worked with economic interest groups, including community-based cooperatives, often led by women. These groups distributed insurance, offered savings and loan options, and supported income-generating activities. As a result, the number of households paying insurance premiums with their own funds grew from 1,500 to nearly 28,000 in four years, accounting for 54 percent of all policyholders – a strong indicator of increasing trust, financial ownership, and sustainability.   Insurance Alone Isn’t Enough To Manage Weather Extremes      While insurance can be a vital lifeline, it must be part of a broader toolkit of risk management instruments. Different financial tools help manage different types of risk [2] and can reinforce resilience when brough together. Ana Paula Sequeles , a 44-year-old mother of five in Tete Province, Mozambique experienced this firsthand. After the El Niño-induced drought in 2024 destroyed her crops, Ana received an insurance payout of about US$25 that enabled her to buy seeds for the next planting season. Ana was also part of a WFP-supported savings and loans group, which helped her build emergency reserves and manage her money wisely. That savings cushion allowed her to buy food for her children and keep her small business afloat during a critical time. “Without this payout, we would have nothing to hope for, so we are very thankful,”  Ana says.   Ana Paula Sequeles , beneficiary of WFP’s Integrated Climate Risk Management programme. WFP/Ana Mato Hombre   Sustainability Through Strategic Partnerships and Integration With National Systems As weather extremes continue to threaten food systems and livelihoods, solutions like inclusive insurance must be scaled and sustained. But this will only work if they’re embedded within a larger ecosystem of financial services, risk management strategies, and government support. To truly make a lasting impact, insurance schemes must be designed for long-term viability. That means involving committed stakeholders, building strong public-private partnerships (PPPs), and ensuring clear strategies for eventually handing over ownership to local institutions. One key success factor is integrating inclusive insurance into existing national systems that promote resilience, productivity, or social protection. In Ethiopia , WFP jointly with Pula, took a market systems approach, fostering PPPs to boost both supply and demand for agricultural insurance. WFP supported the integration of insurance into the Government’s Input Voucher System (IVS). This move helped scale the programme from 20,000 farming households in 2022 to nearly 250,000 in 2024. By linking insurance to something farmers already value—input access—the programme tapped into real demand and ensured greater buy-in. For farmers like Yohannes Negash  in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, this shift has been life-changing. After enduring years of drought, locust infestations, and conflict, Yohannes enrolled in the insurance programme backed by WFP, the Ethiopian government, and local and international partners.  “ This insurance is a necessity,”  said Yohannes. “ Just as we have health insurance for our bodies, we need crop insurance for our farms. ” With US$675,000 in payouts delivered across the region, farmers like Yohannes are no longer just surviving—they're planning ahead and investing in a more secure future.   Yohannes Negash, insurance beneficiary in Ethiopia. ( WFP/Michael Tewelde)   A Path Forward: Resilience Through Inclusion WFP’s approach to inclusive risk financing goes beyond responding to crises—it empowers people to prepare for the unexpected, adapt to changing realities, and invest confidently in their futures. By combining insurance with savings, loans, financial education, and integration into broader services, WFP is advancing financial inclusion as a powerful driver of resilience—transforming humanitarian assistance into a foundation for long-term stability, empowerment, and dignity. In a world of increasing uncertainty, inclusive financial tools are no longer optional—they are essential for all. And WFP is making sure no one is left behind. ________   [1]   https://www.wfp.org/publications/disaster-risk-financing-annual-report [2]   For instance, insurance is a critical tool to manage severe and less frequent risks, whereas savings can be instrumental to build reserves enabling risk retention of more frequent and less severe risks. About the Author: Andrea Camargo is currently leading the Inclusive Risk Financing Portfolio at the World Food Programme (WFP). Born in Colombia, she is a qualified lawyer specialized in Insurance and International Law. Andrea has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance sector and 15 years of experience in the inclusive insurance and climate risk sector in more than 30 countries in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.  She has supported international organizations, development agencies, governments, private sector entities, among others, proposing pioneering solutions that are legally viable, financially sustainable and above all offer adequate protection against risks to those who need it most.

Author: Sam Mendelson, e-MFP GLI Action Group Lead. Over the past decade, gender lens investing (GLI) has become a widely embraced concept across the development finance ecosystem. It has become embedded in global frameworks, supported by donor initiatives, and advanced through important coalitions and standards - from the   2X Criteria and Equilo’s diagnostics tools to the Women’s Empowerment Principles , Pro Mujer’s Gender Knowledge Lab ,  and the   Cerise+SPTF SPI5 Full framework . Yet for many of the financial service providers (FSPs), investors, and technical assistance organisations operating in inclusive finance (particularly at the field level) GLI remains a  conceptually resonant but practically elusive goal: what is it for, how is it achieved, and what is there to help explain it? In early 2025, after extensive consultations with members of the e-MFP GLI Action Group (GLI AG), the e-MFP Secretariat made the decision to amend the AG’s structure and plans. Under this new phase, e-MFP is leading a two-year, tightly scoped plan of activities (2025–2026) aimed at filling two of the most pressing and actionable gaps in GLI practic e: 1. The absence of a curated, user-friendly, filterable resource portal tailored to different stakeholder groups; and 2. The lack of visibility and peer sharing around how GLI is actually being implemented in practice. To develop the resource portal, which we have heard from members and stakeholders would be so valuable, we’re also thrilled to welcome the consultants who will be leading the first part of this work: Katie Tavenner and Carlos Quiros  of QLands , who will be supported during the mapping and engagement phase by Jenny Morgan , an extremely experienced gender finance consultant and facilitator (and former co-lead of FinEquity). The consultants, and Fernando Naranjo and I from e-MFP, are grateful to be supported by a fantastic seven-person Advisory Committee of Action Group  members. Why a Reboot — and Why Now? Members told us they didn’t want another generic library of tools. They wanted something smart and annotated with clear value-add: a portal that’s filterable by stakeholder type  (whether you’re an FSP, an investor, a market builder, or a TA provider); that helps you know which tools to use at what stage; that gives you real-world examples of how others have applied a gender lens - and what it meant in practice. We would like to move from information overload to curated guidance. A Curated Portal for Practical Application As I introduced above, the centrepiece of the GLI AG’s 2025 workplan is the GLI Resource Portal  - an online, filterable, evolving platform that allows stakeholders across the inclusive finance ecosystem to: Identify relevant tools tailored to their role, needs, and level of experience; Learn from real-world case studies of how others have applied GLI principles in practice; Access curated/annotated guidance materials  (not just every tool ever created); and Stay informed  about upcoming events, webinars, and peer-learning opportunities The portal will build on and connect to existing platforms or sites - among them 2X, FinEquity’s resource guide, the Pro Mujer Gender Knowledge Lab’s Gender Platform, CERISE+SPTF’s own GLI Working Group  - and many others. We want it to become a trusted one-stop-shop for busy practitioners looking to get oriented, go deeper, or implement something new. Telling the Story of Practice The second core activity is a lightweight content stream  to showcase what GLI looks like in practice—warts and all. Through short blogs, mini case studies, and occasional webinars, AG members will have the opportunity to share their experiences: how they’ve navigated leadership buy-in, used (or adapted) diagnostics tools, integrated sex-disaggregated data, or designed products with gender in mind. There is a clear appetite for this kind of content. Members have told us they want to hear from their peers and partners. They want to understand not just why GLI is important, but how it is implemented, measured, refined.  And they want to know what GLI looks like for institutions like theirs - working with limited budgets, diverse client groups, and under real operational constraints. This content will be published in part here on the e-MFP blog, but we will welcome and solicit case studies, interviews and other content that is core to this AG’s purpose. All contributions will be voluntary, and members can either propose content themselves or respond to direct outreach.    What Next? The mapping and resource tagging process has now begun, in advance of a meeting with the Advisory Committee in September to present some initial ideas and gather feedback. There will be a GLI AG session during e-MFP’s annual event in November where it’s anticipated an early mock-up of the Portal will be presented, and the consultants and certain AG members will be available to share progress and answer questions. It’s hoped that the Portal will be read for beta testing in late Q1 2026, and for final completion and launch in Q2. After this, the portal will benefit from regular dedicated maintenance and monitoring to ensure it remains updated and valuable.   How You Can Contribute If you are a member of e-MFP or involved in GLI work (however advanced or exploratory) we welcome your input. The design and refinement of this Portal will be collaborative, and we hope to benefit from e-MFP’s great network to optimise its value. To this end: Do you have a tool, diagnostic resource, or checklist that your team finds useful?  Feel free to share it for potential inclusion in the portal. Have you implemented a gender-smart intervention - whether successfully or not?  Please consider writing a short blog or case note to help others learn. Are you willing to contribute financially to support the portal in 2026? We are open to co-funding opportunities in exchange for branding visibility and thought leadership roles. You can reach out directly to fnaranjo@e-mfp.eu  or smendelson@e-mfp.eu  with ideas, questions, or expressions of interest. Thanks to everyone who has been involved in getting this process to where it is, and please get in touch if you have ideas or questions. Thank you! About the Author: Sam Mendelson  is Financial Inclusion Specialist at e-MFP and is the e-MFP lead for the Gender Lens Investing and WASH Action Groups.

Authors: Emmanuel Gagnerot & Adèle Voyeux, SIDI. In the eighth in our blog series to celebrate the International Year of Cooperatives, Emmanuel Gagnerot & Adèle Voyeux from International Solidarity for Development and Investment (SIDI) discuss the alliance between SIDI and Ethiquable, which promotes sustainable agriculture, agroecology, and the empowerment of local communities in various countries with low human development indices (HDI), as illustrated by the partnership with Apodip cooperative.   Since 1983, SIDI  (International Solidarity for Development and Investment) has been committed to building a fairer world by financing agricultural organisations in the most disadvantaged countries, thanks to its 2000 individual shareholders. In addition to commercial financing ranging from €200,000 to €2 million and via various instruments (debt issuance, equity participation, or guarantees), SIDI also provides technical assistance to rural organizations through grants or personalized coaching . With over 30 agricultural partner organisations, three-quarter of which are certified organic and/or fair trade, SIDI helps to transform the lives of thousands of smallholder family farmers across 17 countries in the Global South. Coffee cooperative in Rwanda (© Philippe Lissac – Agence Godong / SIDI) SIDI supports organic and/or fair-trade cooperatives, primarily in the export sectors (e.g. cocoa, cashew, coffee, etc.), by providing one-year working capital loans  (aligned with the agricultural season) and investment financing.  This financial and technical support helps cooperatives improve their professional development and enhance the services they offer to their members, especially when adopting agroecological and agroforestry practices. As an example of this, SIDI works with Ethiquable   (and Ethiquable ’s partner cooperative APODIP ) to providing financing and TA support: Building Innovative Strategic Partnerships – ETHIQUABLE SIDI has established a strategic partnership with the cooperative Ethiquable  which works with over 105 organic producer cooperatives around the world and distributes its products in more than 60 supermarkets across France. This collaboration began over 10 years ago, when SIDI was providing pre-financing services to small scale producer cooperatives partnered with ETHIQUABLE for their harvest campaign, in low-HDI countries such as Haiti, Madagascar, Ecuador and Peru. The innovative financial and solidarity-based partnership between  Ethiquable  and SIDI illustrates the ongoing commitment of both parties to sustainable agriculture, agroecology, and the empowerment of local communities. The purpose is t o build autonomous smallholder supply chains and strengthen the capacities of farmer organisations . The aim of this partnership is to enhance the financial and technical assistance support provided by SIDI to a larger number of local organic and fair-trade cooperatives, that produce cashew, cacao or coffee, while at the same time equally sharing the risk (50/50). As a result, SIDI offers cooperatives partnered with ETHIQUABLE a dedicated financing package (€1.2M in 2024 and €1.7M for 2025), along with streamlined evaluation processes, a dedicated investment committee as well as favourable loan conditions. Moreover, these small local producer organisations often need to strengthen their internal capacities, particularly in governance, financial management as well as their capacity to innovate in areas such as agroecology, climate resilience and traceability. Beyond technical and managerial skills, this partnership support also seeks to enhance the organisations’ negotiating power within the value chain and with local partners . Thus and in addition to financing, the partnership includes a Technical Assistance (TA) program led by SIDI, focused on strengthening the economic viability of producer organisations, a recurring challenge in the agricultural sector. This partnership is mutually beneficial: all three parties gain from it by sharing the risk. This collaboration secures the supply chain for Ethiquable  and its partner cooperatives, ensures that cooperatives in remote or low-HDI countries receive financing and technical assistance on favorable terms, and, finally, enables SIDI to increase its support to local cooperatives (currently representing 28% of the portfolio).   APODIP: A Key Player In Organic Cocoa And A Creator Of Local Value  APODIP is a great example of an Ethiquable partner cooperative that receives support by SIDI. APODIP - Guatemala Created in 2003 by 48 coffee producers from the Paraiso community in northern Guatemala, the APODIP association now brings together 1,218 small producers committed to responsible production and marketing of organic, high-quality cocoa, coffee, cardamom, and peanuts . In line with the fair-trade movement, the association has grown significantly in recent years, thanks to the partnership it established with Ethiquable in 2018. APODIP is a highly dynamic organisation that has set up a company to handle commercial activities, designed specific brands for each product, and opened a retail store. APODIP has built the country's first cocoa paste manufacturing plant , which will supply Ethiquable's organic chocolate factory in the Gers region of France. The export of a partially processed product - cocoa paste rather than just cocoa beans - enables producers to significantly increase their incomes. While APODIP's growth momentum remains fragile due to insufficient working capital, its development potential is very high, particularly thanks to its cocoa factory . The $250,000 loan granted by SIDI in 2024 enabled APODIP to purchase cocoa from its members, as well as organic cocoa from Ethiquable partner cooperatives in Nicaragua, making the factory profitable. APODIP has also asked SIDI for help in strengthening its administrative and financial capacities and completing the process of creating local added value. This new partnership with APODIP is one of the concrete results of the strategic alliance between SIDI and Ethiquable – and we look forward to developing many more such partnerships to strengthen cooperatives in the years to come. About the Authors: Emmanuel Gagnerot is   Director of Operations and Partnerships at SIDI. With a background in the Social and Solidarity Economy, he began his career at France Active and later headed the SSE department at Crédit Coopératif. His vision combines concrete action, technical expertise, and ethical commitment, values he shares with SIDI’s team and volunteers. At SIDI, he is responsible for strengthening the organization’s impact across its 127 partners in 33 countries, managing a portfolio of €56 million. In addition, Emmanuel leads the implementation of SIDI’s agricultural strategy and works to reinforce support for local cooperatives in the Global South. Adèle Voyeux  brings over 10 years of experience in the microfinance sector. Her career has been deeply rooted in fieldwork, where for many years she performed onsite assignments working directly with small entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers, gaining firsthand insight into their challenges and opportunities. Since joining SIDI in 2024, Adele has expanded her expertise to include cooperatives and sustainable agriculture, further enriching her understanding of grassroots development. At SIDI, she leads fundraising and external relations, leveraging her experience to build strong partnerships and mobilize resources in support of local MFIs and AgriSMEs.