NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Joana Afonso is Financial Inclusion Specialist at the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) where she coordinates the e-MFP Action Groups and is a member of the content team working on the European Microfinance Week, European Microfinance Award and e-MFP research related activities.

Joana has experience both as practitioner and researcher in the financial inclusion sector. She has previously worked as a microcredit officer at an NGO in Portugal and conducted research on client over-indebtedness and impact evaluation methodologies in microfinance, with field work in the Dominican Republic, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, and Ecuador. She is co-editor of the book “Emerging Challenges and Innovations in Microfinance and Financial Inclusion” (2019). She holds a PhD in economics and finance from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and a masters in microfinance from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium