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Don’t Fall for the World Bank’s Bold Claims About Financial Inclusion and the SDGs
"It sounds so simple: Everyone gets access to financial services and – presto – the foundations for the SGDs will be laid." That's the key message Phil Mader and Maren Duvendack took away from World Bank economist Leora Klapper's recent NextBillion post. But that rosy scenario, they say, bears no resemblance to reality. In fact, according to their exhaustive new review of existing research, the inconvenient truth is that financial inclusion is not accelerating progress toward the SDGs – and isn't even fundamental for attaining them.
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- Finance
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Q&A: Bill and Melinda Gates expand on 3 surprises from annual letter
Of the surprises they’ve been confronted with along their journey to philanthropy, the Gates write: “Some worry us. Others inspire us. All of them are prodding us to action. We hope they do the same for you, because that’s how the world gets better.”
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- Finance
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Is Financial Inclusion Really Impacting the SDGs? This New Research Approach Could Offer an Answer
There's growing discussion about how financial inclusion can impact the Sustainable Development Goals – including on NextBillion earlier this week. But according to Liz Larson at UNCDF and Daryl Collins at BFA, the evidence of a link between financial tools and development impacts has not been conclusive. They explore a new measurement framework that aims to take account of the breadth of all potential and proven connections between financial services and the SDGs – while also offering a method for substantiating those impacts.
- Categories
- Finance
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Average deposits in Indian PM Modi’s Jan Dhan accounts jump by over 145%
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious financial inclusion programme – Jan Dhan scheme, which was once criticised for zero balance or no deposits in a large number of accounts, has been gradually changing the saving behaviour of poor and rural people in the country.
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- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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The Global Findex Database Shows We Can’t Meet the SDGs Without Financial Inclusion
For nearly a decade, Leora Klapper has led the World Bank’s Global Findex database – a survey of how people in more than 150 countries access and use financial services. While academic studies continue to show how financial inclusion underpins and enables social progress, to create a financially inclusive world we need to continually measure the scope and depth of the problem, Klapper argues. That means asking: Who still needs accounts? Who has accounts, but doesn’t use them? And what more can we do to help?
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- Finance
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The Rural Credit Rush in India
Data released by Microfinance Institutions Network, a national body for non-banking finance company-micro finance institutions (NBFC-MFIs), shows that NBFC-MFIs, which focus on lending in rural India, account for the largest chunk of the loan portfolio of the microfinance industry.
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- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Financial inclusion is fast losing steam in India
If financial inclusion efforts are to be fully harnessed and taken forward, the regulator and banks will have to work in cohesion with local government agencies to educate masses on a large scale, highlighting rights and responsibilities.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Open the Spigot: The Way We Think About Impact Investing is Too Narrow
You hear about it all the time in impact investing reports, articles and blogs: The lack of deal flow. But Tanner Taddeo of ChangeSquare believes the industry's challenge isn't a lack of investible companies, but rather the industry’s narrow definition of impact and how it "blinds" investors to companies that are creating impact in other industries and geographies. Taking a more holistic, rather than plug-and-play approach, will contribute to a broadening definition of impact and subsequently open the spigot for deals, he argues.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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