11/02/2022
Financial Inclusion for What?
Global evidence shows poor people use financial services to build resilience and capture opportunities
People can use financial services to capture a new set of opportunities that seem mainly related to three future outcomes:
• Greater financial resources. Poor people use financial services to build assets and manage liabilities
• Better human capabilities. Poor people also use financial services to build useful skills and acquire knowledge.
• Better physical capabilities. In addition, poor people use financial services to improve their health and physical mobility.
Three knowledge gaps limit the effectiveness of financial inclusion programs and policies.
The industry innovation gap. There are specific financial services whose sizable positive impact on future outcomes is most consistent in the literature. These include savings and insurance. Payments also fall into this category, although the positive impact from payments appears to be lower than the impact of savings and insurance.
The impact knowledge gap. For other types of financial services, like credit and pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) services, the impact evidence is mixed or scarce.
The research methodology gap. The research community has made great progress in the past 20 years, not only in the number of impact studies conducted around the world but also in the methodology used to measure impact.
…….CGAP