How Financial Inclusion Fuels Education, Health, and Innovation | FIW 2024 Highlights
Opportunity International’s commitment to financial inclusion empowers communities by building sustainable livelihoods, enabling children to attend school, and equipping families with the financial tools they need for economic stability. From training entrepreneurs and bankers in unique business practices, to developing sustainable support systems for some of the most vulnerable. For decades, Opportunity International has championed financial inclusion by providing access to essential financial tools for entrepreneurs, empowering them to uplift their families, strengthen local economies, and create sustainable communities.
Financial Inclusion Week is an annual forum organized by Accion’s Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI), which brings together partners to showcase their work, share ideas, and engage with the global financial inclusion community. This year was FIW’s 10th anniversary, and Opportunity was asked to showcase our efforts on three separate panels.
Through conversations on of digital innovation, education finance, and the dynamic between health and financial inclusion, we spent FIW 2024 highlighting the need for sustainable solutions for vulnerable communities around the world – and we are happy to share each of them with you today.
Resilience of the Social Fabric: Strengthening Education in Africa
Robust education systems are a key ingredient for sustained resilience of our economies and societies over time. Quality education bolsters opportunity, social representation, political involvement, and other forms of the social fabric.
And yet, investments in education tend to be overlooked and under-allocated. For example, one in five children in Sub Saharan Africa are out of school, jeopardizing the region's ability to meet SDG 4's goal of education for all, and potentially limiting an entire generation's potential. While high demand and limited capacity constrains access to (and the quality of) education in many state systems, the low-cost non-state school sector is playing an increasingly important role in providing education in low- and middle-income countries.
Non-state schools—community-based private and nonprofit educational institutions—are increasingly vital for financial inclusion in education, especially in underserved regions where public systems are overburdened. Our first session for FIW 2024 explored how impactful partnerships with investors like our partners Oikocredit International and local banks in low- and middle-income countries are transforming access to finance for non-state schools in Africa. With insights from Mauricio Rincon, Managing Director of Capital Solutions, and Mathieu Fourn, Director of EduFinance Technical Assistance, this panel is a must-watch for anyone invested in the future of education.
Untapped Potential: Harnessing Financial Inclusion for Last Mile Healthcare
The interplay between poverty and healthcare access is critical, highlighting the role of inclusive finance in healthcare to improve health outcomes for underserved communities. Nearly 1 billion people experience catastrophic out-of-pocket health spending every year, that can plunge them back into poverty. The gap in access to essential health services is too big to close in the conventional public health sector and single solutions that operate in silo are inadequate to tackle the interrelated challenges of poverty, ill health and insufficient health system capacity worldwide—making private sector innovation critical in this post-pandemic era to build back better. There is a significant opportunity to leverage inclusive finance providers to address gaps in health service delivery and strengthen resilience in low-income communities.
In this live discussion, we tackled the critical connection between health and poverty, uncovering new ways to bring financial solutions to underserved health sectors. Moderated by our Executive Director Deborah Foy, with invaluable contributions from Annie Wang, Opportunity’s new Head of Health Initiatives, this conversation highlights innovative strategies that can change lives.
The Key Ingredient to Inclusive Technology Design: Humanity
Due to a lack of access to training, support, and financial services—people living in poverty face even greater barriers to prosperity. Rapidly emerging digital financial solutions are bridging the gap in financial inclusion, empowering individuals with the tools to build sustainable livelihoods. These inclusive technologies harness human-centered design to make financial tools accessible for all. In the years ahead, these advances—along with an expanding digitization tools that help people earn more, save more, and build their own pathways to prosperity, the possibilities for fighting poverty are limited to only our own imaginations. The real question is, what will be the most effective and impactful interventions? To determine this, we need input—human input.
Opportunity International, VisionFund International and DreamStart Labs have each been on a journey to use human-centered design processes to develop and leverage technology to facilitate financial inclusion and strengthen resilient livelihoods for excluded populations. Our fireside chat between with these partners provided valuable insights about how we’re tapping into AI and other digital interventions to create sustainable solutions to end poverty.
To make financial inclusion effective, we must design technology that centers on user needs. Human-centered, inclusive technology design is key to sustainable financial empowerment. During this session, Mary Pat McVay, our Senior Research and Knowledge Manager, and Dr. William Derban, Head of Programs and Partnerships with our Digital Innovation Group, discuss the role of human-centered design in shaping impactful financial tools for those living at the base of the economic pyramid.