Category: Finance

Making the financial sector truly work for both women and men will require a systemic shift. This starts with better understanding the underlying norms driving the behavior of all actors, and then designing interventions that can make change happen. Invisible gender-norm-based barriers prevent the financial system from meeting women’s needs at scale. Recent market system gender […]

Many nonprofits face growing pressure from their donors and other funders to do more with less as their costs rise and their budgets don’t keep up. One way these organizations are responding is by trying to save money on their staffing by hiring contractors, consultants and temporary staff instead of full-time employees. But those flexible […]

As climate events become more frequent and intense, inclusive FSPs are increasingly being asked to conduct Physical Climate Risk Assessments by regulators, investors, and other stakeholders. Physical Climate Risk Assessments (PCRA) quantify how climate-related hazards (like floods, cyclones, or droughts) are likely to impact a financial institution’s portfolio and operations.   Physical Climate Risk Assessments […]

Physical Climate Risk Assessments (PCRA) are an essential tool for financial service providers (FSPs) to quantify and prepare for an increasing range of climate-related threats.   Our previous blog outlined three core questions that an FSP should ask before embarking on a PCRA to ensure that it is strategically useful, rather than just a tick-box […]

Mental health challenges can affect anyone, regardless of background or circumstance, and they are becoming more common across the United States. In 2022, a national survey found that about 60 million American adults – approximately 23% of the U.S. adult population – were living with a mental illness, defined as a diagnosable mental, emotional or […]

Financial sector authorities started to develop National Financial Inclusion Strategies (NFIS) in the early 2000s. Today, they remain a key policy tool to expand financial inclusion through collaboration between public and private stakeholders.   But NFIS are not only about broadening access—they also provide a window into how countries are approaching responsible finance. By looking […]

About one-third of U.S. nonprofit service providers experienced a disruption in their government funding in the first half of 2025. That’s what we found when we teamed up with Urban Institute researchers to collect nationally representative survey data from 2,737 nonprofits across the country. These organizations run food pantries, deliver job training and offer mental […]

This is the second blog in CGAP’s Digital Merchant Payments series. Read the first blog for context on the urgent need to accelerate digital merchant payments. Despite mobile money’s remarkable success in Sub-Saharan Africa—with approximately 856 million registered mobile money accounts processing over 912 billion USD annually —digital merchant payments (DMP) remain stubbornly limited. Cash […]

Pakistan, once again, has been hit by devastating floods that have displaced thousands, disrupted livelihoods, and highlighted the country’s acute vulnerability to climate change, even as many are still recovering from the floods of 2022.   For financial service providers (FSPs) working with low-income communities, such crises underscore an urgent question: how can they build […]

In the evolving landscape of Africa’s digital economy, cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) has emerged as a transformative force, particularly for rural women entrepreneurs. For women cross-border traders, many of whom engage in agriculture, CBEC and simplified trade procedures offer an opportunity to expand beyond local markets, boost their incomes, and create a financial footprint that can […]