National Strategies: Where Do They Get Us? A Roadmap for Financial Inclusion

This paper discusses the importance of a national microfinance strategy in defining the role that microfinance can play in a country’s development and increasing people’s access to finance. It discusses the state of national strategies in various countries, and outlines the steps involved in developing national strategies.

The paper also presents the Financial Inclusion Roadmap Exercise (FIRE) that United Nation’s Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has designed to generate national strategies that advance proven as well as new and promising approaches in financial inclusion. FIRE puts the G20 principles and other international initiatives into action by developing an evidence-based, national-led country diagnostic and dialogue, leading to development of financial inclusion roadmaps. Recommendations include:

• Scope of a national strategy should be sufficiently broad and start by recognizing the particularities of the country context;
• Strategy should focus on inclusive finance;
• Strategy should examine financial products, services, and mechanisms that best respond to contextual needs;
• Involvement of key stakeholders throughout the process is critical;
• Diagnostic tool must be sensitive enough to highlight the particularities of the country context;
• Commitment starts from the beginning and continues through implementation and monitoring.