Apolitical's 75 Most Influential Organisations in Financial Security 2021

The Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy of the Government of Benin aims to digitise a variety of sectors within the country. This has included efforts to bring digital tools to schools for young students, creating digital skills programmes for Benin's workforce, and a 2019 national Internet Universality Indicators Assessment that measured access to digital services including banking, financial education, and economic opportunities. The Ministry works closely with other agencies, global leaders, and private sector partners to invest in infrastructure and provide socially inclusive internet access and banking services to all communities regardless of geography or current access level.

Financial Sector Deepening Kenya (FSD Kenya) is an independent trust dedicated to the achievement of an inclusive financial system that supports Kenya’s long-term development goals. The trust works closely with government, the financial services industry, and other partners to develop financial solutions that better address the real-world challenges faced by low-income households, enterprises, and underserved groups, such as women and youth. FSD Kenya has worked closely with partners and stakeholders to navigate the challenges of COVID-19 and generate research and data that could be shared with decision-makers to support their efforts towards inclusive economic recovery.

The National Treasury of Kenya aims to provide leadership in economic and public finance management as well as development planning for shared growth through the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of economic, financial, and development policies. Its core functions include the management of national and county governments' financial systems and standards, development of Kenya as an international financial centre, and national and sectoral development planning. In 2017, the Treasury launched a mobile-based government bond programme, known as M-Akiba, to deepen the Treasury bond market and promote financial inclusion.

The Central Bank of Lesotho promotes the development of financial markets in Lesotho through managing official foreign reserves, implementation of monetary policy through Open Market Operations, and contracting and managing the Lesotho Government’s domestic debt through issuance and redemption of Treasury Securities. The recent establishment of the Maseru Securities Market trading platform—a non-profit institution created to facilitate the centralised trading of financial securities—has the potential to deepen the market and enhance secondary market activities. The Central Bank has also managed programmes supporting women and youth in financial markets and implements protections for lower-income consumers.

The One Economy Foundation works to bring resources and programmes to foster an economically inclusive society in Namibia. The non-profit agency focuses on microfinancing, housing, entrepreneurship training and funding, and advocacy against gender-based violence. Their ONE Nation Fund provides microfinance services to grassroots low-income entrepreneurs while also promising business mentorship and coaching, easy to understand documentation, collateral-free and administrative fee-free services, and zero interest rates. The Foundation also supports transparency in its own agency by sharing financial accountability audit reports and donor information with the public and has worked in partnership with governments and other NGOs to support COVID-19 relief efforts in Namibia.

The mission of Rwanda's Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning is to raise sustainable growth, economic opportunities, and the living standards of all Rwandans. Its goals include promoting a dynamic, efficient, and stable financial market accessible to all segments of the population and promoting a fair and flexible labour market that rewards entrepreneurship and risk-taking behaviours for economic development. The Ministry is also supporting the Rwanda Finance initiative to bring digitised government-to-person and person-to-government payments to the country to better facilitate poverty alleviation efforts and support employment.

The Ministry of ICT and Innovation in the Government of Rwanda works to address national priorities relating to economic growth and poverty reduction through the development and coordination of national policies and programs related to information, technology, communication, innovation, and citizen’s empowerment. Major programmes of work include the Digital Transformation Directorate General, which focuses on facilitating digital service delivery and infrastructure, and the Innovation and Emerging Technologies Directorate General, which establishes an innovation ecosystem for competitive startups both in Rwanda and globally. The Ministry ran a Women in Technology campaign in 2019 that focused on encouraging women to access and adopt technology through programmes such as the Digital Ambassadors Program and the Digital Opportunity Trust.

The National Treasury, one of South Africa's governmental departments, has a mission to support efficient and sustainable management of public finance in order to promote economic development, good governance, social progress, and to increase standards of living for all South Africans. The department utilised COVID-19 relief programmes with a special focus on youth-owned organisations and small and medium enterprises to encourage micro and small-to-medium enterprise (MSME) recovery across the country. The Youth Relief Fund was one of the first in the world to focus on youth-owned organisations impacted by COVID-19.

The South African Post Office (SAPO) created a cashless ATM system for social payments to address an increased need for an additional payment and interaction point for the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grants, as well as public safety concerns during COVID-19 in 2020. Creating additional points of access met the Presidency's goals of increasing economic inclusion through innovative initiatives and local economic support. SAPO provided over 10,000 cashless ATM points within spaza shops (tuck shops), post offices, and informal settlements to provide financial services close to where people live. The ATM points allow access to SASSA grant payments and the ability to conduct insurance activations and payments, including money transfer, ticketing, transport solutions, and balance inquiries. The system both increased economic access and contributed to slowing the spread of COVID-19 by decongesting historical pay points.

The primary objective of the Bank of Tanzania is to formulate, define, and implement monetary policy directed to the economic objective of maintaining domestic price stability conducive to a balanced and sustainable growth of the national economy. Its other functions include issuance of currency, regulating and supervising commercial banks and financial institutions, including mortgage financing, development financing, and lease financing, as well as regulating, monitoring, and supervising payment, clearing, and settlement systems. The Bank has also considered and supported research into banking as a right of citizenship and financial inclusion programming.

Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSD Uganda) is an independent non-profit agency promoting access to financial services in Uganda. The agency aims to develop a more inclusive financial sector with a focus on low-income individuals through research, innovation, and policy advocacy. As one of the nine FSD agencies working across sub-Saharan Africa, FSD Uganda's digital finance programmes have included working with FinTech organisations, governments, and network operators to ensure digital access as well as improved incomes and economic opportunities. It also provides grants for innovative projects which work to strengthen financial inclusion among marginalised groups, and supports the Government of Uganda in its efforts towards financial inclusion.

Central Bank of The Bahamas’s (CBB) current strategic focus is to deepen financial inclusion frameworks and support financial inclusion outcomes via a national financial inclusion strategy. In 2020, the CBB launched the ‘Sand Dollar’, a digital representation of the Bahamian dollar and one of the world’s first digital currencies launched by a central bank. The project aimed to promote more inclusive access to regulated payments and other financial services for unbanked and underbanked communities and socio-economic groups within the country. Not only does the Sand Dollar enable a safer way for residents to carry and use money, it also allows areas that lack banking services to be financially included. Historically, some banks have not provided financial services through a physical channel in rural areas due to cost considerations, whereas the digital infrastructure will be able to facilitate communication between these communities and traditional financial service providers.

The Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) performs its functions as the monetary, regulatory, and supervisory authority in accordance to guidelines issued by the National Monetary Council. Its mission is to ensure the stability of currency purchasing power to foster a sound, efficient, and competitive financial system, as well as to promote the economic wellbeing of society. With regard to price stability, the BCB considers that the best contribution of monetary policy to sustainable economic growth, low unemployment, and improvement in people’s living conditions is by keeping inflation low, stable, and predictable — in accordance with international and domestic experiences. BCB manages financial inclusion and education programmes throughout Brazil for youth, adults, and communities, and launched its Financial Citizenship programme in 2013 to promote financial inclusion, financial consumer protection, and financial education.

The Vale do Pinhão initiative by the city government of Curitiba is an ecosystem of innovative programmes that promote reurbanisation and cultivate sustainable economic growth. These programmes cover several aspects of urban life, such as entrepreneurship, urban mobility, health, education, and the environment. Partnerships are a core part of the success of Vale do Pinhão, which include the actors who aim to develop and promote innovation, including universities, technology organisations, startups, and research and development centres.

The Department of Finance for the Government of Canada is responsible for the overall stewardship of the Canadian economy, including annual budget preparation, advising on economic and fiscal matters, tax and tariff policy, and financial and social issues. In 2018, the Department conducted an open research process into open banking and open finance initiatives. The research was conducted by working with citizens, FinTech organisations, banks, non-profits, and other partners to determine how to regulate an open banking framework that supports access to new products and services for organisations and consumers while also protecting privacy and data concerns. The Department also provides financial education and resources to help Canadians budget, manage credit, and access financial tools.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) ensures federally regulated financial entities comply with consumer protection measures, promote financial education, and raise consumers’ awareness of their rights and responsibilities. The agency has focused strongly on financial inclusion in recent years in collaboration with local and global partners, particularly on vulnerable communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. FCAC promotes behavioural research-based approaches that focus on improving financial resilience regardless of circumstance. In 2021, the agency released the National Financial Literacy Strategy, a five-year plan to create a more accessible, inclusive, and effective financial literacy ecosystem for all Canadians.

FinDev Canada—the Development Finance Institute Canada, a subsidiary of Export Development Canada—focuses on promoting sustainable businesses in developing markets. Particularly, the Institute focuses on creating jobs, promoting women's economic empowerment, and contributing to a cleaner and greener environment. The agency aims to fill the gap between commercial support and development assistance and works globally to provide organisational support and local private sector activity where it contributes to sustainable development in local communities.

In 2019, Peñalolén, a Chilean commune in the province of Santiago, launched a participatory budget to give citizens a say in their neighbourhoods’ urban planning projects. In each neighbourhood, citizens could voice their opinions and vote on what they think deserves the municipality’s investment. Over 24,450 inhabitants participated in this project via an online platform. This participatory budgeting initiative was supported by the local government of Peñalolén, which aims to become a reference point in Chile for innovation, effective management, and sustainable, clean, and safe neighbourhoods.

Departamento Nacional de Planeación is a technical advisory body of the President of Colombia within the framework of the 1991 Constitution. Its purpose is to define the social, economic, and environmental strategic vision of the country through the design, orientation, and evaluation of Colombian public policies, management, and allocation of public investment. It also defines the frameworks for private sector partnership and the implementation of plans, programmes, and projects of the Government of Colombia. Colombia was one of the first countries to host a national Financial Inclusion Plan through its governing bodies, and the plan supports financial inclusion for a variety of communities and individuals.

The Social Prosperity Department is the entity responsible for designing, coordinating, and implementing public policies to overcome poverty and promote social equity in Colombia. It has a number of policies and programmes to promote social and financial inclusion, most of which sit in the Subdirectorate for Programmes and Projects. To illustrate, the Familias en su Tierra (Families in their Land) programme contributes to the socioeconomic stabilisation of households that are victims of forced displacement by providing them with training in agricultural techniques for self-consumption, as well as providing guidance to improve nutritional habits.

The National Corporation for Popular and Solidarity Finance (CONAFIPS) has played an integral role within the area of financial inclusion in Ecuador. It aims to serve and develop the popular and solidarity sector — a term used to broadly describe MSMEs, cooperatives, fair-trade organisations, and NGOs engaged in income-generating activities. CONAFIPS has supported this sector by providing credit lines, including credit to cofinance inclusion programmes with other development agencies, credit for sustainable land use, and credit for young entrepreneurs.

The Secretariat of the Finance and Public Credit, Mexico, has implemented and managed one of the first national financial inclusion plans to support financial access for individuals and communities throughout the country. The plan focused on a few key objectives, such as improving access and adoption of digital financial tools, addressing a gender gap with respect to banking access, increasing available credit for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and decreasing geographical disparities between urban and rural areas. In addition to the Expanding Rural Finance Project, which brought almost 200 participating financial intermediaries to work with organisations across the country from 2016-2020, the Secretariat also supported the Financial Inclusion Development Policy Financing Project in 2019, a set of financial inclusion reforms created in collaboration with the Central Bank of Mexico. The project sought to create access to innovative and technology-based products, such as market insurance through FinTech. It also expanded the menu of banking products for the unbanked population provided by State Development Banks, including self-insurance and electronic payments systems that offer a safe and efficient alternative to cash.

The mission of Peru's Ministry of Economy and Finance is to harmonise economic and financial policy through transparency and fiscal responsibility, thereby contributing to the sustained economic growth of the country. Its institutional strategic objectives include reactivating investment aimed at closing gaps in social and productive infrastructure, improving the quality of public spending at the various levels of government, and optimising transparency and accountability in the public sector. The Ministry has also promoted multisectoral financial inclusion through the adoption and implementation of the country's National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS).

The Peruvian Superintendency of Banking, Insurance and Private Pension Funds (SBS) is the body in charge of regulating and supervising the financial, insurance, private pension and savings, and credit cooperative systems, as well as preventing and detecting money laundering and terrorist financing. Its vision is to create a solid, integral, and inclusive financial system. As a consequence of Peru's National Strategy for Financial Inclusion, SBS has collaborated with the Ministry of Education to establish a National Financial Education Plan, which has led to several initiatives to promote financial literacy amongst children and youth.

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of 261 affiliated professors at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomised impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. It translates research into action, promoting a culture of evidence-informed policy-making around the world. Its policy analysis and outreach helps governments, NGOs, donors, and the private sector apply evidence from randomised evaluations to their work, and contributes to public discourse around some of the most pressing questions in social policy and international development. Today, J-PAL’s core staff includes more than 400 research, policy, education, and training professionals across seven offices worldwide.

The Aspen Institute is a global non-profit organisation committed to realising a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Aspen Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world. The goal is to create spaces or programmes for likeminded individuals to come together and work towards a greater good. One such programme is the Financial Security Program (FSP), which aims to illuminate and solve the most critical financial challenges facing American households and to make financial security a top national priority for all. In particular, one of the FSP's initiatives is the Consumer Insights Collaborative, which is an effort across nine leading non-profit organisations to collectively understand and amplify data for the public good, specifically about the financial lives of low- and moderate-income households.

Based at the United Nations, the Better Than Cash Alliance is a partnership of governments, companies, and international organisations that aims to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by accelerating the transition from cash to responsible digital payments. The Alliance has 77 members which are committed to digitising payments in order to boost efficiency, transparency, women’s economic participation, financial inclusion, and helping to build economies that are digital and inclusive. Rather than seeking to abolish physical cash, members want to provide responsible digital payment options that are “better than cash”. The Alliance Secretariat works with members on their journey to digitise payments by providing advisory services based on their priorities, sharing action-oriented research, fostering peer learning on responsible practices, and conducting advocacy at national, regional, and global levels.

The Brookings Institution is a non-profit public policy organisation based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to conduct in-depth research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national, and global level. In particular, the organisation's Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative aims to advance the equity and economic prospects of low-income Americans and communities of colour. In its initial phase, the initiative aims to anchor its strategy on two broad themes: improving the economic mobility prospects for young men of colour, and bringing marginalised low-income communities back into the economic mainstream.

The Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) is an independent global think tank that uses rigorous research and advocacy to advance inclusive financial systems for low-income people around the world. It focuses on inclusive finance needs that are directly related to improving outcomes for low-income consumers. While the CFI continues its work on improving consumer protection and empowerment on important market infrastructure issues, it also elevates work in three areas of focus: climate change, gender inequality, and data opportunities and risks. Its vision requires doing additional research on how financial services can both reduce risks and help customers adapt to the reality of climate change. It also involves conducting additional research and experimentation on how to address the remaining policy and norms barriers that impede progress on women’s participation in the formal financial system. Finally, the CFI seeks to better understand the risks and opportunities that the new digital economy and the use of data pose for customers so that it can identify innovative solutions for managing those risks through regulation, data practices by providers, and industry-wide solutions.

Santa Monica was one of just five cities awarded US$1 million by Bloomberg Philanthropies to launch The Wellbeing Project. At the core of The Wellbeing Project is the Wellbeing Index, a measurement tool that provides an understanding of wellbeing in the community. The Index does this by providing a baseline for understanding what contributes to wellbeing and how the city and community can work to improve it. To do this, it combines existing city data and determines what new types of data are needed, including metrics for how people access and utilise financial services, which the programme then works to match the City with agencies in other sectors to meet needs identified through the index.

The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) is a global partnership of more than 30 leading development organisations that work to advance the lives of low-income individuals through financial inclusion. Using action-oriented research, CGAP tests, learns, and shares knowledge intended to help build inclusive and responsible financial systems that move individuals out of poverty, protect their economic gains, and advance broader development goals. The group researches and experiments to achieve proof of concepts and extract lessons that can be built to scale by its partners who can then apply its insights in the marketplace. In delivering on its mission of empowering low-income individuals and people with incomes below the poverty line, particularly women, to use financial services relevant to their needs, CGAP focuses on three areas: income generation, essential services, and protecting basic standards of living.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a US federal agency that helps consumer finance markets work by making regulations more effective, consistently and fairly enforcing rules, and empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives. CFPB protects consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices and takes action against organisations that break the law. The agency conducts multiple national financial inclusion projects and financial education projects each year, providing information, steps, and tools that enable citizens to make informed financial decisions.

Located within the Development Economics Vice Presidency, the Development Research Group (DRG) is the World Bank's principal research department. DRG researchers provide support to the World Bank's various regions and support the collection of global practices to ensure all countries have access to international development knowledge and tools. The department produces the majority of the World Bank’s research. This includes a specialised team for the Finance and Private Sector Development Research Program (FPSDRP), which focuses on understanding how an effective financial system contributes to economic development and identifies which policies work best to improve the efficiency, stability, and reach of the financial system in developing countries. Its current focus, on financial inclusion and access to financial services, led to the creation and implementation of the Global Findex database — the world’s most comprehensive dataset on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk.

The Dignity + Debt Network is a group of experts across a dozen countries developing meaningful, data-rich analyses and innovative financial services for low- and moderate-income households. Rather than using stories and texts as anecdotes, the network combines both richly detailed case studies and experiments and computational analyses of large bodies of texts to assess the meanings and values that affect financial capability and wellbeing. This type of cutting-edge research allows members to focus on recommendations for redesigning existing financial services to support human dignity, and to design and test new dignity-affirming financial products. The network is hosted by the Social Science Research Council and Princeton University.

GiveDirectly is a global non-governmental organisation that connects donors directly with recipients for digital cash transfers. The agency provides an end-to-end platform that enables funders to provide direct cash transfers to those living in extreme poverty for which it has been the recipient of both a Google Global Impact Award and a top rating from GiveWell. GiveDirectly focuses on allowing beneficiaries the dignity to make choices about the funds that they receive through aid programmes and has delivered over US$400 million to people in need since 2009. It also conducts research on its work with the purpose of sharing with donors and to aid organisations to improve outcomes for aid programmes.

The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women (HSCSW) is a statewide feminist government agency that works toward equality for women and girls in Hawaii by acting as a catalyst for positive change through advocacy, education, collaboration, and programme development. It was created to function as a central clearinghouse of resources, services, and advocacy for women and girls. It was established to assist in legislative advocacy and implementation to develop programmes for women and girls, and to serve as an informational resource for Hawaii’s women and girls on a broad range of policies and issues, including social and financial inclusion. It has also produced a Feminist Economic Recovery Plan to support women and girls in the recovery from COVID-19.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, advances economic development and improves the lives of people by encouraging the growth of the private sector in developing countries. It helps advance financial inclusion through investments in the financial sector through the provision of advisory services to investment clients and other private sector clients, and through the provision of advisory services to stakeholders in financial infrastructure. One instance of this is through its Financial Institutions Group, which invests in financial institutions and financial service providers across sub-Saharan Africa to advance financial inclusion and increase access to finance for underserved markets. It also provides advisory services to clients to strengthen institutions and increase capacity to provide the relevant products and services to new markets. It works with approximately 160 financial intermediaries on the continent to enable them to play a constructive role in economic growth, to reinforce responsible finance, and to introduce environmental and social standards to many clients for the first time.

The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), at the US Department of Commerce, is the only federal agency dedicated to advancing the establishment and growth of minority-owned organisations in the US. Through a network of minority organisational centres and strategic partners, MBDA works with minority entrepreneurs who wish to grow their organisations in size, scale, and capacity so that they are better positioned to create jobs, impact local economies, and expand into national and global markets. MBDA has spent more than four decades increasing the competitiveness of minority-owned organisations.

The San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) is a unique private-public partnership housed within the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector of San Francisco that convenes, innovates, and advocates to strengthen the economic security and mobility of all San Franciscans. For more than a decade, the OFE has engaged partners inside and outside City Hall to equip San Franciscans with knowledge, skills, and resources to strengthen their financial health and wellbeing. At the same time, the OFE has leveraged what has worked on the ground to model what is possible across the country. The office runs many programmes including banking access, child savings accounts, and financial education.

The Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) supports thriving communities through an integrated and equitable approach to planning and community investment. It works across city departments to assess community needs, prioritise resources, and develop a vision for how Seattle can grow to ensure that it is coordinating and implementing its plans with a cohesive vision. It is working toward a city that is inclusive, affordable, vibrant, interconnected, and innovative. OPCD partners with neighbourhoods, organisations, and agencies to bring about positive change and coordinate investments for Seattle communities. Its areas of work include citywide initiatives, community planning, and place-making. Additionally, the Seattle Planning Commission released a Racially Equitable Recovery Plan to address the impact COVID-19 had on Seattle residents and organisations.

UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. It was established to accelerate progress on meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes, and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. One of the priority areas of work for UN Women is ensuring that women globally have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy. To this effect, it provides research, policy support, and programming to ensure gender equality in both economic and political spheres.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides dozens of programmes to support financial resilience by addressing needs for both rental housing and homeownership. These efforts enable low-income access to safe housing for rental units as well as assisting first-time homebuyers to increase their financial stability by investing in their first real estate property. HUD also works on interrelated policy areas that support financial inclusion, such as affordable housing development and preservation, community and economic development, environment and energy, fair housing, health and housing, ending homelessness, homeownership, rental assistance, and supportive housing and services.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is Australia's integrated corporate markets, financial services, and consumer credit regulator. It is an independent Australian Government body set up under the ASIC Act 2001. Under the Act, ASIC's has a number of roles, one of which is to promote confident and informed participation by consumers and investors in financial services and markets. Over the last decade, ASIC has led and coordinated three national strategies—National Financial Literacy Strategy 2011, National Financial Literacy Strategy 2014-17, and National Financial Capability Strategy 2018—all of which have laid out how the commission can fulfil this particular role with the provision of consumer education. One consequence of these strategies is the development of the Moneysmart programme — an online set of resources for consumers on how to make better informed financial decisions, which includes simple tools, tips, and calculators for people of all backgrounds. It has proven to be a valuable resource as evidenced by Moneysmart being visited by 1 in 2 Australian adults in 2019 and 2020.

The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) works to empower people and communities in situations of poverty, illiteracy, disease, and social injustice. BRAC's interventions aim to achieve large scale, positive changes through economic and social programmes that enable people to realise their potential. Its support for skills development, microfinance, and education help increase financial security for a number of the country's most vulnerable communities, including women and youth. It also supports social development, social enterprise, and human rights agencies and programmes in other countries. In 2020, BRAC reached over 700,000 students and provided financial services to over 8 million people in Bangladesh alone.

The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs of the Government of Bangladesh is responsible for the formulation of policies that promote the institutionalisation and development of policies that impact women and children. It recently implemented a five-year project called 'Catalysing Women’s Entrepreneurship: Creating a Gender-Responsive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem', which recommended policy and programme actions to support women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which made up only 7.2% of the country's SMEs. The initiative also seeks to increase the amount of credit available to support women entrepreneurship in an effort to improve women's access to banking and mobile products to support entrepreneurship, and to create educational programmes and trainings.

Founded in 2019, the Entrepreneurship Development Fund (EDF) is a trust fund supported by the Royal Government of Cambodia to promote economic diversification, innovation, and decent job creation. It supports entrepreneurs, innovative startups, potential small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and partners with institutions who will implement innovative activity and create economic value in Cambodia’s economy. Programmes include seed funding, capacity-building, networking, and support for building an entrepreneurial culture in the country. To assist SMEs and entrepreneurs with the impact of COVID-19, EDF created a three-year plan to increase access to capital, support adoption of digital practices to reduce costs, and provide grants to support economic recovery.

The Ministry of Rural Development was commissioned by the Royal Government of Cambodia to lead and manage the rural development sector of Cambodia. Its mission is twofold. First, it seeks to respond to the urgent short-term needs of the Cambodian rural population, which may result from natural or human-made disasters. Second, it seeks to establish long-term sustainable development in all rural areas by encouraging self-sufficiency, so that the socioeconomic status of the rural population is gradually improved while reducing rural-urban inequality. This includes strategies such as organising regional Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) centres for people living in rural areas as necessary, or overseeing the implementation of rural development programmes to improve rural roads, water supply, and primary healthcare.

The National Bank Cambodia (NBC), the Kingdom of Cambodia's central bank, is the monetary and supervisory authority. The mission of the NBC is to determine and direct the monetary policy aimed at maintaining price stability in order to facilitate economic development within the framework of the kingdom's economic and financial policy. It conducts this in consultation with the Royal Government and in consideration of the framework of the economic and financial policy of the kingdom. As the monetary authority, the NBC maintains monetary stability as the sole issuer of the Khmer riel — the national currency. As the supervisory authority, the NBC also has the authority to license, de-license, regulate, and supervise banks and financial institutions in Cambodia. Moreover, it conducts regular economic and monetary analysis, publishes various publications, oversees the nation's payment systems, establishes balance of payments, and participates in the management of external debt claims.

Established in 2012, and supported by four financial regulators and the Education Bureau, the Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC) is an organisation dedicated to improving financial literacy in Hong Kong. The IFEC manages an independent and impartial financial education platform, the Chin Family, which provides free information and resources and programmes to help people in Hong Kong plan and manage their finances. It is a public organisation whose mission is to equip the public with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to make informed financial decisions and manage their money wisely. It also works in partnership with government agencies and the finance, education, and community sectors to create and deliver financial literacy resources and training through a variety of campaigns and programmes.

Since 2001, Pemberdayaan Perempuan Kepala Keluarga (Women-Headed Family Empowerment), also known as PEKKA, has addressed social and economic exclusion of women-headed households in Indonesia. Indonesian marriage law states that household heads are men, and does not recognise women in this capacity. The PEKKA community works proactively as an actor to change formal structures (visible power), values and beliefs (invisible power), and informal structures (hidden power) by promoting access and control over resources and decision-making, and internalisation of new values. As such, it seeks to influence economic, political, juridical, social, and cultural dimensions of power.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is the civic body that governs the inner limits of Pune, India and is in charge of the civic needs and infrastructure of the metropolis. It supports 'the Lighthouse' — a sustainable livelihood programme for urban disadvantaged youth focused on fostering agency and workplace competencies and skills in youth. The programme provides an 80-hour foundational course and continued support to youth in Pune and has so far opened five Lighthouse centres; an additional 10 are planned by the end of 2021 to ensure every youth in Pune has access to a Lighthouse programme. By 2022, PMC expects over 20,000 youth alumni of the programme.

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) was founded on the idea that a global knowledge exchange platform was key to expanding and improving financial inclusion policies. It operates as a policy leadership alliance that is owned and led by member central banks and financial regulatory institutions with the common objective of advancing financial inclusion at country, regional, and international levels. It does so by partnering with regulators, international organisations, and private sector leaders to drive practical solutions and facilitate the implementation of impactful policy changes through its cooperative model that embeds peer learning, knowledge exchange, and peer transformation. As a result of its collaboration with key stakeholders, the Alliance for Financial Inclusion has built an unrivalled collection of resource materials, covering all aspects of financial inclusion, including SME finance, consumer empowerment, COVID-19, youth financial inclusion, and others.

Nepal Rastra Bank, the Central Bank of Nepal, was established in 1956 under the Nepal Rastra Bank Act to discharge central banking responsibilities, including guiding the development of the domestic financial sector. Since establishment, there has been significant growth in both the number and the activities of the domestic financial institutions in the country. In September 2018, the Nepal Financial Inclusion Portal was launched in Kathmandu by the Governor of the Central Bank to map out all financial access points across Nepal. Prior to this, there was no digital system in place whereby the Central Bank could collect, evaluate, and analyse data submitted by financial institutions. The portal thus holds the potential to eliminate the human errors of managing big data, support data-driven policy formulation, and shape the financial inclusion landscape.

The Philippines's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is responsible for realising the country’s goal of a globally competitive and innovative industry and services sector that contributes to inclusive growth and employment generation. DTI works under the Philippine Development Plan to reduce inequality and poverty by expanding economic opportunities and by increasing access for micro and small-to-medium enterprises (MSMEs), cooperatives, and overseas Filipinos. Its work with MSMEs includes addressing specific industry needs for technology development, financing, marketing, and training. It also works to support policies that promote the advancement of MSMEs in the areas of entrepreneurship development, institutional strengthening, and productivity improvement.

The Social Development Division (SDD) at United Nations ESCAP promotes social protection, fosters gender equality, and strengthens social inclusion of persons with disabilities, older persons, youth, and migrants. As part of its strategy to enhance women’s economic empowerment, ESCAP is supporting efforts to foster enabling conditions for women’s entrepreneurship. Its new regional initiative on ’Catalysing Women’s Entrepreneurship’ deploys a multi-pronged approach, including an enabling environment for women to build and grow their organisations, improved access to financial services and capital, as well as increased use of ICT tools and innovative technology in their organisational operations. Funded by the Government of Canada, this regional initiative brings together governments, civil society organisations, the private sector, and development partners to galvanise support for scaling up investments toward closing gender gaps in economic participation and unleashing women’s creative potential.

The Ministry of Education and Training has supported, and continues to support, the implementation of Vanuatu's National Financial Inclusion Strategy (2018–2023). The strategy, executed by a group of cross-sectoral departments and stakeholders, provides a road map of a financial inclusion journey with the ultimate aim of improving access to and usage of appropriate financial services by the underserved adult population and micro and small-to-medium enterprises in Vanuatu. Specifically, the Ministry's role is to assist with the introduction of financial literacy and entrepreneurship education within targeted curriculums at targeted educational institutions. Previously, the Ministry has had success in this area, overseeing the integration of financial education (FinED) into the school curriculum at the primary level (years 1–3).

The Agency for Enterprise Development, Ministry of Planning and Investment of the Government of Vietnam worked with the United Nations to create a plan for a gender-responsive entrepreneurship programme. The Agency deemed this programme critical as it estimates that while women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up 21% of Vietnam's SME sector, they face numerous challenges, including limited access to finance and technology, low levels of financial and digital literacy, and discriminatory cultural norms. To address this, the Agency is conducting a needs assessment with women entrepreneurs while also mobilising and collecting existing resources to support women entrepreneurs and creating an action plan to build additional resources in the coming years.

The City of Vienna's Department for Housing, Housing Construction, and Urban Renewal's research programme has expanded substantially not only financially, but also research-wise in recent years. A new framework programme has been developed to define current research areas and to integrate research activities into current developments concerning the areas of habitation, housing construction, and urban renewal. The city's affordable housing research projects, in particular, have focused on cost reduction through planning, pilot projects on low-cost housing construction, land use efficiency in housing construction, and financing and subsidy options.

The Government of Estonia’s project to facilitate citizen interactions with the state through the use of electronic solutions, e-Estonia, has digitised 99% of government services since its inception, and has promoted digitisation of such diverse government roles as business registration, citizenship, voting, and state services. The project has seen a number of successes, including increasing the number of Estonian residents with an ID card to 99%, over 40% of whom use a smart-ID service. This, along with Estonia’s simplified electronic tax and banking system, has facilitated greater financial inclusion with citizens and organisations who are now able to more easily make secure transactions, file taxes, and register new organisations online. The country has also ranked first in the UN's e-Government Survey in 2020 for its rates of electronic participation. Since 2009, Estonia has shared this knowledge with other countries and agencies interested in implementing digitisation programmes, including hosting over 74,000 visitors from over 130 countries and over 5,000 learning delegations.

The City of Bordeaux has utilised a sustainable participatory budgeting process that enables citizens to have direct input on the public services, actions, and programmes that the city implements to support them economically. Launched in 2019, the process allows citizens to submit projects that are then subjected to a public vote. Each project submitted must work towards the goal of increasing sustainability or resiliency, or both, in the city. By the city requesting proposals from citizens that empower residents to share ideas for how to address pressing issues—such as climate change, the digital revolution, changing demographics, financing strategies, and territorial reform—it promotes active civic engagement and inspires collective participation from all residents regardless of age, citizenship status, or nationality—in budgetary and decision-making processes.

The Federal Ministry of Finance for the Government of Germany focused its COVID-19 stimulus and recovery efforts on particularly vulnerable groups and communities, including children, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and support for small governments facing public losses from a lack of local tax revenue. In addition, the use of Germany’s established short-time work subsidy, 'Kurzarbeit', has played a critical role in retaining jobs throughout the pandemic recovery process. Germany also encouraged domestic spending by reducing tax rates and supporting social infrastructure to support unemployed and underemployed individuals during the pandemic.

The Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt is a Roman Catholic research university in Eichstätt and Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. Together with its partners, the University has embarked on a research project called Finance in Displacement (FIND) in Jordan, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Mexico. The project seeks to better understand how refugees manage their financial and economic lives in the context of protracted displacement, including their financial challenges and the strategies or resources they can use to overcome them. It then matches project partners and funds to meet the needs of those they assist.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and specialised United Nations agency based in Rome (the UN’s food and agriculture hub). Since 1978, it has provided US$23.2 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached an estimated 518 million people. IFAD specifically invests in people living in rural areas with the aim to empower them to increase their food security, improve the nutrition of their families, and increase their incomes. One such example of this is its Financial Inclusion and Cluster Development (FINCLUDE) Project, which is a collaboration between the IFAD and the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini (GOE) through the Ministry of Finance (MoF). The objective of the project is to increase returns from sustainable farm and non-farm enterprise for people living in rural areas, including low-income individuals and youth, through resilient links to markets and access to appropriate financial services.

The government of the Netherlands supports multiple financial tools that relate to building access to financial services as a prerequisite for economic development that benefits everyone. With the understanding that savings, transactions (including online transfers), insurance, and loans promote economic activity and self-reliance among low-income groups and small businesses, the Netherlands supports these efforts in its own and other countries with a range of activities. The Dutch Good Growth Fund, for example, is an innovative revolving fund launched in mid-2014 in response to the growth in Dutch and local SMEs in low- and middle-income countries. It provides local finance by, for instance, participating in the GroFin Small and Growing Businesses Fund, which in turn invests in SMEs in order to boost employment in selected African countries. The Ministry of Finance also hosts multiple financial education tools, including the MoneyWise Platform, to encourage financial literacy.

Banco de Portugal, Portugal’s central bank, is responsible for The National Plan for Financial Education, an ongoing project to improve the financial knowledge of Portuguese citizens and support financial inclusion by increasing access to minimum banking services such as a demand deposit account and essential payment services. As a result of the most recent Plan (2016-20), various initiatives have been developed for the provision of better financial education across different groups, such as school children, university students, vulnerable groups, and entrepreneurs/managers of micro and small-to-medium enterprises (MSMEs). One outcome of the Plan is better digital resources, such as an e-learning platform that allows the Portuguese population to learn how to better save and invest, make payments, get credit, and take out insurance.

Sweden’s government aims to ensure that women and men have equal power to shape society and their own lives under the guiding principle that gender equality is a goal in itself, but is also essential for achieving the government’s foreign policy objectives of peace, security, and sustainable development. The government's feminist foreign policy informs all Swedish Foreign Service activities and contributes to global gender equality and the full enjoyment of human rights by all women and girls. Its work is organised around three Rs: rights, representation, and resources. These three Rs include many financial empowerment and financial access programmes designed to build more inclusion for women in the financial marketplace.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, provides vital assistance to refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced and stateless people around the globe. Its Livelihoods and Economic Inclusion programme focuses on bringing economic opportunities back to those it supports. This includes education, coordination of assistance programmes, support for micro and small-to-medium enterprises (MSMEs), poverty alleviation, and inclusive market systems. It also supports MADE51 — a programme which brings refugee-made products to the international market with a network of social enterprise partners who work with refugees to design, produce, and market artisanal products around the world.

The Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP) comes up with new policy ideas to tackle the root causes of inequality by harnessing the best of central and local government to help build a fairer, more productive economy. It empowers local leaders by codesigning policy ideas to help them deliver change on the ground. CPP's Inclusive Growth Network, for example, includes 12 councils across the UK—from Belfast, Cardiff, and Glasgow to Liverpool, Manchester, and London—that are developing and piloting new ideas in their communities to drive the inclusive growth agenda in the UK and internationally. The Centre also works with central government to inform and shape policy and debate, and to drive strategies for inclusive growth strategy at a national level. As part of its work across the political spectrum and with central government, CPP is research partner to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Inclusive Growth.

The Centre for Social Justice's (CSJ) vision is for those living in the most disadvantaged communities across the UK to be given every opportunity to flourish and reach their full potential. It brings this vision to life by seeking to influence the policies the UK government creates and the laws it makes to address the root causes of poverty. The CSJ is best known for its major ‘Breakthrough Britain’ reports, which identified the five Pathways to Poverty, which include family breakdown, educational failure, worklessness, addiction and crime, and problem debt and housing.

The Financial Health Exchange has worked for 10 years to support both individuals and agencies in the UK with better financial health and financial inclusion practices. To achieve this, the organisation shares and promotes knowledge and resources that can help transform financial health, including working with social housing providers, financial services providers, local governments, and non-governmental organisations. It also supports policy and advocacy research to provide clear data and tools about the financial pathways of individuals, organisations, and communities.

The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) is an arm’s-length body, sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions, with a joint commitment to ensuring that people throughout the UK have guidance and access to the information they need to make effective financial decisions over their lifetime. It delivers this commitment across five core functions: pension guidance, debt advice, money guidance, consumer protection, and strategy. Since MaPS was formed in 2019, it has operated three legacy consumer facing brands: the Money Advice Service, the Pensions Advisory Service, and Pension Wise. It brings these financial guidance services and content together to make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for in one joined-up service.

The Prince's Trust is a UK-based third sector organisation with a mission to help youth transform their lives by developing the confidence and skills to live, learn, and earn. It achieves these aims with a host of programmes and initiatives to help young people get into employment. One such programme, the Get Into Programme, is run in partnership with leading employers—HSBC, ASOS, and the NHS—providing youth who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) with intensive employability skills training, as well as sector-specific or vocational skills training. It also seeks to provide a period of job shadowing to give youth the real-world experience they need to move into sustainable employment. In 2020, the programme helped almost 6,000 youth secure jobs.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine has partnered with organisations and civil society to create ProZorro — a hybrid, open source government e-procurement system. ProZorro is able to control procurement and track whether public agencies are using taxpayer money efficiently and transparently. The hybrid system allows for interaction between a state-owned central database and commercial platforms, whereby the public can see all the information about submitted proposals from auction participants, including decisions by the tender commission and qualification documents. The code system is freely available for download and use. In two years of operation, it has saved the government US$1.9 billion of budget funds.

The Department of Finance for the Government of Dubai (DOF) was established in 1995 to supervise all financial and accounting affairs of the Government of Dubai in addition to issuing consolidated financial statements for the emirate's government. It is also responsible for the development and execution of the government's general annual budget in cooperation with all relevant local government entities, among other roles. Moreover, DOF has implemented innovative digitisation programmes for government-to-business and business-to-government payments as part of its Smart Dubai initiative.

The Ministry of Economy and Industry of Israel is one of the operational government ministries responsible for providing tools and support mechanisms designed to advance the Israeli economy and encourage financial growth. The ministry provides services and information in development and investment, foreign trade, regulation and enforcement, domestic trade, and standards. It has contributed close to US$2 million to the International Finance Corporation's TechEmerge Program in India, Brazil, and East Africa between FY16 and FY20, where FY stands for fiscal year. TechEmerge connects innovative proven technology organisations from around the world with corporates in emerging markets to conduct local pilot projects and build commercial partnerships.