SPECIAL REPORT: The “Financial Inclusion Compass 2019”: e-MFP to Launch 2nd Annual Survey of Financial Inclusion Trends

Trends trends, trends, everywhere. Discussions about the trends underway in the financial inclusion sector dominate workshops and panel debates at all major conferences, as experts peer into crystal balls and extrapolate from what is currently happening in the sector to predict what will change in the years to come.

But too often, this sort of discussion just exists in that moment, for an audience in the room, and then vanishes into the ether. What if there was a more structured way to ask stakeholders what they see as the current and future trends, capture those responses and track them over time?

The e-MFP Survey of Financial Inclusion inaugural European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) survey of financial inclusion trends was launched as a response to this question during the summer of 2018. The Financial Inclusion Compass 2018 – the paper that presented the findings from that survey of e-MFP members and other financial inclusion stakeholders – was released during European Microfinance Week (EMW) 2018 last November.

The Compass was conceived as a way to leverage e-MFP’s unique position as a knowledge hub within the sector, including by distilling some of the best debate from the annual EMW workshops. It gave a wide array of practitioners, investors, donors, academics and support service providers the opportunity – via a mixed-methodology online survey – to: (1) score and describe the importance of various Trends; (2) evaluate and give opinions on New Areas of Focus; and (3) provide open-ended qualitative input on sector challenges, opportunities, medium-term forecasts, financial service providers of the future, a policy-making “wish list” and longer-term hopes.

The results of the survey are too detailed to dig deeply into here, but they make for interesting reading. As Figure 1 illustrates, the top five most important trends were: Client Protection; Regulatory Environment; Governance; Outreach to Low-Income Segments; and Technology and New Delivery Channels. In the New Areas of Focus section, there was a clear dominance of agri-finance, with SME finance, climate change, housing and energy rounding out the top five.

Various themes emerged from the open-ended questions too, such as the perceived threat of the fintech revolution, including digital financial services to end-clients; the related importance of client protection; the emerging focus on agri-finance and its related issues of climate change adaptation, energy finance and outreach to new segments; the mixed ecosystem of financial service providers that will coexist in the future; and the key challenge of expanding financial education.

A positive reception to the survey and the Compass has meant that, one year on, e-MFP is ready to launch the second annual survey. There will be some changes, however; and plenty of time over this year has been spent gathering feedback on the survey and the publication (including at a recent dedicated event hosted by InFiNe) to ensure it asks the right questions and in the right way, while retaining the ability to compare results year-to-year in the future. There will be a deeper “dive” via dedicated questions into the top three trends of last year’s survey. Certain sections, such as the direction of trends and the policy-making “wish list,” will be rotated out to allow space for new questions.

Following last year’s inaugural survey, we at e-MFP hope to increase both the number of responses, as well as the representation of certain stakeholder groups – especially practitioners and researchers. So we ask any MicroCapital readers who are willing to give 15 minutes of their time to complete the online survey and contribute to this invaluable insight. You can help us all see not only where the sector believes it is heading and how attitudes, hopes, concerns and ideas evolve from year to year, but also one day see exactly where the sector got it wrong and where it was right.

The second annual e-MFP survey of financial inclusion trends will open in early July, and close in late August, with the Compass released in November. If you wish to participate and have not received the survey link, please visit www.e-mfp.eu or email contact[at]e-mfp.eu. Thank you!

This notice is part of a sponsored series on European Microfinance Week, which is held annually by e-MFP, a Luxembourg-based network with over 130 members. MicroCapital has been engaged to cover the event on-site since 2012.

Sources and Additional Resources

MicroCapital coverage of European Microfinance Week Since 2012
https://www.microcapital.org/category/european-microfinance-week/

European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) information on European Microfinance Week
http://www.e-mfp.eu/microfinance-week-0

European Microfinance Award
http://www.european-microfinance-award.com