A wide range of development agencies, philanthropies, and private investors, have committed billions of dollars in a global effort to advance financial inclusion. Public funders, which include multilateral organizations, bilateral agencies and development financial institutions (DFIs), offer a range of funding instruments such as grants, investments, and support in the form of technical assistance. Public funders support financial inclusion as a means to reach development outcomes, such as the Sustainable Development Goals. For private investors, the incentive is the return on investment, whether financial, social, or both. Investments are made using debt, equity, or guarantees and are typically directed to refinancing and strengthening the capacity of financial service providers, improving market infrastructure, and refining the regulatory environment.

Today, microfinance is one of the most advanced asset classes within the impact investing sphere. A diverse range of microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) channel funding from investors to financial services providers, and increasingly, other types of business models that provide financial services for the poor. By the end of 2018, assets under management of MIVs were about $16.9 billion. While MIVs need to generate financial returns, asset managers have developed social and environmental metrics to measure the impact of their investments and are increasingly integrating sustainability and social responsibility norms into decision-making and monitoring processes and practices.

Many funders are now diversifying their investments to include not just microfinance institutions, but also other players in the market who are working on digital financial services, agent networks, and other market infrastructure initiatives.

The FinDev Gateway has partnered with CGAP's Member Engagement and Governance team to create these resources on Investment and Funding Landscape.

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Curated by FinDev editors, this Topic Hub offers you access to key resources contributed by organizations around the world who work on the topic of the funding landscape for financial inclusion and microfinance. Our latest blogs and publications on this topic are featured here (in the Resources Tab above), and you can find a collection of papers, case studies and guides to explore further. When there are upcoming webinars, events and recent news on this topic, they will be featured in the Topic Hub as well, so make sure to come back regularly for the latest on this topic. Finally, we’ve selected some key additional resources, which are listed on the right here, where you can learn even more about this topic.

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