October 04, 2024

The concept of "financial inclusion" has been shaping development programs in countries of the global South since the early 2000s. The aim is to make people affected by poverty part of the "formal" (i.e. Western) economic system by improving access to affordable and secure financial services such as loans, savings accounts or insurance, which in turn promises its participants economic development, prosperity and emancipation. In this paper, we present two examples of these approaches to financial inclusion in more detail: Microfinance and mobile payment systems. We look at where these approaches come from, what principles underpin them and assess them from a social sustainability perspective.