Following decades of armed conflict, providing rural Colombians with financial services is essential to building an inclusive economy and promoting stability.
Case Study: Local Definitions and Metrics of Inclusion for Financial Institutions in Colombia .
Case Study | November 16, 2023
Mainstreaming inclusion in international development means all groups, regardless of identity, are visible, meaningfully represented, and active participants in development programming.
This case study explores how financial institutions define, measure, and track financial and social inclusion and identify what proactive activities they are undertaking to be more financially and socially inclusive. We interviewed 17 key informants from four Colombian financial institutions that participated in the USAID/Colombia Rural Finance Initiative project implemented by Chemonics. The financial institutions are crucial local private sector actors and the primary organizational touchpoints for supporting economic activities among a large segment of Colombia’s rural population. This study shows the importance of enabling local partners to define, measure, and track what success looks like for them with important implications for international development programs.