All publications for topic

Annual Report 2023

The Annual Report 2023 highlights the achievements of the Social Finance Programme over the past year. The report covers developments in Social Finance's three streams of work: financial inclusion, impact insurance and sustainable investing.

Just Transition Finance - Pathways for banking and insurance

Promoting a just transition is essential to achieve broad-based support for ambitious climate action. In this collective effort, financial institutions play a major enabling role. This publication highlights crucial elements, emerging practices and examples of the banking and underwriting activities in promoting a just transition and serves as a guide for banks and insurance companies.

Developing an impact monitoring system for Sida’s guarantee instrument

Credit guarantees can be a powerful instrument to achieve positive development results. This paper summarises findings from case studies, conducted in Guatemala and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and illustrates their contribution to our work co-designing an impact monitoring system for Sweden’s guarantee instrument.

Just Transition Finance - Pathways for banking and insurance

Promoting a just transition is essential to achieve broad-based support for ambitious climate action. In this collective effort, financial institutions play a major enabling role. This publication highlights crucial elements, emerging practices and examples of the banking and underwriting activities in promoting a just transition and serves as a guide for banks and insurance companies.

Social Finance Brief: Financial services to enhance resilience

Banks, credit unions and microfinance institutions can boost the resilience and create a brighter future for vulnerable communities through innovative solutions. This brief explores in more detail such comprehensive services, including savings, insurance, emergency loans and financial education.

Driving better business results with women’s insurance

This publication highlights the evolving socio-economic status of women and calls for increased engagement from insurers. It provides a comprehensive roadmap to address the unique needs of women, spanning both customer and employee perspectives, with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) reporting a substantial US$1.7 trillion opportunity by 2030 when targeting women. The guide offers a six-step plan, real success stories and practical solutions, supported by the expertise of the IFC and the ILO. Its primary aim is to foster financial inclusion and promote gender equity.

Integrated financial services for better risk management

Financial institutions have a critical role in supporting vulnerable low-income households to cope with the growing risks and impact of climate change and extreme weather events. This publication highlights the importance of an integrated approach to risk management that combines insurance with other financial and non-financial services.

An impact insurance solution to build smallholder farmers' resilience

This paper explores impact insurance for smallholder farmer and what type of insurance solution can help build their resilience. The report looks at the background of inclusive insurance and suggests a framework to assess the performance of future products.

Digital wages for decent work in Indonesia - a rapid assessment

Digital wage payments (through bank accounts, mobile money wallets or prepaid cards) can benefit workers and enterprises and contribute to achieving public policy goals. But the transition from cash to responsible digital wages brings challenges such as limited financial infrastructure and new systems and tools that enterprises and workers need to adopt. The ILO's Global Centre on Digital Wages for Decent Work conducted a rapid assessment that analyses the potential for responsible digital wages in Indonesia.

Annual Report 2022

The Annual Report 2022 highlights the achievements of the Social Finance Programme over the past year. The report covers developments in Social Finance's three streams of work: financial inclusion, impact insurance and sustainable investing.

Social finance

Digital Wages for Decent Work in the Philippines: Fact sheet

The project fact sheet provides an overview of about the ILO's Global Centre on Digital Wages for Decent Work initiative in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate the responsible transition from cash to digital wage payments.

Social Finance Brief: RUFI's journey in serving refugees and host communities in South Sudan and Uganda

In this brief, focussing on “Making Finance Work for Refugees”, Social Finance documents the experience of the Rural Finance Initiative (RUFI) in South Sudan and Uganda. RUFI aims to provide financial services to rural entrepreneurs to improve their living standards. This Social Finance Brief covers RUFI's operations in the context of displacement from South Sudan to Uganda.

Social Finance Brief: Seguros Bolivar

In 2018, the Colombian insurance company Seguros Bolivar launched “Tranquilidad Pymes”, a multi-risk insurance product to protect micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Colombia. This Social Finance Brief shows how the company developed its communications and product design strategy.

Brief: Promoting responsible digital wage payments

Digital wage payments (wages paid into a bank or mobile account or a prepaid card) have become the norm for most workers worldwide. But millions of workers still lack access to them. When designed and offered responsibly, digital wage payments can benefit workers, employers, and governments, contributing to sustainable enterprises and worker well-being. This brief gives an overview of the different considerations to maximize the potential of digital wage payments.

Social Finance Brief: Suramericana Argentina

Suramericana is a company of Colombian origin with more than 70 years of experience in the Latin American insurance market. This Social Finance Brief describes Suramericana's work on providing insurance to micro, small and medium enterprises in Argentina.

Social Finance Brief: Dvara KGFS

Dvara KGFS is a non-banking financial company serving more than a million customers and enterprises in rural areas of India. This Social Finance Brief describes their integrated risk management product “Dvara Sampoorna Sampath” and how it helps households in India with risk protection and wealth creation.

Social Finance Brief: KMBI's digitalization journey

This brief features the microfinance NGO KMBI in the Philippines and a digital finance pilot for integrated risk management solutions. The brief includes lessons learned that can help other microfinance institutions.

Selling insurance through agent networks

Distribution is one of the biggest obstacles in offering insurance services to low-income households, small enterprises and rural communities. Digital channels offer new opportunities, but a more high-touch model is often needed to educate households about insurance and to build trust. Agent networks, such as those used in banking and microfinance, can help address some of these challenges faced in insurance. This brief presents ten lessons from banks, MFIs and existing experiences of insurers in establishing and using agent networks, laying out the different ways these networks can operate.

Digital wages for decent work in Peru - a rapid assessment

Digital wage payments (through bank accounts, mobile money wallets or prepaid cards) can benefit workers and enterprises and contribute to achieving public policy goals. But the transition from cash to responsible digital wages brings challenges such as limited financial infrastructure and new systems and tools that enterprises and workers need to adopt. The ILO's Global Centre on Digital Wages for Decent Work conducted a rapid assessment that analyses the potential for responsible digital wages in Peru.

Social Finance Brief: Responsible finance in the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire

This brief assesses the responsibility of financial sector actors in eliminating child labour in the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire. This includes current practices in the sector and recommendations to use their leverage role in tackling child labour.