Our insights

This piece highlights the urgent need to shift climate finance toward bottom-up approaches that support vulnerable communities with green energy, financial access, and climate adaptation tools. It distinguishes green from climate finance, stresses the transformative role of digital financial services, and showcases SCBF’s support for tech-enabled solutions like insurance and solar microloans. It calls for innovation, impact focus, and collaboration in green inclusive finance to address climate resilience and development goals.

This summary outlines VisionFund's efforts to expand access to health microinsurance for vulnerable communities by partnering with local insurers and World Vision. Supported by SCBF, a two-year pilot in Ghana and Malawi tested microinsurance delivery to savings groups. The report highlights the pilot’s outcomes, evaluation process, key lessons learned, and proposed steps for scaling the initiative to enhance financial protection for low-income families.

In this republished Cenfri blog, based on a project supported by SCBF in Kenya, key lessons emerged on improving health microinsurance (HMI) for low-income clients through Britam and M-TIBA’s offering. The research highlights the importance of perceived value, effective onboarding, simplicity, human interaction alongside digital tools, and well-trained healthcare partners. These insights are being used to refine the product and enhance customer experience, with the aim of boosting uptake and retention.

This blog showcases how a human-centered design approach - supported by SCBF and implemented by Accion - helped Socremo and Hollard Insurance co-develop a bundled funeral insurance and savings product tailored to low-income microentrepreneurs in Mozambique. It explores how this innovative solution addressed cultural and financial barriers to insurance, boosted financial resilience, and led to a 60% increase in product uptake, while also documenting key challenges, outcomes, and learnings.

To explore how financial institutions in the Global South perceive and engage with emerging Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks—highlighting both risks and opportunities. Through a study supported by FMO and SCBF, Shining Rock Ventures captures the experiences of 32 financial institutions, shedding light on their readiness, knowledge gaps, and the potential for ESG to drive inclusive investment, despite frameworks being shaped largely by Global North priorities. The blog underscores the need for capacity-building and localized engagement to shape equitable ESG adoption.

In this piece Chrissy Martin Meier and Sitara Merchant examine whether blockchain is delivering on its promise for financial inclusion. Drawing on SCBF's review of two Kenyan use cases - digital ID wallets (Gravity) and crop insurance (ACRE Africa) - they find that while blockchain shows potential, it’s not yet scalable for low-income communities. Philanthropic efforts should focus on proven solutions rather than unproven blockchain models.

In November 2021, SCBF brought together a select group of its members, donors, and partners to celebrate its 10th anniversary and to discuss how to

Blue Marble's report on Zimbabwe highlights efforts to expand climate resilience through microinsurance for smallholder farmers, leveraging mobile technology for enrollment, premium payments, and claims processing. The initiative aims to mitigate climate risks, enhance financial security, and support sustainable agricultural practices in vulnerable communities.

In 2021, SCBF marked its 10th anniversary. With over a decade of experience, we've been bridging the Pioneer Gap—linking public funds with private expertise to support inclusive finance. We've reached 2.6M low-income clients (68% women) across 47 countries, partnering with 110 financial institutions and 36 TA providers to build investment-ready solutions.