Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to

sections of disadvantaged and low-income segments of society, in contrast to financial

exclusion where those services are not available or affordable. An estimated 2 billion working-age
adults globally have no access to the types of formal financial services delivered by regulated
financial institutions. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa only 24% of adults have a bank account
even though Africa's formal financial sector has grown in recent years. [1] It is argued that as banking
services are in the nature of a public good, the availability of banking and payment services to the
entire population without discrimination is a key objective of financial inclusion.

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) is the world's largest and most prominent network of
financial inclusion policymakers from developing and emerging economies who work together to
increase access to appropriate financial services for the poor. AFI's core mission is to adopt and
expand effective inclusive financial policies in developing nations in an effort to lift 2.5 billion
impoverished, unbanked citizens out of poverty. AFI was founded in 2008 as a Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation-funded project, supported by AusAid, in order to advance the development of smart
financial inclusion policy in developing and emerging countries. The AFI Network [4] has grown to
more than 105 institutions from 88 member nations from 2008 to 2013. AFI hosts its landmark,
annual Global Policy Forum (GPF) as the keystone event for its membership. During the 2011 GPF,
the network adopted the Maya Declaration, a set of common principles and goals for financial
inclusion policy development. AFI uses a "polylateral development" model to contrast and compare
successful financial inclusion policies, focusing on a peer-to-peer system rather than a top-down or
North-to-South learning model.
MIX Market [1] is the premier source of public information on microfinance institutions (MFIs) and
their financial and social performance. MIX offers a suite of popular analysis reports at the global,
regional, and country levels, including global analyses of key issues for the sector. MIX has been
working over the past two years with policy makers, financial services providers, donors, and other
key stakeholders in a series of countries to gather otherwise isolated datasets that, together, can
provide them with the information they need for effective financial inclusion decision making. To date
MIX, through its FINclusionLab [2], has created 15 financial inclusion maps in 13 countries in Africa,
South Asia, and Latin America[5] and plans to add an additional 7 countries and 5 Indian states [6] to its
platform during 2014. These resources are developed in close collaboration with local stakeholders
to ensure their relevance in supporting the development and monitoring of financial inclusion
strategies both at the policy and operational levels. The MIXs move to visualize geo-spatial subnational supply-side data through publicly available geo-spatial maps will enrich the supply-side data
landscape. This will be a challenging undertaking as frequent data collection can be expensive
and/or ad hoc depending on when data may become available.