Inclusive Finance for Workers

Summary

In Africa, as in other parts of the world, not all workers have access to formal financial services. This is measured in terms of ‘financial inclusion’, in other words the extent to which households have access to a range of modern financial services, including savings, credit, insurance and payments. The concept of financial inclusion also includes education and other support services that help people to make sound financial decisions. Even if financial services are available, they may come with some challenges: they may not be affordable, they may not meet the needs of a particular household, or they may not be available within reasonable physical proximity nor regulated and overseen to protect clients.

Workers tend to have access to a bank account, yet this does not mean that they can access the full range of financial services demanded by them, and under conditions that suit their needs. At various stages in a worker’s life cycle, s/he may require specific financial services: for example to cover expenses related to education, housing, health, productive investments, marriage, old age or death of a family member. The needs and circumstances of an employed worker may be slightly different than those of, for example, a small entrepreneur.

Against this background, workers’ organizations have the potential to play a very strong role in empowering their members to access financial services through collective action. They can also leverage this role to provide direct services to their members and also to improve their outreach to workers, organize the informal economy and increase membership.

The Social Finance Programme, together with the Bureau for Workers’ Activities have been working together to document the various experiences of workers’ organization’s involvement in financial inclusion and the development of a training programme on “Inclusive Finance for Workers”. This training programme has been developed with a primary focus on Africa, and it is now being adapted for other regions. The training materials are available in English and French. For more information, please contact sfp@ilo.org

See related video: here.

Where we work

The most recent training under the Inclusive Finance for Worker’s project took place in Togo.