Proudly introducing the Mastercard Foundation Partnership for Finance in a Digital Africa

David Edelstein

We are thrilled to formally launch The Mastercard Foundation Partnership for Finance in a Digital Africa!  The FiDA Partnership (the Partnership), established by the Financial Inclusion Program at The Mastercard Foundation (The Foundation), catalyzes knowledge and insights to promote meaningful financial inclusion in an increasingly digital world.

Led and hosted by Caribou Digital, the Partnership works closely with leading organizations and companies across the Digital Finance space.  By aggregating and synthesizing knowledge, conducting research to address key gaps, and identifying implications for the diverse actors working in the space, the Partnership strives to inform decisions with facts and accelerate meaningful financial inclusion for people across sub-Saharan Africa.

The Partnership has assembled an accomplished team of researchers and practitioners with deep knowledge of and experience working in Digital Finance.  Working closely with organizations supported by The Foundation, this team has been quietly building a resource base, and we are delighted to begin sharing knowledge which we believe will be relevant to a broad audience.  Today, you can access:

  • Learning Advances in Digital Finance report, which puts a spotlight on specific advances in knowledge that will influence the future of Digital Finance
  • Digital Finance Evidence Gap Map is a systematic review of what is known and what gaps exist regarding the impact of digital finance on low income clients
  • Snapshots which are short papers that highlight “What we know” about critical questions in the Digital Finance space and identify implications for future research and investment
  • The Theory of Change underpins the FiDA Partnership

Looking ahead, we will be rolling out additional Snapshots (two today and 14 more over the next five months) and will begin to share business model research and tailored knowledge and insights designed to directly address challenges in delivering on the promise of meaningful financial inclusion at scale. 

As the shift to digital picks up pace, we aim to deliver knowledge and insights which are relevant and actionable to a range of companies and organizations working in the broadly defined Digital Finance space.  We will only be successful if you derive value from the resources we share, and do hope you will let us know what would be most useful to you—ideas@financedigitalafrica.org—and stay connected over time (click here to sign up for alerts when we release new materials).  We do hope you will join us on the journey!