OVERVIEW

The Financial Inclusion Lab aims to engage civil society actors as active co-creators of financial inclusion solutions and policies at the national and sub-national levels.

By deploying multi-stakeholder dialogue and co-creation, civil society changemakers are expected to accelerate the design and deployment of financial inclusion solutions to impact households, sectors, and markets.

The SIFP curriculum draws from diverse disciplines to tackle the different themes of financial inclusion and applies an explicit human-centered design lens to all aspects of policy advocacy. Deploying techniques from adaptive leadership and bridging leadership, participants learn to effectively co-create new institutional arrangements that improve financial access, quality, usage, and welfare for transformative social and political change that aims to transforms systems.

WHAT CONTENT WILL THE SIFP COVER?

Over the course of the fellowship, participants will:

• Deepen their understanding of field-level realities of financial inclusion

• Expand their understanding of the structure of government and how policy is developed, implemented and funded;

• learn key frameworks for advocacy interventions;

• learn to analyze policy;

• deepen their understanding of strategies to effect policy change, including grassroots advocacy, effective coalition building,

• and learn to build and maintain relationships with policymakers and stakeholders who have influence over the policy-making process.

HOW IS THE SIFP PROGRAM STRUCTURED?

The SIFP Program takes applicants on a rolling basis. During the program, participants will participate in a series of interactive web-based and a possible in-person skills-building sessions delivered by FI Lab faculty and other policy experts. Fellows will also collaborate on issue-based teams and will receive coaching from seasoned advocates in the field. Reading assignments and homework will be assigned between sessions.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

• 16 web-based policy skills-building training sessions

• 8-month practicum period, including the creation and execution of a policy project with a host organization

• Monthly conference calls with policy coaches

PROPOSED SCHEDULE

(participation in ALL aspects of the program is required for successful completion)

• Web Session 1

  • Fellowship Orientation

• Web Session 2

  • Policy, Governance, and Design Thinking

• Web Session 3

  • Key Frameworks in Financial Inclusion

• Web Session 4

  • Key Frameworks from economic and livelihood perspectives

• Web Session 5

  • Bridging Leadership, Governance, and Adaptive change

• Web Session 6

  • Global Practices in Financial Inclusion

• Web Session 7

  • Problem-driven Iterative Adaptation

• Web Session 8

  • Policy Research and Analysis

• Web Session 9

  • Organizing meetings with policy-makers

• Web Session 10

  • Working in and Building Effective Coalitions

• Web Session 11

  • Building relationships with key stakeholder and policymakers

• Web Session 12

  • Issued-based Policy Co-creation

• Web Session 13

  • Monitoring policy implementation

• Web Session 14

  • Expanding your coalitions

• Web Session 15

  • Expanding the policy narratives

• Web Session 16

  • End Review Session

WHAT DO FELLOWS GET FOR PARTICIPATING?

Fellows will have coaching and mentoring to support their policy advocacy goals, opportunities to attend policy meetings (in person and via conference call), opportunities to engage with national advocacy coalitions, and access to policy experts. Additionally, fellows will have the opportunity to obtain and apply marketable writing, research and organizing skills to support their professional development. Fellows who graduate successfully will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the program.

Fellows also have the opportunity to advise or become team members in startup at partner university incubators, as well as participate in provincial Financial Inclusion Lab hubs.

ELIGIBILITY

The fellowship is open to graduate students or advocates with at least five years of work experience. All applicants should possess a strong desire to effect meaningful change in the lives of marginalized sectors.

WILL FELLOWS EARN ACADEMIC CREDIT?

Fellows who are currently enrolled at universities may request their own universities to award academic credit for their work. The fellowship workload will be roughly equivalent to 150 or more staff-hours of graduate-level academic work. The Financial Inclusion Lab will award a certificate of completion for Fellows who successfully complete the program.