PROTOCOL: Impact of financial inclusion in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a systematic review of reviews

Duvendack, Maren; Mader, Philip

doi:10.1002/cl2.211

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 70 publications

(78 reference statements)

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“…Twenty‐one studies were classified as low‐confidence and 11 studies as medium‐ or high‐confidence (see Section 5.3.3, above, and Appendix 7). As outlined in the protocol (Duvendack & Mader, 2018 ), the in‐depth synthesis presented in this report focuses on the 11 medium‐ and high‐confidence studies only. As Appendix 9 shows with an overview of the results on the quality assessment criteria, 21 meta‐studies were classified as low‐confidence not on the grounds of a few specific criteria, but generally due to shortcomings on numerous criteria that contributed to their classification as low‐confidence.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of financial inclusion in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of reviews

Duvendack

Mader

2019

Campbell Systematic Reviews

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A wide range of financial inclusion programmes seek to increase poor people's access to financial services to enhance the welfare of poor and low-income households in low-and middle-income countries. The impacts of financial inclusion interventions are small and variable.Although some services have some positive effects for some people, overall financial inclusion may be no better than comparable alternatives, such as graduation or livelihoods interventions. | What is this review about?Financial inclusion programmes seek to increase access to financial services such as credit, savings, insurance and money transfers and so allow poor and low-income households in low-and middle-income countries to enhance their welfare, grasp opportunities, mitigate shocks, and ultimately escape poverty. This systematic review of reviews assesses the evidence on economic, social, behavioural and gender-related outcomes from financial inclusion. 1.3 | What are the main findings of this review? 1.3.1 | What studies are included?This review includes studies that synthesise the findings of other studies (meta-studies) regarding the impacts of a range of financial inclusion interventions on economic, social, gender and behavioural outcomes. A total of 32 such meta-studies were identified, of which 11 were of sufficient methodological quality to be included in the final analysis. The review examined meta-studies from 2010 onwards that spanned the globe in terms of geographical coverage.Impacts are more likely to be positive than negative, but the effects vary, are often mixed, and appear not to be transformative in scope or scale, as they largely occur in the early stages of the causal chain of effects. Overall, the effects of financial services on core economic poverty indicators such as incomes, assets or spending, and on health status and other social outcomes, are small and inconsistent. Moreover, there is no evidence for meaningful behaviour-change outcomes leading to further positive effects.The effects of financial services on women's empowerment appear to be generally positive, but they depend upon programme features which are often only peripheral or unrelated to the financial service What is the aim of this review?This systematic review of reviews systematically collects and appraises all of the existing meta-studies-that is systematic reviews and meta-analyses-of the impact of financial inclusion.The authors first analyse the strength of the methods used in those meta-studies, then synthesize the findings from those that are of a sufficient quality, and finally, report the implications for policy, programming, practice and further research arising from the evidence. Eleven studies are included in the analysis.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following Cochrane guidance and Polanin et al ( 2017 ), we developed a protocol to set out the systematic review of review process (Duvendack & Mader, 2018 ). We adopted strict inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure that only relevant systematic review and meta‐analysis evidence was considered for the purpose of this review.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of financial inclusion in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of reviews

Duvendack

Mader

2019

Campbell Systematic Reviews

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“…As outlined in the protocol (Duvendack & Mader, 2018), the in-depth synthesis presented in this report focuses on the 11 medium-and highconfidence studies only. We provide descriptive information on these topics for selected key outcomes.…”

Section: Sensitivity Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of financial inclusion in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review of reviews

Duvendack¹,

Mader²

2019

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| PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY | Financial inclusion interventions have very small and inconsistent impactsA wide range of financial inclusion programmes seek to increase poor people's access to financial services to enhance the welfare of poor and low-income households in low-and middle-income countries. The impacts of financial inclusion interventions are small and variable.Although some services have some positive effects for some people, overall financial inclusion may be no better than comparable alternatives, such as graduation or livelihoods interventions. | What is this review about?Financial inclusion programmes seek to increase access to financial services such as credit, savings, insurance and money transfers and so allow poor and low-income households in low-and middle-income countries to enhance their welfare, grasp opportunities, mitigate shocks, and ultimately escape poverty. This systematic review of reviews assesses the evidence on economic, social, behavioural and gender-related outcomes from financial inclusion. 1.3 | What are the main findings of this review? 1.3.1 | What studies are included? This review includes studies that synthesise the findings of other studies (meta-studies) regarding the impacts of a range of financial inclusion interventions on economic, social, gender and behavioural outcomes. A total of 32 such meta-studies were identified, of which 11 were of sufficient methodological quality to be included in the final analysis. The review examined meta-studies from 2010 onwards that spanned the globe in terms of geographical coverage.Impacts are more likely to be positive than negative, but the effects vary, are often mixed, and appear not to be transformative in scope or scale, as they largely occur in the early stages of the causal chain of effects. Overall, the effects of financial services on core economic poverty indicators such as incomes, assets or spending, and on health status and other social outcomes, are small and inconsistent. Moreover, there is no evidence for meaningful behaviour-change outcomes leading to further positive effects.The effects of financial services on women's empowerment appear to be generally positive, but they depend upon programme features which are often only peripheral or unrelated to the financial service What is the aim of this review?This systematic review of reviews systematically collects and appraises all of the existing meta-studies-that is systematic reviews and meta-analyses-of the impact of financial inclusion.The authors first analyse the strength of the methods used in those meta-studies, then synthesize the findings from those that are of a sufficient quality, and finally, report the implications for policy, programming, practice and further research arising from the evidence. Eleven studies are included in the analysis.---

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“…21 studies were classified as low-confidence and 11 studies as medium-or high-confidence (see section on 'Assessment of risk of bias in included studies', above, and Appendix 7). As outlined in the protocol (Duvendack and Mader 2018), the in-depth synthesis presented in this report focuses on the 11 mediumand high-confidence studies only. As Appendix 9 shows with an overview of the results on the quality assessment criteria, 21 meta-studies were classified as low-confidence not on the grounds of a few specific criteria, but generally due to shortcomings on numerous criteria that contributed to their classification as low-confidence.…”

Section: Results Of the Searchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following Cochrane guidance and Polanin et al (2017), we developed a protocol to set out the systematic review of review process (Duvendack and Mader 2018). We adopted strict inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure that only relevant systematic review and meta-analysis evidence was considered for the purpose of this review.…”

Section: Limitations and Potential Biases In The Review Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental, community and familial support for children’s literacy in developing countries

Spier¹,

Britto²,

Pigott³

et al. 2016

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About 3ieThe International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is an international grant-making NGO promoting evidence-informed development policies and programmes. We are the global leader in funding, producing and synthesising high-quality evidence of what works, for whom, how, why and at what cost. We believe that using better and policy-relevant evidence helps to make development more effective and improve people's lives. 3ie systematic reviews 3ie systematic reviews appraise and synthesise the available high-quality evidence on the effectiveness of social and economic development interventions in low-and middleincome countries. These reviews follow scientifically recognised review methods, and are peer-reviewed and quality assured according to internationally accepted standards. 3ie is providing leadership in demonstrating rigorous and innovative review methodologies, such as using theory-based approaches suited to inform policy and programming in the dynamic contexts and challenges of low-and middle-income countries.

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PROTOCOL: Impact of financial inclusion in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a systematic review of reviews

Cited by 10 publications

References 70 publications

Impact of financial inclusion in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of reviews

Impact of financial inclusion in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of reviews

Impact of financial inclusion in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review of reviews

Parental, community and familial support for children’s literacy in developing countries

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