Over the last two years, the Center for Financial Inclusion has worked to develop a series of tools and trainings (a how-to guide) for MFIs that have decided to become disability inclusive but don’t know how to do so.

Through our strategic partnership with Handicap International, Fundación Paraguaya, and the Smart Campaign, we have now completed a comprehensive toolkit. And today, we are pleased to announce that we are making these tools and trainings available to the industry in English, Spanish, and French on the Persons with Disabilities (PWD) page on the CFI website. Everything is open source and available to any MFI or other financial services provider that wishes to use the tools.

The Center made inclusion of PWD an institutional priority because at 15 percent of the global population, PWD represent a very large vulnerable minority, and are largely unbanked – no more than 0.5 percent of current MFI clients worldwide are PWD.

In its Responsible Treatment of Clients principle, the Smart Campaign emphasizes the importance of non-discrimination. As the Smart Campaign’s principles evolve, MFIs are encouraged to broaden their scope of services to minorities like PWD and promote equal opportunity to financial services.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) stipulates in Article 27 on Work and Employment that countries that have ratified the treaty must level the playing field so that persons with disabilities have an equal right to employment. The Center’s White Paper “A New Financial Access Frontier: People with Disabilities” made the case for disability inclusion, drawing on the approaches used around the world to guide implementation of the Convention. Now we present the industry with practical implementation guidelines for those institutions seeking to close the financial inclusion gap for persons with disabilities.

The problem is that while it is easy to pay lip service to these lofty principles, it is hard to know what concrete steps to take to put them into practice. Even with the best of intentions, an MFI may not know where to begin, how to allocate scarce resources in a prudent way, and what kind of timeline it needs to make real and lasting change.

So through work on the ground in Paraguay, the Center and its partners developed and tested an actionable set of tools and guidelines. These generic tools are designed to be customized to meet the needs of a particular country or region. They include: 1) sensitivity training for staff, 2) codifying nondiscrimination into a company’s mission statement, 3) how to partner with disability organizations, and 4) how to train field managers and loan officers, among other things. They were developed and tested at Fundación Paraguaya with the help of Handicap International and other partners.

How is the success of the trainings and tools ultimately measured? The answer is simple: Over time, the number of clients with disabilities increases, as the institution becomes more disability friendly. We’re striving for incremental, not overnight change. Moving from one half of one percent to 1 percent in a country like India could mean livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of people. And that would be a pretty big deal.

Image credit: © Nicolas Axelrod/ Handicap International

Have you read?

Disability Inclusivity and the Smart Campaign at Fundación Paraguaya

A Call for Disability Inclusive Development at the UN

Combatting Exclusion for Persons With Disabilities in India and Mexico

Non-discrimination is embedded in the fifth Client Protection Principle, Fair and Respectful Treatment of Clients. A microfinance institution (MFI) may work, knowingly or not, with clients that have particular disabilities or conditions. In order for MFIs to operate without discrimination, it’s essential that they are inclusive of persons with disabilities and that they offer services that account for these clients’ unique needs. Fundación Paraguaya (FP) is an MFI that operates in Asunción, Paraguay and employs an impressive non-discrimination policy and code of ethics, fully taking into account those with disabilities and physical conditions. These documents can be viewed on the Smart Campaign website:

• Non-Discrimination Policy of Fundación Paraguaya
• Code of Ethics for Fundación Paraguaya

Fundación Paraguaya and CFI are working together on a specific project, “Non-Discrimination: Making Microfinance Institutions Disability Inclusive and Smart Campaign Certifiable,” establishing and testing guidelines for a model comprehensive non-discrimination policy. As part of the project, Thomas Meriaux and Caroline Cervera from Handicap International are currently visiting Fundación Paraguaya to provide trainings on disability inclusion for clients and employees at the MFI. We recently spoke with Thomas about his visit, and he told us about an incident that brought it all home.

I went to Paraguay to gain greater understanding of the different levels and areas of Fundación Paraguaya on the inclusion of persons with disabilities. During my visit, I met with high management members, human resources staff, and managers within the field offices. This helped me to see the different perspectives of FP staff first-hand, as well as the different focus and roles that each department plays concerning persons with disabilities.

One day in between interviews I decided to go for a walk to observe the institutional context and digest the details of discussion at FP. This turned out to be a fortuitous decision. Right at the corner of the MFI, I noticed a barbershop and decided to go in, as I was actually in need of a haircut. I was welcomed by the barber, and as fate would have it, I immediately realized by the sounds he made that he was deaf. It was a serendipitous opportunity to apply what I was describing to the managers just a few moments before. I faced the barber directly, so he could read my lips, and I spoke slowly with simplified sentences accompanied by explanatory gestures.

He expressed that he had understood my request and immediately started cutting my hair, and the final result was very nice. I thanked him, paid for the haircut, and headed back to FP.

Upon my return, I shared my experience with Jimena (FP’s Inclusion Project Coordinator) and learned, to my most pleasant surprise, that the barber, Mr. Toñanez, has been a client of Fundación Paraguaya for over two years.

For this reason, we decided to go back to the barbershop, accompanied by his loan officers. I explained that, for me, he was an example for us to maintain in our work not only because of his warm welcoming, but also for his capacity to communicate effectively and his great abilities as a barber.

This experience reinforces the idea that with an inclusive environment, a person with a disability is completely capable of doing an excellent job, in spite of the popular misconception that disability creates barriers. When financial service providers have awareness of this and incorporate it into strong client care, this is what enables financial, economic, and other opportunities for all kinds of people, regardless of condition or impairment.

Have you read?

A Call for Disability-Inclusive Development at the UN

Disability Inclusion: Reconnecting With the Heart of Microfinance

Smart Note: Hiring Staff With Disabilities at AccessBank, Azerbaijan

Today, people all around the world are celebrating International Day of Persons with Disabilities. And, whether the focus is financial or any other type of inclusion for persons with disabilities (PWDs), we here at CFI would be remiss if we didn’t join in the festivities.

The International Day has been observed since 1992, and encompasses activities around the globe. The United Nations, which functions as the principal promoter, features an online list of events being held by governments, UN agencies, organizations, and communities in Australia, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The impressively global – and inclusive – Day brings awareness to disability issues, acknowledges the integral role of persons with disabilities in society, and further promotes full inclusion for PWDs. The theme of this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all.”

Although it was a week early, we were able to share the Center’s thoughts on financial inclusion for persons with disabilities at the Microfinance India Summit last week. Josh Goldstein, Principal Director for Economic Citizenship and Disability Inclusion, spoke on building a microfinance sector that is accessible to persons with disabilities. Nearly 15 percent of the world’s population has a disability, and over 80 percent of these individuals live in developing countries, but fewer than one percent of the clients of microfinance institutions are PWDs, according to a 2005 study by Handicap International. CFI is working to eradicate this discrepancy through advocacy, collaboration with microfinance industry stakeholders, demonstration projects, and by building and disseminating a “how-to” body of knowledge to support financial service providers in offering fully inclusive services.

If you’d like to learn more about CFI’s work with PWDs, visit our website. If you’d like to learn more about the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and find events happening today in your area, head over to the UN’s event webpage.

Image credit: Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images/ Health Me Up

Have you read?

Serving Persons with Disabilities in the Philippines

Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities in India

Extending Financial Inclusion to Persons with Disabilities in Ecuador