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2026 Fellow Application is Now Open
06/13/2025 – Medford, Mass. – Portraits from Tufts Fletcher School’s Fletcher School Leadership Program for
Financial Inclusion (FLPFI) pitches on Friday, June13th, 2025. (Mike Ritter for Tufts University)
The 2026 FLPFI fellowship application is now open! Incoming FLPFI classes will join a distinguished and diverse community of policymakers and regulators working to facilitate progress in inclusive finance. LEARN MORE AND APPLY
2025 FLPFI Fellowship Policy Memos Published
06/13/2025 – Medford, Mass. – Portraits from Tufts Fletcher School’s Fletcher School Leadership Program for
Financial Inclusion (FLPFI) pitches on Friday, June13th, 2025. (Mike Ritter for Tufts University)
The FLPFI Fellowship residency took place at Tufts University starting on June 2, 2025. During this two-week intensive program, fellows actively participated in workshops focused on the 8QM policy development method and worked on their financial inclusion challenges. They also attended lectures given by leading academics, professionals, and experts on a wide range of topics. These included the financial lives of the poor, gender and leadership, digital ID and infrastructure, digital public ecosystems, strategic negotiation and influence, legal options for policymakers, policy implementation, and foundations of public speaking and rhetoric.
One of the highlights of the fellowship was the alumni presentation by FLPFI 2023 alumnus Diogo Cruz, Head of the Division of Financial Citizenship Research and Monitoring at the Central Bank of Brazil. He spoke on his experience as a fellow and his work addressing over-indebtedness and low financial resilience among low-income populations in Brazil.
This year’s cohort includes 26 policymakers working in inclusive finance, 70% of whom are women, representing 17 countries. Both the number of fellows and the proportion of women are the highest since the program began in 2010.
Throughout the residency, fellows applied the 8QM method to their financial inclusion challenges and pitched their policies to a panel of experts and academics on the final day, held at the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. The fellows have now completed writing and editing their policy memos. Several fellows have begun implementation of their policy ideas.
The 2025 Fellowship Memos are published here.
FLPFI at the AFI GPF
Congratulations to the 2025 Fellowship Class! FLPFI will hold the fellowship graduation ceremony and a community reception on Wednesday, September 3, at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion Global Policy Forum in Swakopmund, Namibia.
FLPFI will also co-host the reception with the Women’s World Banking Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators. If you are attending the AFI GPF, we invite you to join us!
Upcoming Leadership & Policy Development Training for Insurance & Pension Regulators, with Africa College of Insurance and Social Protection (ACISP), October 27 & 28
FLPFI and ACISP are pleased to partner for the 2025 Directors Training for Regulators and Insurance Companies. Join FLPFI Director Dr. Melita Sawyer and Carolyn McMahon of FemFinance for an insurance-focused leadership and policy development workshop, October 27 & 28 in Mauritius. Registration fees are waived for active policymakers. All details managed by our partners at ACISP. We hope to see you there!
2025 Research Prizes Awarded
Photo Credit: Innocent MBOLIKOSSI, Kodoro Films Corporation
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 FLPFI Research Prize. This year, the prize was awarded to four alumni of the FLPFI Fellowship and 8QM programs.
One of the recipients is Diogo Cruz, a 2023 FLPFI alum from the Central Bank of Brazil. His project uses a qualitative approach to study how digital credit is offered to low-income people in Brazil. The research aims to understand how digital credit products are marketed to vulnerable groups based on their income, age, and needs.
The second recipient is Brenda Sikwila, a 2023 FLPFI alum from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Her research uses a mixed method and focuses on promoting factoring as a trade finance solution for MSMEs in Zimbabwe. The goal is to improve access to sustainable finance and support the financial health of these businesses.
The third recipient is Nazmul Hasan from BRAC Bank in Bangladesh, a 2022 Fellowship alum. His research explores why traditional banks in Bangladesh lag behind MFI NGOs in promoting financial inclusion. Using a mixed method, the study aims to offer practical insights that banks can use to improve their outreach, especially by learning from the grassroots strategies and flexible approaches used by NGOs.
The fourth recipient is Dr. Mark Tampuri, a 2022 8QM alum and professor at Academic City University College in Ghana. His research investigates why individuals and women-owned MSMEs in Ghana face difficulties in resolving complaints with financial institutions. The study uses a cross-sectional design to analyze five years of complaints data and examines how current redress systems affect financial inclusion and business operations.
2024 FLPFI Fellowship Residency
On June 2, 2024, the FLPFI Fellowship residency was held at Tufts University. During the two-week intensive residency program, fellows actively participated in workshops on the 8QM policy development method and worked on their financial inclusion challenges. Distinguished academics, practitioners, and field experts delivered lectures on various topics including the financial lives of the poor, identifying and testing assumptions, gender and leadership, digital infrastructure and ID, digital public ecosystems, strategic negotiation and influence, legal options for policymakers, digital financial services, policy implementation, and foundations of public speaking and rhetoric.
During the residency, FLPFI alumnus from Pakistan, Muhammad Faisal Mazhar, Senior Joint Director of Digital Innovation & Settlements Department at the State Bank of Pakistan, shared his experience as the leader of the Raast program, a payment platform. He discussed how he negotiated his policy and dealt with implementation challenges after completing the FLPFI program.
Throughout the course, fellows addressed their financial inclusion challenges using the 8QM method and presented their policy pitches to a panel of academics and field experts on the final day of the program which was held at the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
This year’s cohort consists of 24 policymakers working in the inclusive finance space with 15 of them being women from 19 different countries. Both the gender ratio and the total number of fellows are the highest the program has seen since its inception in 2010.
Grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
In March 2024, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation extended its ongoing collaboration with the Fletcher Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion by awarding the program a three-year grant. This financial support is intended to enable the program to continue equipping policymakers with the essential knowledge and expertise needed to develop, execute, and assess effective, sound, and innovative inclusive finance policies. The partnership between the Gates Foundation and the FLPFI Program was initiated in 2010 with the participation of nine fellows representing eight countries. Over the years, this collaboration has significantly expanded, with the current year seeing the involvement of twenty-four fellows hailing from nineteen different countries.
As of now, the FLPFI has a total of 184 fellowship alumni, along with 232 participants in the 8QM program. An impressive 84% of policies formulated during the FLPFI Fellowship have successfully been put into practice, showcasing the effectiveness of the 8QM in real-world applications. Furthermore, 85% of program alumni continue to utilize this method in their policymaking efforts, underscoring its enduring impact and relevance.
Since 2019, the program has been conducting regional 8QM trainings in collaboration with host countries’ central banks and UNCDF, focusing on various inclusive finance thematic areas such as women’s digital financial inclusion, women’s access to finance, and digitalization of government payments. Additionally, the program has recognized the outstanding contributions of its alumni by awarding 13 research prizes to individuals from various countries.
2024 FLPFI Fellowship Launched
On February 15th, 2024, the Fletcher Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion (FLPFI) launched its 2024 fellowship. This year’s cohort features 24 individuals out of which 16 are women. Both the gender ratio and the number of fellows is the highest the program has seen since its launch in 2010. The fellows come from 19 countries and are currently undergoing the online portion of their training. Fellows will complete 13 online modules, combining independent work with collaborative online discussions with peers. The modules will cover topics in financial inclusion and give fellows a chance to interact with their colleagues on a digital platform. From June 2-14, 2024, fellows will come to Medford, MA for a two-week residency at the Fletcher School.
8QM Trainings in Tanzania and Fiji
The FLPFI conducted two regional Eight Question Method for Policy Development (8QM) trainings for the staff of the Reserve Bank of Fiji in Dec 2023 and the staff of the Central Bank of Tanzania in March 2024. The 8QM is a core framework of FLPFI designed for policymakers in their analysis and implementation of innovative, adaptive, and evidence‐based policies. In both trainings, stakeholders from the public and private sectors participated in the sessions in addition to the staff of the two banks. The training in Fiji investigated women’s access to and usage of financial services, building upon research some of the participants began during their FLPFI fellowship. On the other hand, the sessions in Tanzania sought to bolster efforts by the Central Bank in the implementation of their newly enacted National Financial Inclusion Strategy. These trainings were held in collaboration with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the UN’s flagship financing entity for the world’s 46 Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
Photo Credit: Innocent MBOLIKOSSI, Kodoro Films Corporation
2024 Research Prize
FLPFI has announced the recipients of the 2024 Research Prize. The aim of the Research Prize is to provide alumni of the Fellowship program and the 8QM trainings with an opportunity to integrate evidence-based innovations into their work as policymakers. Winners of the FLPFI Research Prize are offered in-kind and financial support to conduct policy-relevant research on a financial inclusion challenge in their countries. This year, one of the two recipients of the Research Prize is an alumna from the Central African Republic. Her project is an experimental study focused on exploring barriers to mobile money adoption in Pissa, a village in the Central African Republic. The second recipient is an alumna from the Bank of Namibia whose project is on utilizing inclusive green finance to promote and sustain agricultural practices among rural farmers in Namibia.
In 2023, alumni from the Central Bank of Armenia, Bank of Uganda, and the Reserve Bank of Fiji were awarded the Research Prize. Their projects are in the concluding stages.
Nabila Okino – The Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion
Her Opportunity Story spotlights Nigerian women who have landed transformative opportunities and provides detailed insights for other Nigerian women who would be applying to those opportunities. Read More
FLPFI Fellowship 2023
Three years after the Covid-19 pandemic, in May 2023, the FLPFI Fellowship residency was held at Tufts University. During the two-week intensive residency program, fellows participated in workshops on the 8QM policy development method and worked on their financial inclusion challenges. Distinguished academics, practitioners, and field experts also delivered lectures on a variety of topics including the financial lives of the poor, identifying and testing assumptions, working with the private sector, strategic negotiation and influence, legal options for policymakers, digital financial services, leading financial institutions, policy implementation, foundations of public speaking impact measurement . Also, during the residency, two of the FLPFI alumni, Faiqa Naseem, Joint Director at the State Bank of Pakistan, and Jorge Moncayo, from the Superintendence of Popular and Solidarity Economy (SEPS), Ecuador, presented their experience of applying the 8QM method in developing policies to address the gender gap in financial inclusion in their respective countries.
Throughout the course, the fellows worked on their financial inclusion problems by applying the 8QM method and presented their policy pitches to a panel of academics and field experts on the last day of the program which was held at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts.
Digitalization of Government Payments in Jordan
Recently, the Jordan Payments and Clearing Company (JoPACC) published its research report of Digitalization of Government Payments in Jordan. The research was conducted by Moyad Ghannam, Enas Halaiqah, Nour Khammash, Nad Sarabi, and Leen Hashem of the JoPACC with the technical and financial support of the Fletcher Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion Research Prize.
8QM Training in Ethiopia – October 2022
In partnership with the Tufts University Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion (FLPFI), UNCDF coordinated the Eight Question Method (8QM) training to support the work of the Women’s Digital Financial Inclusion (WDFI) Advocacy Hub Ethiopia Coalition to promote strong gender-inclusive financial ecosystems. The 8QM is a proven framework which guides attendees to develop an original project grounded on evidence that seeks to positively impact the livelihoods of the target group they chose to focus on. Read more
Are Financial Services Only Reserved For The Well-off?
Recent 8QM Ethiopia alum Bezawit Fantu wrote an op-ed for K-flip about how the training will inform her work in closing the gender gap in digital financial services. Read more
Blazing a Trail for Women’s Financial Inclusion in Nigeria
Article by 2018 fellowship alum Sophia Abu, Head, Gender Desk – Financial Inclusion Delivery Unit, Central Bank of Nigeria on strategic imperatives for addressing women’s financial inclusion. Read more
(Photo Credit: Alonso Nichols)
One Year After He Fled His Native Country, An Afghan Rebuilds His Life at Tufts
With a research position at The Fletcher School, a former bank official shares his expertise. Read more
FLPFI Alumni Breakfast in Bogotá, Colombia
Last June FLPFI had the pleasure of hosting an informal working breakfast in Bogotá, Colombia. The purpose of this event was to reconnect with some of our alums and create links between FLPFI Colombian alumni, Fletcher Researchers, and MercyCorps/VenEsperanza implementing partners all working on financial inclusion in Colombia.