ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of the published literature on financial inclusion experiences across the world to find the extent that financial inclusion has helped communities to buffer pressures from various global change processes, especially in reducing their vulnerability. A resilient community will be able to bounce back from a climate disaster and the degree of resilience can determine the speed with which a household or community can return to the original well-being level. Microfinance is one of the most ubiquitous, yet continuously growing in coverage, social and financial inclusion programmes in the world. Microfinance – including prominently microcredit – as a financial inclusion tool is on the rise in most developing countries and there is growing evidence of its efficacy on the ground. Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes have become an important public policy tool for poverty reduction and as an important safety net strategy in number of countries with poor financial resources and public safety net programmes.
