The capacity-building program has inspired policies for financial inclusion around the world
For 15 years, The Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion (FLPFI) has equipped leaders with the knowledge and tools to advance financial inclusion.
FLPFI is an innovative capacity-building program that engages policymakers from a variety of public institutions in low- and middle-income countries, with the goal of providing policymakers with the necessary skills to design, implement and evaluate sound and innovative financial inclusion policies. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since 2011, FLPFI runs both a fellowship and in-country training programs. Over the last 15 years, the program has welcomed 259 fellows from 112 institutions across 62 countries.
To celebrate the program’s milestone, Fletcher caught up with program alumni to learn more about FLPFI’s enduring impact.
Application of the 8 Question Method in Bangladesh
FLPFI’s Bangladesh cohort spans Bangladesh Bank, the Microcredit Regulatory Authority, and BRAC Bank—central banking, microfinance regulation, and commercial banking. Across cohorts, FLPFI alumni in Bangladesh have applied the program’s 8 Question Method (8QM) and structured policy frameworks to tackle persistent barriers to financial access, including digital financial literacy gaps in rural areas, women’s financial exclusion, microfinance sector quality, and cumbersome customer onboarding processes.
Beyond policy impact, the fellowship has also generated a multiplier effect within Bangladesh’s financial regulatory community as well as played an important role in cultivating Bangladesh’s next generation of financial inclusion leadership. Although the 2024 political transition disrupted progress on some initiatives, fellows remain optimistic about advancing their work under the new government.
Dr. Habibur Rahman joined FLPFI’s 2013 cohort as a policy adviser and went on to serve successive Governors of Bangladesh Bank before his promotion to deputy governor—carrying the fellowship’s analytical frameworks to the top of the central bank. Under his oversight, Bangladesh Bank’s Financial Inclusion Department has extended outreach to tribal communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and is advancing a national program for universal student account opening.
Gender-Responsive Banking Regulation in Pakistan
Fellows from the State Bank of Pakistan, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, and the Government of Punjab have translated fellowship tools into institutionalized reform spanning digital payments, gender-responsive banking regulation, agricultural finance, and social insurance—reaching more than 1.2 million smallholder farmers and contributing to an 8-percentage-point reduction in the national gender gap in financial access.
Faiqa Naseem built on her FLPFI policy memo to design Banking on Equality, Pakistan’s first mandatory gender-inclusion regulation for banks—moving gender from a peripheral development goal to a binding compliance requirement, with commercial banks now required to report gender metrics and embed gender considerations in governance. The policy’s rollout coincided with an eight-percentage-point reduction in Pakistan’s financial gender gap between 2021 and 2024, and Naseem is now recognized as the State Bank’s thought leader on gender finance.
“The whole program really elevated my sense of confidence in my abilities to have a very well-rounded policy suggestion that could be implemented,” she said.
Pioneering Change at the National Bank of Ethiopia
FLPFI’s Ethiopian fellows, drawn exclusively from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), have created a cross-generational cluster of reform leadership within the central bank since 2013. FLPFI alumni have been driving consequential policy changes across micro insurance, digital financial services, consumer protection, and finance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Key achievements include pioneering the first regulation permitting foreign FinTechs to operate in Ethiopia, launching a digital microlending platform that has disbursed over $166 million to approximately 12 million individuals and SMEs, and establishing a dedicated consumer protection and financial literacy directorate at the NBE. The cumulative impact reflects not just individual application of FLPFI’s analytical frameworks and the 8QM, but the combined effect of having multiple reform-minded leaders embedded across the institution’s directorates.
Muhidin Shifa Shikur used his fellowship policy memo to advocate for a dedicated consumer protection function at the National Bank of Ethiopia—and was appointed to direct it almost immediately. He has since finalized the country’s digital literacy guidelines and a comprehensive consumer protection regulation, and his advocacy helped turn market conduct supervision from a minor, scattered function into its own department with equal standing to the bank’s other core supervisory areas.
“As soon as I finished the fellowship, I was immediately appointed as director—because they recognized the Fletcher status, and they understood that this is very important for the National Bank,” he said.
A Springboard for New Leaders in Nigeria
FLPFI has trained fellows across the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Pension Commission since 2013. Alumni describe the fellowship as an early incubator for the Central Bank’s financial inclusion work and continue to extend its impact by recommending colleagues for the program and applying its tools to national frameworks on social protection, pensions, and payments. Many fellows from Nigeria have found the program to be personally supportive, too, entering at pivotal transition points in their careers, and the experience provided exactly the support, confidence, perspective, and skills they needed in those moments.
Stephen Ambore described entering the program during a critical shift from a technology-focused role into a leadership position in digital financial inclusion. The fellowship provided timely exposure to digital financial services and financial inclusion concepts, enabling a smoother and more confident transition into this new domain.
For Fatima Jika, F15, the program served as a true springboard for continued growth as she pursued a master’s program at Fletcher and subsequently, a doctoral degree. She described the fellowship as a major turning point that shaped both intellectual direction and self-understanding. As she put it, “It was fact-finding. It was self-development. It was finding who I was and what my interests were.”
Across these experiences, the fellowship consistently supported deeper personal growth by helping fellows become more reflective and purposeful in their leadership and career journeys. That translated into real impact, too.
Umaru Farouk Aminu, a pioneer staff member of the National Pension Commission, shared how the program gave him the opportunity to develop personally in terms of focusing on what one wants to achieve, defining goals, identifying resources, and merging all these together. His policy led to the opening of over 100,000 micro-pension accounts in Nigeria.
Novel Payment Systems at Bank Indonesia
Ricky Satria joined FLPFI’s 2015 cohort as a payment systems specialist at Bank Indonesia. His fellowship work produced two interlocking policy proposals—a government-to-person (G2P) digital payment framework and a nationally interoperable QR payment standard—both of which have since been implemented at scale.
In the decade following the fellowship, QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard) has expanded to cross-border QR payments with five countries, and Bank Indonesia has embedded financial inclusion permanently within its core payment systems mandate. Mr. Satria now works at the Central Bank of Indonesia, continuing his work towards consumer protection and artificial intelligence.
Read the FLPFI@15 impact report here.