This report is the third in an annual series that assess the level of financial inclusion in selected Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. It provides a working methodology that other SADC countries can adopt in measuring and evaluating the impact of national financial inclusion strategies.

The SADC Financial Inclusion programme at FinMark Trust supports the development and implementation of national financial inclusion strategies - which is one of the pillars of regional financial integration under the leadership of the SADC secretariat and the SADC Committee for Central Bank Governors (CCBG). To this end, regional M&E indicators have been developed as part of the SADC Financial Inclusion Strategy, which were integrated into country level UNCDF MAP programmes, to track progress and enable region-wide diagnosis, and policy recommendations.

The intersection between financial inclusion and the macroeconomic sphere is gaining more prominence and where applicable, this report relates observed financial inclusion metrics to potential implications for macroeconomic factors such as economic growth, employment, wages, and poverty through personal, business and government payments data. This can also be thought of as a way of aligning financial inclusion as a policy instrument in solving the challenges to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).