Pacific Island countries (PICs) face a number of challenges ranging from climate vulnerability to economic stagnation. Their low population density is an obstacle for business to grow. All of this makes the Pacific region not only one of the world’s least developed but also one of the most financially excluded.

Against this background, the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) from 2008 to 2020 aimed to increase financial inclusion and improve livelihoods among low-income populations, particularly women, in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu and later in Kiribati and Tuvalu.

The final evaluation of PFIP offered an independent assessment of the contribution of PFIP’s work to financial inclusion in partner countries and to UNCDF’s broader financial inclusion strategy.

The evaluation findings suggest that (1) PFIP has been highly relevant, particularly given the emphasis on digital finance and agent banking to help overcome geographic and gender barriers; (2) PFIP had a strong influence in making financial inclusion a key policy priority for the PIC governments; (3) embedding financial education in national curricula is an efficient way to address financial exclusion for future generations; (4) the Innovation Hub facilitated the testing of many innovative solutions and products.

The evaluation also highlighted important gaps: financial innovations such as gender-sensitive products were not sufficiently developed in all countries, consumer protection guidelines were still in progress in many countries, and the result framework system did not adequately account for development impact pathways.

The evaluation identified a number of recommendations to enhance the ability of UNCDF in its future programming:

• On policy and regulatory work: enhance engagement with central banks, bring payments system to the center stage and contextualize agency banking for PICs;
• On consumer empowerment: replicate and scale FinEd initiative to other PICs; strengthen integration of consumer awareness initiatives in innovation projects; drive compliance to consumer protection framework as an industry practice across PICs;
• On financial innovation: focus on products/services/channels that need attention; set up agency banking for success; bring gender center stage through focused implementation; build a stronger accountability framework for implementation partners.