Building Inclusive Financial Sectors in Africa (BIFSA) is a programme that was launched in 2005 by UNCDF and UNDP-RBA as a joint programme to support the building of inclusive financial sectors in the region, including the least developed countries (LDCs) and non-LDCs.

The programme had a one year start up to set the ground for the Phase I (2OO4 - 2OO7). Phase two of the programme was designed to commence in 2008; however, the PAC (February 15, 2008), decided to align its launch until the evaluation of phase one is finalized to give enough time to include the evaluation's recommendations in BIFSA II.

The evaluation of BIFSA I was undertaken by the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. The evaluatíon was conducted from November 2008 to April 2009, with field visits conducted from November 2008 to January 2009.

The main recommendations of the evaluation and their incorporation into the strategy are discussed in section 4 of the present document.