In April 2012, UNCDF and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) signed a four-year partnership framework for inclusive growth and sustainable development; the intention was to channel Swedish investment to a range of innovative UNCDF programmes supporting financial services development and local development finance for the poor in least developed countries (LDCs).

Together with support from the Government of Luxembourg and numerous partnerships and country programmes, this formed the MAP pilot and the initiation of the proof of concept for the financial inclusion work in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.

The design for the MAP implementation initially focused on Thailand and Myanmar, followed by Cambodia and Lao PDR, as well as Nepal (in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC).

Together with the Asian Development Bank, MAP piloted a country diagnostic in 2013 in Thailand. In 2014 in Myanmar, MAP for the first time piloted its full programme (through the generous funding and support of LIFT and subsequently UK Aid). This was followed in 2014 by approval for MAP in Lao PDR (through the Australian-funded programme MAFFIP), in Nepal in the same year (through the UK Aid-funded Unnati programme), and in Cambodia in 2015 (with the support of UNCDF’s Australian funded SHIFT programme) – with diagnostics being completed in these three countries in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. Following the pilot phase, the Government of the Netherlands generously funded the MAP programme for two funding phases, from 2017 to 2023.

Over the course of the programme period, government partners have contributed in numerous ways to the MAP programme, while sharing their limited resources – human and financial alike. They have also enthusiastically joined in on the journey, buying into the vision of financial inclusion as a mechanism for achieving inclusive economic growth in their countries and in the region; and, through their participation, they have helped to shape financial inclusion theory and practice, in a truly multi-stakeholder endeavour of North–South and South–South collaboration.