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Advancing Financial Inclusion

Barbara Scola works with CGAP’s Sector Support team. She conducts research and develops tools to support development agencies in their financial inclusion efforts. Her research projects focus on the role of funders in supporting policy reform processes and the positioning of financial inclusion in funders' strategies and organizational structures.

In 10 years as a CGAP staff member and consultant, Ms. Scola has helped CGAP members improve transparency and the effectiveness of financial inclusion funding. Before joining CGAP, she was a technical adviser for a German Development Cooperation project on strengthening the institutional and regulatory environment of the microfinance sector in Tunisia.

Ms. Scola has a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the University of St. Gallen and the Institute of Political Science in Paris, where she specialized in development studies. She is based in Paris and is fluent in German and French.