Breaking Through Bottlenecks: Scaling Economic Inclusion in Tough Times

The climate crisis is steadily pushing millions into deeper poverty. Chronic hunger is rising across low- and middle-income countries. A shortfall of roughly 300 million jobs looms over the next decade, disproportionately affecting women and youth. Ongoing global instability and the COVID-19 pandemic have erased years of progress in reducing extreme poverty, creating a complex and urgent challenge. 

Economic Inclusion (EI) programs offer a proven approach by combining market-driven strategies with comprehensive support to empower marginalized populations. However, despite successful pilots, these programs currently reach only about 10% of those in extreme poverty leading to the critical question put forth in the 2024 State of Economic Inclusion Report: how can we scale these efforts quickly enough to address growing needs?

At their core, nationally embedded EI programs foster agency and empower participants to shape their own development paths, build resistance to shocks, and create sustainable livelihoods that support social mobility. These programs often build on existing social protection schemes like cash transfers, enhancing them with skills and financial literacy training, business capital, coaching, and market access. From Niger to Afghanistan, evidence shows these initiatives boost income and consumption, improve livelihoods, strengthen psychosocial well-being, and empower women. Recent studies reveal these programs are cost-effective, with cost-benefit ratios reaching 379% and internal rates of return up to 66% across countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Ghana, among others. Despite nearly doubling in scale since their inception, EI programs remain limited in their coverage. 

With global funding tightening, there’s an urgent need for creative solutions to expand EI programs. At the 2025 Skoll World Forum, the Partnership for Economic Inclusion (PEI) and the Oxford Martin Programme hosted a discussion on the future of development with experts from the Gates Foundation, BRAC International, Village Enterprise, and Fundación Capital.  Moderator Dr. Mahreen Khan, whose research focuses on translation, scaling and evaluation of EI programs noted: "While [EI] programs may work well in pilots but scaling is challenging even with the best intentions to scale when resources are severely constrained.” 

Why Do Economic Inclusion Programs Fail to Scale? 

Global partnerships like CGAP, which incubated  PEI, have revolutionized poverty reduction through rigorous graduation pilots in eight countries. These programs show long-term benefits that include improved consumption, income, and health. As of 2025, 405 EI programs operate across 88 countries, reaching over 70 million people. While NGOs lead implementation in over half the initiatives, it is the government-led ones that have the greatest reach (75% of participants), raising a critical question: what’s holding governments back from scaling these programs further? 

Government systems are messy. Successful NGO-led models like the BRAC Graduation Program scale well, but challenges emerge in the form of changing political priorities, bureaucratic delays, and balancing trade-offs between quality and scale when they are adapted by governments. As noted by Winnie Auma, “The challenge is figuring out a way to incentivize governments and recognizing that their priorities will shift. And it is that bureaucracy in the process will not move faster.” 

Contexts matter. Social and cultural norms complicate implementation and participation, especially for women’s economic empowerment. In Colombia, where gender-based violence is widespread, Fundación Capital strengthened local protection networks to safeguard participants. Juan Navarrte explained, “The program design needs to be very flexible to adjust to the prevailing environment. In our case, we worked in the context of continuously challenging gender-based violence. We had to reinforce local protection networks to safeguard participants’ well-being and ensure that employability efforts did not come at the expense of personal safety.” 

Funds are shrinking. With cuts to national and international aid, sustainable funding remains a key barrier. Despite clear evidence of impact, many programs struggle to secure resources. Diva Dhar raised a call for creative solutions: "With shrinking fiscal space in terms of donor and government budgets, we need to think harder about how we can leverage the trillions of dollars already out there being used by governments for anti-poverty programs instead of jump-starting new programs.”

What Are the Key Ingredients for Making Economic Inclusion Programs Work at Scale?

Tackling scale requires innovative and practical solutions. 

Leverage partnerships and ecosystems. Recognizing the complementarity in strengths of governments, NGOs, and private sector is key for cost-effective program design and delivery. Governments are uniquely positioned to coordinate resources between these actors. Kenya’s Social and Economic Inclusion Program is a prime example, bringing together Village Enterprise and BOMA Global Development Innovators in partnership with national and local governments to successfully roll out the program.

Innovate for scale. Digital technology is a powerful enabler at multiple program stages. Village Enterprise and Fundacion Capital were early adopters for digital cash transfers and online business mentorship and coaching, helping them to reach participants in often remote locations and making program materials accessible in local languages. Digital platforms can support advanced management information systems for inter-agency coordination such as one being piloted in South Africa’s Generating Better Livelihoods program. However, digital literacy gap among implementers and participants may limit full adoption and effectiveness of these tools and therefore needs immediate attention.

Integrate with local livelihood policies. Sustainable impact depends on understanding local market systems, labor dynamics, and macroeconomic factors. Fundación Capital’s collaboration with Colombia’s SENA Program offers formal credentials to participants, boosting their chances in the formal labor market. Stephanie Brockerhoff stresses that, “The [EI] program must be politically supportable within the context of the country, and it is important to think through how it fits into the national priorities.” With aid cuts increasing, leveraging existing government investment is vital for scaling EI programs.

What’s the way forward?

Meeting today’s complex challenges demands collective action and innovative solutions. PEI’s State of Economic Inclusion Report is a powerful reminder of what’s at stake and what’s possible.  Governments, NGOs, the private sector, and global partners must collaborate to design, deliver and scale economic inclusion programs while embedding them into long-term development strategies. 

In the face of mounting climate risks and economic instability, these programs must be tailored to local realities and participant needs while building agency and resilience. Victoria Strokova, underscores the importance of prioritizing women and youth: “Although these vulnerable groups share some of the same constraints to economic inclusion, understanding specific barriers to engaging in income-generating activities is key to supporting them effectively.” Now is the time to invest in inclusive, scalable solutions that leave no one behind, especially the most vulnerable, and build a future where everyone can thrive.

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