Meena Munshi

I have been in my field for more than 30 years, starting with my work at the World Bank where I spent 29 years designing programs focused on poor families and households. I developed a community-led development model that strengthened last-mile institutions and village organizations, helping them access credit and opportunities for income generation. This approach, which I first piloted in Sri Lanka, was different from the usual way we did business at the World Bank because I believed that if we are designing programs for poor people, they should have a say in it, participate, contribute, and own the responsibility. This model became globally known and was scaled up across South Asia including India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, as well as many countries in the Africa region. Near the end of my World Bank career, a colleague asked me to help design a peer-to-peer lending platform, and that's when I realized we don't have data about these populations. I left the World Bank and started my own social enterprise called Westin Villages in India, where I designed a digital platform for Data Analytics, Rating, and Tracking that does assessment of very poor borrowers who are excluded from financial services. My mission is to see how they can access financial services in a timely manner and in an affordable way, because the interest rates charged for them are very high since they are risky borrowers. I'm building their data and credit histories digitally and helping them understand their data in a very simple way so they can reduce their risk and go on the path of economic growth. Over the last 5 to 6 years, I have focused on this digital platform, which is now ready and has been piloted and tested in India. My mission is to take it to other countries in the world as well, as there are 1.6 billion people who are financially excluded from financial services. As a development economist, I focus on financial inclusion, equitable growth, sustainable growth, and the livelihoods of poor families. I enjoy my work and am committed to the mission of financial inclusion!