Barbara Scola

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

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, Barbara 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.

Barbara 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.

By Barbara Scola

Blog

Microfinance: Excited about Building an Industry?

The real strength of microfinance is industry building – creating institutions that bring useful services to poor people who need them. While clients’ businesses rarely revolutionize the economic fabric of their communities, microfinance institutions (MFIs) do.
Blog

Marked Progress in the Transparency of Cross-Border Funding

Transparency on funding for microfinance made significant progress over the last decade. There are strong reasons to believe that transparency contributes to more effective and more responsible funding.
Research

Trends in Cross-Border Funding

This Brief describes global trends in microfinance funding between 2007 and 2010.
Blog

Why Can’t We Answer the Question: Does Aid Work?

Whether you find it extraordinary or trivial, we still cannot answer the simple question of whether aid works or not.
Research

Cross-border Funding of Microfinance

This Focus Note draws on data from CGAP’s annual surveys on cross-border funding (2009, 2010) to provide an overview of the microfinance funding landscape and trends in cross-border funding.