Karina Broens Nielsen

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Karina Broens Nielsen is a senior financial sector specialist and leads CGAP’s work on evidence and measurement of financial inclusion impact. She also facilitates CGAP’s strategy development process and leads CGAP’s corporate results measurement and evaluation. 

Karina has extended experience working for various international development institutions on project management, measurement, learning and evaluation related to digital financial services, rural finance, small and medium-sized enterprise finance, agriculture and local governance. Before joining CGAP, she worked for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the European Commission’s delegation to the United Nations, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she designed, managed, and evaluated multimillion dollar international programs with private sector actors and government partners in Eastern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. In these positions, Ms. Nielsen developed guidance and frameworks to assess results for various types of investments.

She is based in Paris, has a Master’s degree in Public Administration (Candidata Scientiarium Administrationis) and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and Social Science from Aalborg University, Denmark. She also studied International Relations and Development at London Guildhall University.

By Karina Broens Nielsen

Blog

10 Useful Data Sources for Measuring Financial Inclusion

In recent years, data sources for financial inclusion have become richer but more complicated to navigate. How do we navigate this busy data landscape? There is no single "best source" for data on financial inclusion, and each source in this list has its own unique strengths and weaknesses.
Blog

Enabling Data Driven Decisions for Expanding Financial Inclusion

The Financial Service for the Poor (FSP) team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its partners have developed an interactive web portal that aims to improve the way financial access is measured and tracked.