Claudia McKay

Lead, Green and Resilient Outcomes

Claudia McKay leads CGAP’s work on strengthening the role that financial services play in achieving green and resilient outcomes, especially for women. This includes financial services for climate resilience and adaptation, including both private and public sector solutions, and with a particular emphasis on the nexus between climate, gender and financial inclusion. This also includes financial services to help vulnerable people cope with the many risks and shocks they face through work in highly fragile countries and on inclusive insurance.  
 
Since joining CGAP 12 years ago, Claudia has worked and published on a wide variety of topics, including agent networks, human centered design, effective regulations, interoperability, open APIs and enhancing the livelihoods of platform-based workers through financial services. Claudia has also worked extensively in specific markets to develop inclusive financial ecosystems, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. 
  
Claudia has over 20 years of development and financial inclusion experience. Before joining CGAP, Claudia spent seven years working for Opportunity International, a global network of microfinance organizations, including four years as head of Microfinance Banking for Opportunity Bank in Malawi. She has also worked as a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. 
  
Claudia has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. 

By Claudia McKay

Research

What Human-Centered Design Means for Financial Inclusion

CGAP has conducted eight human-centered design projects in seven countries. The lessons from these projects highlight both the challenges ahead and a possible way forward when it comes to integrating mobile money into the lives of the poor.
Blog

10 Myths About M-PESA: 2014 Update

M-PESA and its 12.6 million active customers have fundamentally altered the landscape of financial services in Kenya. Despite its popularity, there are still some misconceptions about how it works.
Research

Designing Customer-Centric Branchless Banking Offerings

This Brief explores how human-centered design (HCD) could be applied to branchless banking and its unique challenges.
Blog

Understanding Customers for Financial Innovation in Ghana

The branchless banking market in Ghana is promising but has not gained traction as expected. CGAP and Tigo Cash decided to collaborate in order to better understand what’s preventing Ghanaian customers from actively using mobile money.
Blog

Open Sourcing Product Innovation

In our work through applied product innovation, we are learning that being open about the products that didn’t work can be an important mandate for all providers—as what is discarded by some can be a treasure for others.