While microfinance and other tools for financial inclusion have been used as a means for alleviating poverty across the world, there remains a need for financial services that meet the needs of the poor. A new Global Network course, Financial Inclusion and Development offered by FGV, aims to teach students how institutions are finding new ways of reaching some of the poorest citizens in different parts of the globe.

The course is one of three new offerings in the small network online course format, along with Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, taught by Dean Ignacio de la Vega and four other faculty from EGADE Business School, and Power and Politics, taught by Professor Cameron Anderson of Berkeley-Haas. All three online courses are being made available to Global Network students in the first half of 2019.

Professor Lauro Gonzalez, who is teaching the FGV course, said that students will be able to see how theoretical concepts meet practical realities in the course. “Students will be able to understand the importance of innovation for capturing local conditions that are crucial for creating market solutions and public policies addressing social inclusion as a whole and financial inclusion in particular,” Gonzalez said. Further, he added, students will benefit from working in an online cross-cultural environment where they can also learn other approaches from their colleagues in different regions of the world.

“The Global Network SNOC format allows us to reach a larger and more diversified audience,” Gonzalez said. “This will benefit both students and myself to broaden our world views.”

To enroll in the course, students are asked to contact their MBA coordinator for deadlines and further details about the course.