Financial Inclusion Action Plan Evaluation

The Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP) Program , led by Good Shepherd on behalf of the Australian Government in partnership with the Centre for Social Impact and EY, aims to increase financial inclusion and resilience in Australia through enabling participating organisations (FIAP Trailblazers) to take action.

The Centre for Social Impact lead the evaluation of the FIAP Program, which included:

  • Impact evaluation: To measure progress against the intended short, medium, long term outcomes and impact of the FIAP Program. This included building a FIAP Baseline and Indicator Bank, to understand where we are now, in order to measure the progress made by the FIAP Program into the future.
  • Process evaluation: To understand what was working (or not working), for whom and why; to identify potential challenges that may need to be addressed and opportunities to enhance future phases of the program.

In the lead-up to the completion of Phase One of the FIAP Program, the focus of CSI’s evaluation was on establishing the FIAP baseline, identifying preliminary outcomes that occurred in the first year of launching 12 Foundation FIAPs (while recognising that FIAP is a long-term program), and ascertaining challenges and lessons in the establishment and early implementation of FIAP. The evaluation of Phase One of the program shows there are many early positive outcomes.

The final evaluation report from Phase One: Process and Baseline Impact Evaluation was completed in March 2018 and the final evaluation report from Phase Two: Final Transition Evaluation was completed in June 2019.

The FIAP evaluation was conducted using a mixed method approach, including:

  • Secondary data analysis of population data to measure change at a national level
  • Survey data from FIAP partner organisations to measure outputs and short-term change occurring among partners

About the FIAP Trailblazers

Demonstrating that greater financial inclusion and resilience is not the responsibility of any one sector, FIAP Trailblazers (participating organisations) represent financial services, utilities, government, education, legal and social services, amongst others. The 30 Trailblazers who joined Phase One of the program have significant influence - together they employ over 250,000 people, service almost 80 percent of the Australian economy and represent seven of the ASX Top 50 companies.

Together, these organisations have committed 580+ actions including more user-centred product design and delivery, financial capability-building and training, policies and processes to better understand and support vulnerable groups, collaboration and partnerships for collective action, and shared research, advocacy and evaluation.