Impact of microfinance on the SDGs in Ecuador. The case of Banco Solidario

Financial inclusion has the potential to make an important contribution to reducing poverty and inequality. However, there are still more than 1.7 billion people in the world without access to these services. Since the late 1990s, one of the most popular solutions to improve financial inclusion for the most vulnerable segments has been microfinance. Although it has recently been the subject of various criticisms, microfinance continues to be a growing activity with more than 139 million recipients of microcredits in 2018. In the context of the 2030 Agenda, financial inclusion is explicitly or implicitly reflected in many of the SDGs. However, common measurement standards and methodologies with an SDG perspective have not yet been established. This article addresses, through an original methodology, the measurement of the contribution in terms of the SDGs of a microfinance organization in the Ibero-American context: Banco Solidario, in Ecuador. The case study has been developed in the context of the “Fourth sector” project, led by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the United Nations Development Program for Latin America (UNDP).