Financial Inclusion and Sustainable Rural Development

Dr Isaac Koomson is a Senior Research Fellow in The University of Queensland’s Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH) and serves as a Faculty Associate at the Center for Social Development, Washington University in St. Louis, USA. He is the Lead Economist for the Network for Socioeconomic Research and Advancement in Ghana, and has consulted for the World Bank, the United Nations, and other policy-oriented research institutes. His current research lies in the areas of health and development economics and cuts across mental health, nutrition and well-being, food insecurity, poverty, vulnerability, small business, and entrepreneurship. He is a co-author of the book State Fragility and Resilience in sub-Saharan Africa: Indicators and Interventions. His works are published in high-ranked journals.Professor Renato A. Villano is an agricultural economist, econometrician and socio-economist with over 25 years of experience in international development in Australia as well as in various countries in Asia and Africa. His primary area of expertise centres on agricultural and resource economics, with a special focus on rural development, gender equity, efficiency and productivity analysis, agribusiness, value chain analysis and poverty and impact assessment. He has also conducted research on business innovation, sustainable entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. His publications appear in high-ranked journals.

• Part I: Setting the Scene.- Chapter 1: Unleashing Potential: The Transformative Power of Financial Inclusion in Fostering Sustainable Rural Development.- Part II: Food Insecurity, Resilience and Health.- Chapter 2: The Discouraged Borrower Syndrome and Rural Household Food Insecurity: Examining the Mediating Role of Financial Inclusion.- Chapter 3: The Effect of Financial Inclusion on Resilience of Rural Inhabitants.- Chapter 4: Examining the Link Between Financial Inclusion and Mental Distress: Empirical Evidence From Rural South Africa.- Part III: Energy Poverty And Transition.- Chapter 5: Financial Inclusion and Rural Energy Poverty Reduction in Latin America.- Chapter 6: Financial Inclusion and Energy Poverty in Rural Tanzania.- Part IV: Gender Equality And Women’s Empowerment.- Chapter 7: Do Women Require Specialized Digital Financial Instruments to Meet their Needs? Insights from Ghana.- Chapter 8: Digital Financial Inclusion and Women’s Economic Empowerment in Northern Ghana: The Experience of Rural Women in the Shea Value Chain.- Chapter 9: Digital Literacy and Financial Inclusion among Smallholder Farmers: Exploring Gender Dichotomy in Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria.- Chapter 10: Gender and Geographical Disparities in Financial Inclusion in Rural sub-Saharan Africa: A Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder (KOB) Decomposition.- Chapter 11: Reinvigorating Sustainable Rural Development with Financial Inclusion: A Case of Women's Empowerment.- Part V: Labour, Productivity, And Investment.- Chapter 12: Effect of Financial Inclusion on On-Farm Labour Force Productivity and Employment.- Chapter 13: Financial Inclusion and Self-employment in Rural Ghana.- Chapter 14: Access to Financial Services and Economic Performance of Livestock Farms: Exploring Potential Pathways.- Chapter 15: Financial Inclusion, Agricultural Land Ownership and Investment Decisions.- Chapter 16: Financial Inclusion and Adoption of Integrated Crop-Livestock Farming Systems in India.- PART VI: Digital Finance And The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).- Chapter 17: Does Digital Financial Inclusion Improve Food Security and Household Resilience?.- Chapter 18: Mobile Money Adoption, Farm Performance and Household Welfare in Northern Ghana.- Chapter 19: Does digital financial technology improve access to finance among households experiencing idiosyncratic health shocks in Ghana?.- Chapter 20: Mobile Money Regulation and Financial Behaviours of Rural Population: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa.- PART VII: Conclusion.- Chapter 21: From Rural Poverty to Prosperity: Reflections on Evidence, Policy and the Path Forward.