Réseau Financement Alternatif (RFA or Alternative Financing Network) is a citizens' movement for financial responsibility and solidarity that started in 1987 in French-speaking Belgium. Today, RFA carries out public awareness campaigns urging a more responsible use of money and develops tools to encourage its members to invest responsibly and for government to take more action to promote ethical and social finance. Such tools include the website www.financite.be, FINANcité magazine, and the Ethica game devoted to group activities around ethical and social finance.

RFA produces studies on and research into ethical and interdependent finance exploring socially responsible investment and financial inclusion, along with how to increase access to basic banking services and socially responsible credit; moreover, RFA’s research is committed to supporting and increasing responsibility and solidarity in the financial sector.

Recent work has included:

• A mutual learning project on financial inclusion in Europe, which provided participants with the opportunity to exchange questions, needs, good practices, and interests about financial inclusion (Mutual Learning on financial inclusion, www.fininc.eu, 2008-2009)

• A study on nature and extent of financial exclusion in Europe along with the most effective policy measures to prevent such exclusion and how to promote access to financial services (EU Tender, Financial Exclusion, Financial services provision and prevention of financial exclusion, www.fininc.eu, 2007-2008)

• An evaluation of pilot projects implemented by microcredit operators in Europe, with a particular focus on gender issues and women entrepreneurship, and how microcredit can help these groups (Fostering Gender Equality: meeting the entrepreneurship and microfinance challenge in collaboration with the European Microfinance Network, 2007-2008)