On Our Radar: November 2023

This publication offers governments, policymakers, companies and international organisations a 10 point action plan for closing the gender financial inclusion gap, informed by credible programmatic evidence and country best practice.

CGAP’s work to support the expansion of rural agents as a means to deliver the benefits of digital finance to lower income people has had a strong gender lens to it. This working paper gives evidence on how gender analysis matters in building agent networks that can truly reach low-income customers. Consistently, women agents show an edge in promoting financial inclusion, either by reaching more women customers in some contexts, or reaching more vulnerable client segments in general.

In this podcast, Pranav Singh, Tahira Mohamed, and Wendy Chamberlin explore the role locally-led adaptation plays in building resilience among East Africa’s pastoralists. In this first episode of a two-part series, the speakers share their thoughts on the inequitable impact of climate change on female pastoralists. The podcast offers valuable insights into how a locally-led approach to climate adaptation can empower such communities and ensure effective and context-specific implementation.
 

An increasing body of evidence shows the importance of addressing social norms as an essential component of women’s economic power. This report, produced by the USAID Women’s Economic Empowerment Community of Practice (USAID WEE CoP), highlights proven, promising, and potential interventions that governments, private sector entities, civil society organizations, and societies use to shift social norms to support and increase women’s economic power and gender equality.

A recent learning brief  from World Food Programme (WFP) shares lessons on sending money to women in Haiti. It's the first of a learning series that will share concrete lessons learnt when accelerating digital financial inclusion and women’s economic empowerment through cash transfers programmes. The next ones will be on Jordan, Somalia, Ghana, Uganda, Bangladesh and The Caribbean.