Supply-Side Gender Disaggregated Data for Advancing Financial Inclusion

The financial inclusion community has supported the gender data agenda since the early 2010s through several global initiatives and country-level efforts. These efforts range from raising awareness about the need for and potential benefits of gender-disaggregated data in the financial sector, documenting countries’ experiences in collecting and using such data, developing gender data toolkits for regulators, sharing lessons, and advocating for the collection and use of gender data to promote women’s financial inclusion. While these initiatives have contributed to a notable increase in the availability and use of gender-disaggregated data, especially on the demand side, significant gaps continue to exist in the generation and, especially, in the use of administrative (supply-side) data.

This paper examines these efforts, focusing on supply-side gender-disaggregated data (S-GDD) initiatives. It explores how S-GDD has been collected and used, mainly by financial sector authorities but also by providers, and the challenges and opportunities associated with this work. It highlights lessons to date, identifies existing gaps, and proposes next steps for future work to unlock S-GDD’s potential to support women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment.