Can Social Norms Theory Provide a Roadmap for Women’s Financial Inclusion?
With one in every three women still being financially excluded, there is increased recognition of the role that gendered social norms play in limiting economic opportunities for women. Social Norms shape women’s access to and control over resources and consequently their ability to access financial products and services. While a lot of attention has been paid to social norms in health and gender-based violence (GBV) programming as an important factor that drives behavior, there is less attention paid to the role of social norms in influencing economic behavior in financial inclusion efforts.
In this webinar with Ben Cislaghi from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) provided an overview of the key concepts in social norms theory and how they can inform potential pathways for change for women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment.
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About this event
Ben Cislaghi
Ben Cislaghi is an Assistant Professor in Social Norms at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Center for Gender, Health and Violence), where he coordinates a learning initiative on social norms and gender-based violence. He worked for various NGOs and International Organizations, including UNICEF, WHO, and ILO, and as a researcher with Stanford and Columbia Universities. In the period 2013-2016 he worked as the Director of Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation of the NGO Tostan, a leading NGO in the field of social norms change. At the LSHTM he is gathering a community of experts on social norms, advancing existing understanding of how norms change and how that change can be measured. He is also part of various initiatives on social norms, led respectively by Georgetown University, LSE, Stanford University, and ODI. He collaborates with NGOs to integrate social norms into their interventions and measurement.
Nisha Singh, Moderator
Nisha Singh leads Social Norms working group in the Women’s Financial Inclusion CoP. Her work focuses on increasing economic opportunities for women through innovations in programming and use of technology. She recently wrapped up a peer learning initiative on “Shifting Social Norms in the Economy at Scale.” Prior to that she worked at The SEEP Network from 2008 to 2016 where she managed a portfolio of learning programs that focused on increasing economic opportunities for vulnerable populations. Nisha began her journey in development in 2002 in Hyderabad, India working on livelihood financing. Since then she has worked with a range of institutions from CBOs to multi-lateral donors, private sector actors and policy makers on promoting access to finance and market systems development.