3

Prioritize women

Governments and the private sector are responding to the transformative power of digital payments on women. But to realize their full potential, the approach to prioritize women needs an overhaul. Governments and business can help end the economic exclusion for half the world’s population and to build more resilient national economies by prioritizing women´s digiital financial inclusion.

Today, too often, women suffer from systemic and organizational biases that exclude them economically. Closing the gender gap will require transformational measures that prioritize women and redress their systemic exclusion. Service design needs to be gender-intentional. Women’s voices need to be included at each level of decision-making, and AI needs to be transparently unbiased.

The following principle is a freely sharable road map to lasting change.

RECOMMENDATIONS

All members have an opportunity to use their partnership agreements to prioritize women, such as through:

  • sex-disaggregated outreach targets
  • conditions demanding preference for women staff and agents
  • selection criteria requiring strong, demonstrable experience in women-centric services.

All members can prioritize women by tracking sex-disaggregated data from digital payment partners and ensure a focus in all prospective research for emergent technology such as AI.

Provide the right tools and information for women to feel confident to take control of their data and make informed choices by including their voices, including working with civil society and community groups that are trusted, in national approaches to safeguard data.

IN PRACTICE

Unilever Pakistan’s programme, partnering with JazzCash, is designed to overcome specific obstacles to women’s financial inclusion by addressing challenges around transportation, social taboos and financial literacy.

Chile’s commitment to sex-disaggregated data: The government mandated commercial banks to collect sex-disaggregated data and establish a centralized unit to analyse trends and publish insights annually. Commercial players use these data to identify, support and educate female entrepreneurs.

Kenya’s Matrimonial Property Act 2013 made married women’s rights equal to their husbands’. Women are now empowered to own property, with ownership recalculated based on the contribution from each spouse.

HUL Shakti programme in India simplifies onboarding and ensures that accounts opened by female entrepreneurs (Shakti) are in their own names. Adoption incentives are now being tailored to meet women’s wants and needs.