This action plan is intended to help governments, businesses, and NGOs “rebuild stronger” after the COVID-19 pandemic by reducing gender inequality. UN Women estimates that at least 47 million more women and girls will fall below the poverty line in 2021 due to COVID-19. The following actions, which are prioritized equally, aim to foster stronger and more resilient economies built on the strengths of women through more robust civil rights protections, women’s digital financial inclusion, and anti-poverty efforts targeting women and girls.
ACTION 1: Digitize Private-sector Payments
Businesses of all sizes can facilitate women getting bank accounts by digitizing payments made to employees, suppliers, and distributors rather than paying them in cash. Research in Bangladesh suggests that “electronic wage payments help factory workers boost their savings and improve their ability to manage financial emergencies.” Governments also have a vital role to play in creating policy frameworks that encourage businesses to convert to digital payments.
ACTION 2: Digitize Payments of Government Social Benefits
Digital payment of social benefits is a proven way to promote “financial inclusion and help women beneficiaries strengthen their household decision-making power” as well as increase their participation in the labor force.
ACTION 3: Outlaw Discrimination Against Women
Research shows that women’s financial inclusion tends to be higher in economies where there is legal equality between men and women. According to the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law database, 115 economies have laws that prevent women from running businesses in the same manner as men.
ACTION 4: Ensure Universal Access to Identification
Possession of a national ID document is generally a prerequisite for accessing financial services and mobile phones. Of women worldwide who do not have a bank account, 20 percent cite lack of documentation as “a key barrier.”
ACTION 5: End the Gender Gap in Mobile-phone Ownership
Men’s phone ownership surpasses that of women by 7 percentage points due to both financial barriers and social factors. Access to mobile phones can help women use financial services such as receiving remittances.
ACTION 6: Hire Women at Banks and Mobile-network Operators
Evidence suggests that women use “financial services more often when they are served by female bank employees and mobile-money agents.”
ACTION 7: Collect, Analyze and Use Sex-disaggregated Data on All Types of Financial Services As Well As Data on Access to Identity, Connectivity, and Devices
When financial institutions and telecoms release more sex-disaggregated data on their customers, policymakers can identify and address barriers to women’s financial inclusion more accurately and effectively. Governments can encourage or require firms to release such data to be used in improving policies as well as for research in general.
ACTION 8: Design Appropriate and Affordable Financial Products for Women
Financial products can be designed to suit different stages of women’s lives. Women also can benefit more from existing products when marketing efforts illustrate how the products address women’s needs.
ACTION 9: Help Women Benefit from E-commerce Opportunities
Governments, companies, and civil society can all take steps to enable more women to utilize e-commerce to generate income “on their own terms.”
ACTION 10: Create and Enforce Strong Consumer Protection, Including Universal Dispute Mechanisms
Women are more likely to trust and therefore use digital financial services that have “greater levels of transparency” around product terms in addition to well-established processes for addressing grievances.
This is a summary of a paper by Ruth Goodwin-Groen, Nandini Harihareswara, Leora Klapper, Margaret Miller, and Andy Woolnough; published by Women’s World Banking, the World Bank, Better Than Cash Alliance, UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, UN Women and the UN Capital Development Fund; March 2021; 28 pages; available at https://www.findevgateway.org/paper/2021/03/reaching-financial-equality-women
By Aakansha Shenoy, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Women’s World Banking homepage
https://womensworldbanking.org/
World Bank homepage
https://worldbank.org/
Better Than Cash Alliance
https://www.betterthancash.org/
UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development
https://unsgsa.org/
UN Women
http://www.unwomen.org/
UN Capital Development Fund
http://www.uncdf.org/
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