Generating a Gender-Inclusive Finance Roadmap for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Author:
ConsumerCentriX Project Team
Date:
November 22nd, 2023
Area Covered:
Latin America • Caribbean
Topics:
Financial Inclusion • Women’s Financial Inclusion • Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) • Financial Regulation • Research
ConsumerCentriX (CCX), in partnership with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), is working to develop a gender-inclusive finance (GIF) roadmap for AFI member countries in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. The project seeks to address the lack of systematic review of practical policy actions that AFI members in the LAC region can undertake to increase women’s financial inclusion and reduce their gender gaps.
With extensive experience from working with AFI on two projects, part of the AFI Gender Inclusive Finance Workstream, the CCX team, led by Partner Anna Gincherman, will undertake three primary tasks, including:
- Assessing the state of financial inclusion in the LAC region, highlight the significant milestones, targets, and drivers for women’s financial inclusion
- Identifying key barriers and opportunities to women’s financial inclusion in the LAC region
- Identifying main areas of focus for regulators and implementation initiatives in the LAC region based on the best practices and the region’s own unique needs
Through extensive secondary and primary research, the CCX team will develop a GIF landscape report for the LAC region covering the main barriers and opportunities for women’s financial inclusion, with recommendations and an implementation plan based on the key findings from the research.
The Role Regulators Play in Closing the Financial Inclusion Gender Gap
Author:
ConsumerCentriX Project Team
Date:
September 26th, 2023
Area Covered:
Global
Topics:
Financial Inclusion • Gender Equality • Covid19 • Gender Gap
Through the Financial Inclusion Gender Gap Project, ConsumerCentriX contributed to developing 13 case studies from AFI’s membership countries to provide a deeper understanding of women’s financial inclusion status in each, along with key barriers and enablers.
The case studies are one of the key project deliverables designed to help national financial regulators and policymakers identify highly specific and concrete actions to advance gender-inclusive finance in AFI’s member countries.
Learn more from CCX-supported case studies published for the project:
SOLOMON ISLANDS CASE STUDY
Most Solomon Islanders transact in cash and women especially prefer to save at home, with 53 percent of women reporting that they save in a “secret place at home”. For the past decade, the Solomon Islands government and the Central Bank of Solomon Islands have prioritized financially including the unbanked, specifically identifying women, rural individuals, and informal workers as target groups.
© 2023 (August), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
HONDURAS CASE STUDY
By 2017, the country had achieved a 2.7 times growth in women’s account ownership and 41 percent of women owned a bank account. However, vast swaths of women remain unbanked or underserved by financial services, many of them being unemployed or lower-income working in the informal economy. This case study offers an overview of the current state of women’s financial inclusion in Honduras.
© 2023 (April), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
GHANA CASE STUDY
The improvement can be credited to the financial regulators’ significant investment in digital financial services and mobile banking. Although Ghanaian women are eager to use digital services, they are still marginalized by the formal financial system, and lack tailored products that fit their specific financial and business needs.
© 2023 (May), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
UGANDA CASE STUDY
Outside that realm, women still utilize informal financial services like village savings and loan associations and rotating savings and credit associations. There is an opportunity for improved coordination and collaboration of the ecosystem players under the new national financial inclusion strategy and an explicit focus on women’s access and usage.
© 2023 (May), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
MEXICO CASE STUDY
As the second-largest economy and population in Latin America, Mexico has the resources and institutions to tackle gender financial inclusion thanks to its national financial inclusion approach. Mexico’s Central Bank, Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores has implemented several regulations and initiatives to create an enabling environment for women’s financial inclusion through both digital and non-digital services.
© 2023 (August), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
EGYPT CASE STUDY
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) led several initiatives that contributed to advancing women’s financial inclusion, reflecting a growth of 210 percent in women’s transaction account ownership. The Egyptian government and CBE are taking steady steps towards more gender equity, economic empowerment, and financial inclusion, in pursuit of an inclusive society.
© 2023 (June), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
PAKISTAN CASE STUDY
Pakistani women are not only severely disadvantaged in terms of education, economic opportunities, and entrepreneurship, but also restricted by the country’s conservative legal framework. These factors directly impact women’s access and use of financial services and will be essential to address to further close financial inclusion gender gaps.
© 2023 (July), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
Closing the Financial Inclusion Gender Gap During the Crisis and Afterward: Experiences and Lessons Learnt from AFI Members
Author:
ConsumerCentriX Project Team
Date:
September 26th, 2023
Area Covered:
Global
Topics:
Financial Inclusion • Gender Equality • Covid19 • Gender Gap
ConsumerCentriX supported the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) in conducting five case studies from AFI’s member countries to understand the nexus of women’s financial inclusion and crisis response under the “Closing the Financial Inclusion Gender Gap During the Crisis and Afterward” project.
The case studies share experiences and lessons that AFI’s member countries learned from their crisis response and recovery policies from the COVID-19 pandemic while focusing on gender-inclusive finance. Evidence from the case studies shows how AFI members protected and promoted women’s financial inclusion and effectively applied it as part of a crisis response during the pandemic. Lessons learnt from AFI members such as Paraguay, Egypt, Fiji, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe indicate that focusing on gender- inclusive finance helps set the right priorities, mobilise the most impactful stakeholders, identify key operational challenges, and target beneficiaries with a significant multiplier effect. Enabled by the opportunities of digital finance that can be ramped up fast even for developing countries that have seen limited adoption, gender-inclusive finance gets crisis relief and stimulus to where it is needed most and ensures economic life can continue.
Learn more from CCX-supported case studies published for the project:
FIJI CASE STUDY
As an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, Fiji saw strong disruptions to its key economic activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted travel for tourism and overseas work. Together with the challenges of climate change, Fiji understands it faces a need to revise and diversify its growth strategy for resilience.
© 2023 (May), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
BANGLADESH CASE STUDY
From being one of the poorest nations at the time of its independence, Bangladesh has advanced its human and economic development. Being one of the most populous countries, this success and its ability to contain the pandemic’s disruptions matter particularly. Increasing women’s financial inclusion can be the key to unlocking better performance.
© 2023 (March), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
EGYPT CASE STUDY
Strongly affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic, Egypt has been able to implement economic recovery measures, ease restrictions, and rebound in important economic sectors, such as agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and communications.
© 2023 (June), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
PARAGUAY CASE STUDY
The World Bank considered it as one of the South American countries best positioned to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of fiscal and monetary policy thanks to its stable and disciplined macroeconomic policies with low internal and external debt and low inflation. However, as a key agricultural exporter, the country remains vulnerable to international price volatility and climate change-related challenges.
© 2023 (March), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
ZIMBABWE CASE STUDY
A landlocked country rich in natural resources which support both agriculture and tourism, Zimbabwe is progressively working towards securing a stable investment climate.
© 2023 (April), Alliance for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved.
Assessing the Business Opportunity of Women's Market for Financial Services in Uzbekistan
Author:
ConsumerCentriX Project Team
Date:
September 26th, 2023
Area Covered:
Uzbekistan • Central Asia
Topics:
Financial Inclusion • Women’s Financial Inclusion • Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) • Financial Regulation • Research
Uzbekistan has recently witnessed significant economic growth and development, creating new opportunities for financial services providers. One emerging and untapped area is the women’s market for financial services.
To delve into this potential business opportunity, the International Finance Cooperation hired ConsumerCentriX to conduct a comprehensive market research study to assess the viability and dynamics of catering financial and non-financial products and services specifically to women in Uzbekistan. The study aims to provide a 360° understanding of the women’s market for financial and additional non-financial services examining demand-side needs and preferences, supply-side readiness, and the conducive state of the underlying enabling environment.
The research was conducted over six months and involved a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies using principles of Human-Centered Design (HCD). Through surveys, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, the CCX team assessed the demand side of the women’s market and offered distinct insights on women both as individuals and as entrepreneurs. The sample size was strategically chosen to ensure representation from urban and rural areas (retail segment) and women SMEs at different stages of business growth (business segment), all the while covering women from different socio-economic backgrounds, age groups and occupations.
Several Key Insights:
- The majority of women entrepreneurs pointed out access to finance as a significant obstacle to their current operations, and while most claim banks to be their first choice when it comes to borrowing, the actual integration of women entrepreneurs into the formal sector remains low.
- For investments planned in the near future, most women’s businesses intend to finance their activities from sources perceived as more suitable and approachable than FIs.
- Current formal lending options are often regarded as too expensive to finance and too risky to lose collateral – that they often do not even have.
- Often facing time and mobility constraints, women as individuals unanimously expressed a strong need for more convenient and speedy service, including digital (mobile) options. These women also expressed a robust interest in working with FIs to plan a more secure financial future – and for the financial stability of their families, their children’s education is considered the key investment.
- With a strong preference for keeping their savings in cash, most women seem to have not yet been convinced of the benefits of savings with financial institutions. Similarly, only a small minority have borrowed from formal sources while informal means play a significant role.
- Current market offers mostly provide banking as a commodity, leaving an opportunity to provide more value for women as individuals and as entrepreneurs. The few dedicated products for women still reflect a program-driven focus on loans rather than a broader value proposition.
- Aside from these specialized loan products, there are no other types of specialized products for women that involve deposits and savings, insurance, or payments and money transfer arrangements, or women-specific bundles of such services.
- The non-financial services also have a narrow functional focus. At the same time, Uzbekistan is rapidly becoming a focus for digital financial services providers.
The Uzbek enabling environment presents a mixed picture of strong socio-cultural limitations as well as the substantially supportive digital driver, which is strengthening female financial inclusion. While the country’s legal and regulatory framework and the existing support systems are currently more neutral drivers, both areas offer the potential to significantly move the needle for women navigating their way through the Uzbek financial sector.
Learn more from the report: Market Research to Assess the Business Opportunity of Women’s Markets for Financial Services in Uzbekistan.
