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How Social Media Is Fueling Women’s Entrepreneurship in Myanmar

Many women in Myanmar and across Asia are using social media to conduct online commerce. Meet three entrepreneurs who are engaging in this type of informal e-commerce in Myanmar and have created jobs for other women.

3 Trends in Women’s Financial Inclusion Funding

Funding for women's financial inclusion is on the rise, but just 10 percent of financial inclusion programs are identified as having a gender component, according to the CGAP Funders Survey.

Hiding in Plain Site: Informal E-Commerce Among Women in Asia

Millions of women are buying and selling goods online across Asia — but, at least in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan, they’re not transacting on e-commerce platforms. They’re using social platforms instead, often without digital payments.

How Are Kenya’s Youth Experiencing the Gig Economy?

The gig economy is on the rise in Africa. What does this mean for youth? In Kenya, CGAP interviewed young people to get their perspectives.

3 Ways to Deepen Our Understanding of Women’s Financial Inclusion

Researchers can shed new light on the impact of financial inclusion on women by applying three principles in their work.

Diagnosing Social Norms in Women’s Financial Inclusion Programming

Funders must develop a deeper understanding of how to tackle social norms that restrict women's financial inclusion. Lessons from CGAP’s research in Turkey help point the way.

3 Ways Financial Inclusion Improves Women’s Food Security

There is evidence that financial inclusion improves food security for women in at least three ways.

Could e-Commerce Bring Women’s Financial Inclusion in Bangladesh?

Closing the financial inclusion gender gap is about more than account access. It’s about making sure accounts unlock real opportunities for women. In Bangladesh, linking mobile money to informal e-commerce could meaningfully advance women’s financial inclusion.

Understanding Côte d’Ivoire’s Financially Excluded Women

Women are 45 percent less likely than men in Côte d’Ivoire to have a mobile money account. Low mobile phone ownership and financial innumeracy remain major barriers.

4 Regulatory Enablers for Digital Finance: A Gender Perspective

Unless policies consider gender, we risk leaving behind the most vulnerable in society, particularly women, limiting our ability to achieve the SDGs. However, if implemented with gender in mind, the basic regulatory enablers of digital finance can increase women's financial inclusion.

Women’s Financial Inclusion: Are Funders Moving the Needle?

Many countries with significant funding for women’s financial inclusion are seeing a widening gender gap. What does this mean for funders?

Measuring Women’s Financial Inclusion: The 2017 Findex Story

Despite global progress toward universal access to financial services, the gender gap remains at 9 percentage points in developing countries. Here's a look at what the 2017 Global Findex tells us about women's access to financial services.

Women’s Financial Inclusion: What the Gallup World Poll Tells Us

Gallup data shows that 81 percent of women worldwide own a mobile phone. Yet regions with high ownership rates have some of the lowest rates of women's financial inclusion.

Women’s Financial Empowerment Is the Tide that Can Lift All Boats

Changing gender norms doesn't mean empowering women at the expense of men. When women have a voice in financial decisions, it can benefit the entire household.

Cultivating Opportunities for Women in Agriculture

National surveys in Mozambique and Tanzania show that women in agriculture do not diversify their incomes as much as men do. Equal access to financial services could help women to generate new sources of income.

How Social Norms Affect Women’s Financial Inclusion

Four in 10 women and girls around the world are excluded from the formal financial system. Restrictive social norms are one major factor that limits women's financial inclusion. Here's why norms matter.

5 Challenges for Women’s Financial Inclusion

From restrictive cultural norms to less access to technology, women around the world face unique challenges in gaining access to formal financial services.

Can Financial Inclusion Change Gender Norms?

What does women's economic empowerment look like? Increasingly, researchers and practitioners are focusing on two parallel approaches: Alleviating the symptoms of social and gender norms to enhance access to finance, and potentially changing prevailing gender norms themselves.

Women’s Financial Inclusion: A Down Payment on Achieving the SDGs

Ensuring that women have access to formal financial services can help to address many of the economic gaps between men and women worldwide. World Bank Group's Gender Strategy puts women’s economic empowerment—and the financial services necessary to achieve it—high on the agenda.

Pakistan’s Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion

Pakistan has the second worst gender gap in the world, an imbalance reflected in the country’s financial inclusion numbers. What are the specific causes of women's financial exclusion, and what are potential solutions?