Searching: Blogs

Mind the Gap: Women and Access to Finance

The Global Findex reveals a glaring gap between women and men when it comes to financial access. With all of the global progress, why would a gender gap persist?

Lessons on Customer Empowerment from Women in Rural India

CGAP is seeking to answer questions and test ideas that explore the concept of empowerment and the role it can play in building customer trust and confidence.

Digital Finance in Bangladesh: Where are all the Women?

Bangladesh has long been a success story for women’s financial inclusion, but in terms of digital finance, the story is very different.

Working with The Poorest Women in Pakistan

The design firm Continuum Innovation found that simplified ATM receipts and photographic instructions helped poor women in Pakistan access their money with more confidence.

Literacy a Hidden Hurdle to Financial Inclusion

Literacy is often a hidden hurdle to bringing financial inclusion to the unbanked. This means that the onus is on the designer of financial systems to make sure clients can use them confidently.

Banking on Including Women in Nigeria

In Nigeria, Diamond Bank is using customer insights to design and market a new savings product for women.

Advancing Financial Inclusion for Women in Africa

This blog discusses what role policy makers and regulators can play to advance financial inclusion for women in Africa.

Beyond Expectations: Applications of Gender Analysis

Ujjivan Financial Services is using data to measure how well they are actually serving women as both clients and staff. Social outcomes are one key indicator they are measuring.

Prove It: Measuring Gender Performance in Microfinance

The Gender Performance Initiative (GPI) evaluates how effectively MFIs are serving women to ultimately build the business case that women are valuable customers and employees, as well as catalysts for social and economic change.

Growth in Women’s Businesses: The Role of Finance

Across the globe, the share of women who become entrepreneurs is significantly below that of men. Access to formal finance remains a major obstacle for women looking to grow their businesses.

Will This Bank Run Away? Women And Mobile Banking In Bihar, India

A recently released women and mobile banking report by GSMA and Visa Inc resonates with the conversations the author has with women in rural Bihar, in some of the poorest parts of India.

Two Persistent Divides in Financial Inclusion: Gender and Rural

For the first time, we have hard data to evaluate how women and rural residents around the world save, borrow, make payments and manage risk both inside and outside the formal financial sector.

International Women's Day: Closing the Gender Gap

Now an official holiday in 27 countries and supported by global organizations such as the United Nations and African Development Bank, International Women's Day has been observed since the early 1900s and provides an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women around the world throughout history.

Do We Need Pink Check Books?

Women think and behave differently than men when it comes to financial matters. These differences have major implications for product design and marketing strategy.

Customers – Especially Women – Drive Mobile Money

Tanzania is one of the fastest growing mobile money markets in the world. Today mobile telephone penetration is 49% according to Wireless Intelligence as of Q3 2011. There are four active mobile money businesses, the largest of which is Vodacom’s M-PESA which has over 2 million active users.

Moving Beyond Micro: Women-Owned Businesses

The profile of a woman business owner in Latin America and the Caribbean is as diverse as the factors on which her success hinges, yet the vast majority are microenterprises by necessity, not by preference, in informal service sectors.