Digital financial services (DFS) are rapidly becoming a transformative force in driving financial inclusion and economic growth and empowerment. Low-income women often face specific challenges in accessing financial services, which hinders their economic empowerment. By enabling women’s participation in DFS, we address gender inequality, promote economic participation and bolster overall financial inclusion efforts. Women’s involvement in the formal financial system supports micro-entrepreneurship, impacts family well-being and fosters better decision-making dynamics.
The DFS Account Activation Solution provides a unique opportunity to overcome these barriers through a learn-by- doing model and associated training that can help institutions that struggle to reduce rates of dormant accounts and associated costs, increase account usage, and drive customer engagement.
This toolkit outlines the Women’s World Banking Women-Centered Design (WCD) methodology and provides guidelines and valuable resources for project teams, from the initial problem-framing stage through applying the lens of the customer and the institution, and then leveraging insights for solution development and successful in- field rollout. Processes and steps to ensure accountability, monitoring and evaluation are also included. The aim of the toolkit is to provide a holistic blueprint to help financial services providers (FSPs) harness market or business opportunities in line with organizational goals and objectives. In turn, these resources help promote financial inclusion for under-banked and unbanked low-income women, ultimately enabling greater economic empowerment.
