Globally, 76.2% of the 75.6 million domestic workers are women. In Indonesia, approximately five million domestic workers, mostly from rural areas, migrate to urban centers, often working long hours and earning below the legal minimum wage.
Despite their critical role in the economy, they remain largely marginalized from formal financial systems and rely on a mix of formal and informal remittance channels.
Women’s World Banking believes that with appropriate support and customization, digital financial services can significantly reduce financial barriers and enhance income control for women domestic workers, consequently serving as a vital on-ramp to financial inclusion.
Six aspects of digital financial solutions
In partnership with DANA, we worked to increase activation and usage of the DANA app among domestic workers by addressing key barriers such as lack of use cases, distrust of digital money, fear of errors, and lack of product differentiation. Our solutions consist of these six aspects:
- Employer advertising and promotions to encourage salary payments through the DANA digital wallet.
- Marketing and communications to highlight the value and benefits of using the DANA digital wallet.
- A client onboarding process to guide users through using the DANA digital wallet.
- Interactive tutorials for self-paced learning.
- Reminder messages to encourage regular use of the DANA digital wallet.
- Incentives and rewards to promote frequent transactions and engagement.
This initiative was supported by on-site financial training through our partnership with JALA PRT, which significantly increased awareness, trust and adoption of the DANA app, thereby improving financial management and resilience among domestic workers.
Nur, a 50-year-old domestic worker with 25 years of experience, embodies the success of these initiatives. As her family’s main provider after a divorce, she relies on DANA for both local and international remittances to manage her finances efficiently.
“Now I send money to my mother twice a month through DANA for daily expenses; I have also asked my children to open DANA accounts so that they can receive money from me for their school fees. I also receive my salary through a bank account and then transfer a certain amount to DANA for remittances and expenses,” said Nur.
Scaling up best practices
To expand these successful practices:
- Financial Services Providers (FSPs) should design tailored products such as flexible, low-cost remittance solutions and use sex-disaggregated data for insights.
- Governments can strengthen infrastructure to support efficient remittance services and ensure digital solutions are secure and trustworthy through collaborations with FSPs and CSOs.
- Community organizations should lead educational initiatives and hands-on training, leveraging local women leaders to build trust and confidence in digital financial tools.
Our latest report, Empowering Indonesian Women Domestic Workers through Digital Financial Capability, explores how financial services providers can better tailor their services to women’s needs and foster broader financial inclusion.
This publication is based on research funded by (or in part by) the Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Gates Foundation.
