Resources
Explore programs, policies, and interventions that address WFI barriers.
Showing 64 out of 64 exemplars
Aadhaar Project
India's ambitious and innovative program to allow all residents to prove their identity through a unique identity number provided by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), improving people's ability to gain access to benefits and subsidies, apply for welfare benefits, access education, open bank accounts, etc.
Aligning Libraries and USAFs for Rural Public Access
An initiative led by Jamaica's Universal Service and Access Fund to purchase public access computers and software and allocate network connections to major public libraries, including libraries where internet service was not commercially viable, and establish more comunity access points in rural areas.
Annapurna - Individual Business Loans for SMSEs
Annapurna Finance, a leading microfinance institution in India introduced a new credit policy and launched a collateral-free “Individual Business Loan” (IBL), designed as an entry point for women new to formal lending.
BETA Savings Account in Nigeria
The creation of an innovative digital savings account targeting self-employed women in Nigeria.
Benazir Income Support Programme
An impact evaluation of the government of Pakistan's flagship social safety net program that provides quarterly cash payments directly to female beneficiaries within eligible households.
Brazil’s Regulatory Framework to Encourage Competition
Brazil’s financial sector reforms illustrate how a strong competition lens can drive inclusion, supported by a regulatory framework that actively enables new entrants and innovation.
Business Women Connect Program
A two-pronged intervention that 1) registers and trains women on how to use a mobile finance product that allows saving on an interest-bearing mobile savings account and access to microloans conditional on good savings performance and 2) provides intensive business skills training.
Comunidades Conectadas y Hogares Conectados
A national plan in Costa Rica designed to connect the whole country to the internet within two years, including bringing free internet connectivity to schools, clinics, and community centers.
DigiFarm
An integrated mobile platform of digital services for farmers that enables them to conveniently source inputs, transact, learn, and grow their farms.
Digital Sub-Wallets for Increased Financial Empowerment of Women
The design of a digital sub-wallet, or pockets of savings designated for a particular use to help women achieve their set goals, such as saving for school fees, medical emergencies, and longer-term purchases such as land.
Digital Wallet Adoption for the Oral Segment in India
A conceptual wireframe of a mobile wallet for 'oral' (illiterate and neoliterate) people to use.
Digitizing Payroll for Factory Workers in Bangladesh
Assessing the impact of introducing electronic payroll accounts to a population of largely unbanked garment factory workers in Bangladesh.
Digitizing Rural Women's Savings Groups in Tanzania
Assessing the impact of digital savings ledgers on savings group meeting length, financial capability, trust, and social cohesion within the group.
Empirical Evidence from Uganda on the Impact of Mobile Money on Rural Households
This study focuses on rural Northern Uganda with only 27.6% of households possessing a mobile phone.
Empowering MSMEs: Creating a Better Banking Experience for Women-Led Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Kenya
Women's World Banking (WWB) developed a multipronged solution in cooperation with Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) to address identified business challenges and customer needs.
Estancias Infantiles para Apoyar a Madres Trabajadoreas Programme
A subsidised childcare services programme targeted at mothers in poor households who work, are looking for work, or who are studying and do not have access to formal social security provided childcare.
Estonia's E-identity Program
A nationwide government-led initiative to create a robust digital identity ecosystem.
FCMB’s Hospital Cash Insurance Model
First City Monument Bank (FCMB), one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions partnered with Women’s World Banking to design a health microinsurance solution tailored to these customers.
Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA)
A public-private consortium of organizations seeking to transform food value chains in emerging markets by building long-term linkages between suppliers (farmers), buyers, and other key market players.
Female Leadership, Performance, and Governance in Microfinance Institutions
A study investigating the relations between female leadership, firm performance, and corporate governance in a global panel of 329 Microfinance Institutions in 73 countries from 1998-2008.
Formalízate: One-Stop Shop for Business Registration
The Dominican Republic’s introduction of Formalízate, a digital one-stop shop for business registration, sought to reduce the time, cost, and complexity associated with registering businesses and thereby combat widespread economic informality.
Hiring Women into Senior Leadership Positions
A study on how hiring women into leadership positions can provide pathways to systemically and positively change gender stereotypes encoded in language.
India Bank - Building Financial Resilience
In 2022, India Bank launched an account activation effort focused on low-income women, addressing both institutional and behavioral barriers.
Interest Rate Sensitivity Among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
A randomized experiment examining village banking clients' reactions to varying interest rates in order to determine the impact of the cost of borrowing on loan take-up, the amound borrowed, and repayment rates.
Internet Para Todos
A public-private partnership in Peru that aimed to connect 6 million rurally located Peruvians to the internet.
KCB’s Inclusive Lending Journey for Women Entrepreneurs
KCB's combined approach - pairing tailored financial products with targeted support - expanded access while strengthening business capacity.
Kenya's Rules on Mobile Money Price Transparency are Paying Off
An initiative in Kenya to require mobile financial service providers to disclose their costs via customers' mobile handsets.
Laboratoria - A pathway to formal job opportunities
Laboratoria partners with employers to align training, screening, and placement with real hiring demand, enabling women to enter formal tech roles through structured pathways.
Lead - Women Entrepreneurs in Egypt
Lead partnered with Women’s World Banking to redesign its model. Reforms included larger and more flexible loans, revised arrears policies, and clearer pathways from group to individual lending, supported by staff training and change management.
LendingKart’s Innovation Journey
LendingKart partnered with Women’s World Banking and the University of Zurich to design and test gender-responsive solutions aimed at increasing women’s participation at the top of the credit funnel.
Less is More: Experimental Evidence on Heuristic-Based Business Training in Ecuador
An experiment to test and compare the effectiveness of two types of business training for small business owners: a traditional training program and a program focusing on easily-digestible, rule of thumb-style business practices.
Mexico's Tiered KYC
Mexico's tiered scheme for opening deposit accounts at credit institutions, which implements risk-based account opening requirements for low-value accounts where requirements increase progressively as restrictions on transactions and channels are eased.
Mobile Financial Services for Female Entrepreneurs (MFS) Program
A randomized experiment examing the impact of demand- and supply-side interventions on the utilization of saving and other financial services among women business owners in Indonesia.
Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger
A randomized experiment studying the effects of using mobile money to deliver cash transfers in Niger.
Mobile Phone and Livelihoods of Women Project
A randomized experiment to estimate the effects of mobile phones on the welfare of low-income women in Tanzania.
Mobile-Linked Bank Accounts
A randomized evaluation of a mobile service that allows participants to make deposits into regular bank savings accounts through their mobile phone.
Narrowing the Gender Gap in Mobile Banking - bKash in Bangladesh
Two connected field experiments conducted in Bangladesh examining the impact of training programs and family networks on the takeup and usage of mobile banking.
National Policies for Women Empowerment: Saudi Arabia
A set of laws and policies to catalyze a positive impact onwomen's participation in the labor market.
Nedbank - Campaigning against financial abuse
Nedbank, South Africa’s fourth largest bank, recognized that financial abuse posed a consumer protection risk: gender-based violence can directly affect customers’ financial safety and behavior.
Nigeria’s Instant Payment System
Nigeria’s NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) design, centered on interoperability, standardized account identification, and broad accessibility, has enabled rapid adoption, increased trust and confidence in the digital financial system, and improved affordability to become a leader in inclusive, sustainable, and scalable payment systems.
On Her Account: Can Strengthening Women's Financial Control Boost Female Labor Supply?
A study on the role of supply-side constraints linked to low household bargaining power and traditional gender norms in suppressing female employment.
PIP’s Ultra-Micro Loan Initiative
Indonesia's Government Investment Unit (PIP) worked with ministries and financial institutions to expand access for women entrepreneurs beyond Java.
Paving the Way for Women from the Inside Out (TARA Program)
A BRAC Bank initiative to increase female representation in its workforce and leadership as a first step towards accelerating Bangladeshi women's access to financial services
Proto - Bringing Siloed Systems Together
Proto, a Canadian-based AI company, demonstrates that modernizing consumer redress is not primarily a technology challenge, but an institutional one: success depends as much on relationships, trust, and adaptive governance as it does on digital tools.
Reaching the Unreached: BRI and Women Ultra-Microentrepreneurs
In Indonesia, inclusion gaps are especially pronounced among ultra-micro entrepreneurs (UMi), a large but underserved segment. Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) set an ambitious goal to reach 29 million of Indonesia’s 63 million ultra-micro entrepreneurs with appropriate financial services.
Reducing Bank Overdraft Usage through Price Discounts and SMS Reminders
A randomized evaluation to measure the impact of informational reminders and price discounts on bank clients' overdraft usage in Turkey.
Reducing Tax Costs on Connectivity
Recognizing that handset prices were harming the MNO sector and that competition was no longer sufficient to expand internet access, the Kenyan government exempted mobile handset from VAT - just as the internet superhighway arrived.
Regulations Drive Success of Digital Finance in Cote d'Ivoire
Regulations implemented by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) that clarified the position of non-banks in the mobile money market and encouraged them to abandon partnerships with banks and begin issuing e-money themselves through subsidiaries and under BCEAO supervision.
Rwanda's Land Tenure Regularization Program
Rwanda's first time imagery-based and low-cost land adjudication and registration process.
SADSAWU - Gaining protections for Domestic workers in South Africa
The South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU), a trade union representing domestic workers, advocated for Africa's High Court to extend Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) coverage to domestic workers
Savings for Change Program
A randomized experiment studying the impact of a program to assist women in organizing savings and credit groups.
Self-Help Group Members as Banking Agents for Deepening Financial Inclusion in India
A proof of concept that shows how self-help group members can deliver last-mile banking services to the rural community in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.
The Hindu Succession Act
A legal reform to allow women and men the same ability to inherit joint family property.
The Impact of Financial Incentives on Female Land Ownership in Tanzania
A randomized experiment to investigate whether Tanzanian households could be induced to grant formal land ownership rights to women, with a focus on two potential obstacles to women's access to formal land ownership: the high price of formal land titles and the sole ownership of land titles by men.
The Impact of Incentives and Transparency on Usage of New Financial Products in Indonesia
A study on the design of financial incentives offered to local agents for acquiring new clients, showing how the level of these incentives affects agent effort and technology adoption.
The Impact of a Formal Savings Intervention in Sri Lanka
An evaluation of a mobile Point of Service (POS) deposit collection for business owners within one kilometer of a bank branch, with a focus on the impact on the amount of savings and source of savings.
The Persistent Power of Behavioral Change: Long-Run Impacts of Temporary Savings Subsidies for the Poor
An experiment to test whether temporary, but high-powered, incentives to save can have persistent impacts on economic outcomes.
The Role of Gender in Agent Banking
A study on customer preferences for agent gender, transaction amounts, and agent gender preferences in markets with low female agent presence.
The Role of Information on Retirement Planning
A study on the effect of financial education on retirement savings offered to employees in an online format.
Wajibu: NMB Bank’s Youth-Centered Savings Program
NMB Bank launched Wajibu, a youth-focused initiative combining tailored savings accounts for different age groups with financial education delivered in schools to both students and parents.
Wing: Payroll Digitization
Wing, supported by Women’s World Banking, promoted wage digitization and deeper account usage among factory workers in Cambodia.
Women Citizenship Initiative
A collaboration between Egypt, UN Women, UNDP, and varioius other national departments and international stakeholders to issue more than on emillion national ID cards to Egyptian women.
Women's Business Ownership Act
An Act in the United States to address the needs of women in business by giving women entrepreneurs recognition and resources and by eliminating discriminatory lending practices by banks that favored male business owners.
Zambia’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy
Zambia’s first National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), adopted in 2017, served as a roadmap and action plan to advance financial inclusion.
