Transformative Financial Inclusion with a Focus on Women
A renewed research agenda for gender equality in latin america and the caribbean
Abstract
Based on Amartya Sen’s capability approach we propose the concept of “women-centered transformative financial inclusion”. Following this concept, we use information from a four-component Latin American expert consultation to propose a research agenda on financial inclusion and gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This agenda involves five research areas: (i) conducting in-depth identification of LAC women’ financial needs and behaviors, as well as collecting statistical information disaggregated by sex; (ii) exploring ways to design and evaluate cost-effective, context-sensitive and gender-relevant financial inclusion strategies; (iii) providing evidence on the structural limitations that prevent women from having access to the financial system, such as unconscious negative gender biases and social norms that reinforce gender-based exclusion; (iv) renewing and increasing the literature on the relationship between financial inclusion, soft-skills development, self-confidence and multidimensional empowerment; and (v) exploring feasible ways in which new technologies can contribute to broaden women’ financial inclusion, taking into account local diversity, as well as different degrees information and communication infrastructure development.
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