UNCDF Policy Accelerator is working with Women's World Banking to co-create a strategic advocacy program that will support local stakeholders in priority countries to advocate for women’s digital and financial inclusion (WDFI) and ensure that WDFI is a priority among country, regional, and global decision-makers.

The need

In a world where women continue to be left behind, investing in gender equality and women’s economic empowerment becomes a precondition for sustainable development. Making sure that women’s perspectives are elevated and represented in all sectors of society and the economy is central to these efforts.  

Project goals

With the objective of amplifying women’s voices and accelerating their economic empowerment, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Women’s World Banking (WWB) have come together to create a new strategic communications and advocacy program called Women’s Digital and Financial Inclusion (WDFI) Advocacy Hub.  

The WDFI Advocacy Hub aims to accelerate progress towards women’s digital financial inclusion by mobilising a community of diverse global, regional and country entities to jointly advocate for policy and practice change that has a positive impact on women’s lives.   

A central aspect of the WDFI Advocacy Hub is to integrate global advocacy and in-country (local) efforts to accelerate policies, practices and commitments that improve women’s digital and financial inclusion. 

The WDFI Advocacy Hub will: 

• Bring focus, efficiency and scale to global and local advocacy efforts 

• Integrate local and global efforts to accelerate change 

• Amplify local voices and channel resources towards local solutions 

Emerging markets leading the way 

We selected Indonesia and Ethiopia as proof-of-concept countries. In these countries, we will enable a coalition of stakeholders from the public sector, private sector, and civil society who are already focused on — or have made — commitments related to WDFI. We will support these coalitions to gain the skills, knowledge, and financial resources to collaborate on shared initiatives, as well as to develop accountability frameworks that sustain and enhance change.

Project partners

In 2020, Women’s World Banking and UNCDF formed a partnership and signed and MOU to support economic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 5, which focuses on gender equality. The collaboration on this new initiative builds on this partnership and is enabled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Authors

Mariana Lopez

Alexis Ditkowsky