Inclusive Green Finance Series #3: Typology of climate-related activities that need financing (part 2)

The previous post provided details on the most common types of climate financing: adaptation and mitigation. The definition of climate change mitigation is the promotion of “efforts to reduce or limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or enhance GHG sequestration”. This includes improving energy efficiency, switching to renewable energy equipment, avoiding loss of soil carbon through…

Inclusive Green Finance Series #2: Typology of climate-related activities that need financing (part 1)

As discussed in the previous post, one of the key risks in climate finance derives from the fact that a financial institution’s loans could contribute to climate change. The most important factor, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, is when forests or other land is developed for farming (known as forestry and other land use––FOLU). For…

Gender Issues in Financial Inclusion Series 8: Policy approaches for promoting women’s financial inclusion (Part 4)––Basic Concepts and Process for Designing a Sex Disaggregated Data Reporting System

The following information is draw from an Alliance for Financial inclusion (AFI)-funded project in which ACCESS supported the National Bank of Cambodia to implement SDD in 2022. A. Concept and background to SDD Due to social norms, family responsibilities, and their responsibility for overall household financial management, women’s financial service needs differ from men. Most…

Gender Issues in Financial Inclusion Series 7: The “Three-Legged Stool” –– ACCESS’s recommended policy approach for promoting women’s financial inclusion

This blog series began its discussion of policy approaches by noting that one of the key challenges regulators face in promoting women’s financial inclusion is a lack of buy-in from FSPs. In the previous post, we noted three approaches for increasing FSP buy-in: In Papua New Guinea, the ADB-funded MEP program provided external financing for…

Gender Issues in Financial Inclusion Series 6: Policy approaches for promoting women’s financial inclusion (Part 2)

As discussed in the previous post, one of the key challenges regulators face in promoting women’s financial inclusion is a lack of buy-in from financial service providers (FSPs). So far, there is no clear or standard formula or even a set of effective actions that regulators and other stakeholders have taken to promote women’s financial inclusion…

Gender Issues in Financial Inclusion Series 5: Policy approaches for promoting women’s financial inclusion (Part 1)

The key challenges regulators face in promoting women’s financial inclusion is a lack of buy-in from FSPs. Around the world, many financial institutions, even those whose mission and operations are geared toward financial inclusion, believe that they are already including women as their clients. Indeed, many already target women specifically. Since their portfolio performance and…

Gender Issues in Financial Inclusion Series 4: Drivers of the Gender Gap in Financial Services, Part 3: Limited or inappropriate non-financial services

Women need a broad range of non-financial products and services to meet their diverse needs throughout their lives. Some of these are the same as what a men need, but many are affected by the barriers and circumstances particular to women’s contexts. Gender transformative approaches such as Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS) and others, as…

Gender Issues in Financial Inclusion Series 3: Drivers of the Gender Gap in Financial Services, Part 2: Supply side gaps

While gender norms affect financial inclusion from the demand side, how financial service providers (FSPs) respond to those norms has a dramatic impact on women’s inclusion. There are two main factors on the supply side that negatively affect how FSPs serve women. The first is that FSPs do not invest enough in serving women. Many…

Gender Issues in Financial Inclusion Series 2: Drivers of the Gender Gap in Financial Services, Part 1: Gender Norms

In financial systems, as elsewhere, gender norms are pervasive and influence the behavior of all participants it, including consumers, financial service providers (FSPs), policymakers, and providers of supporting functions such as agent networks and credit registries. Deeply embedded behaviors and beliefs driven by gender norms shape the incentives and capacities of financial system actors that…