Integrated digital platform for women empowerment and financial inclusion in the food system

This solution was shared by PRE-LAUNCH RESEARCH TEAM , 14 May 2021

Print date: 14 April 2024 10:26

Description of the innovative solution

Community building Education - adult Information/communication Mobile phones Women empowerment Behavior change Food literacy Technical training/support Finance Food environment - personal Consumer choice Retail promotion Capacity building Investment fund Tuft's Innovation Lab

Social protection programs focused on women’s empowerment have shown good results to improve women’s empowerment and household nutrition, but those programs have poor coverage and limited reach in the urban slums and rural remote areas. This innovation will leverage digital tools to improve the financial inclusion of women, particularly focused on the potential for digital financial services to link women to markets, raise incomes, reduce poverty and facilitate women’s greater control over their earnings and savings, all critical elements of women’s economic empowerment.

Primary users

Subsistence farmers
Women
Pregnant women
Low/Middle income households
Peri-urban consumers
Rural consumers
Rural communities
Peri-urban communities

Dietary impact

Knowledge-sharing can lead to empowered decisions on sustainable healthy diets and thus leads to improved health and nutrition for women and their families. This platform can help link women with local market buyers, in order to ensure the purchase of desired food products. Optimally-affordable purchases of healthy food can help maximize health within economic capabilities. Women-led groups could inform policy and guidance in the food and nutrition security arena.

Planetary impact

The link to planetary health is less explicit, but as women bear the brunt of environmental work/interaction with natural resources, their economic empowerment should contribute to improved environmental management. Reducing the gender gap in family agriculture in LMI countries and increasing productivity also leads to less pressure for deforestation. Furthermore, by increasing the purchasing power of women at a local level, women can help prevent the increasing biodiversity loss and enhance local production by exercising more consumer power and purchasing local and seasonal crops.

Equity impact

Working with community leaders is essential to identify priority areas of investment. Existing social inequalities should be considered. Peri-urban areas should be targeted in order to include those living in such marginal environments. This could be done using national ID systems or establishing them if they don’t exist.

Main concerns

Patriarchy in the local context - decision-making structure of food, agriculture, social protection, and humanitarian sectors; Limited digital infrastructures in many parts of the world; Lack of assets and property rights of women; Sustainable development agendas are not sufficiently prioritizing women’s role in household nutrition and education; Patriarchy will make it difficult to realize the full positive potential of this innovation; Increased income may lead to increased consumption of energy-dense processed foods to aspire toward the lifestyles of wealthier households; Increased income could lead to greater consumerism in general; Failure of policy makers to engage in supportive policy/
advocacy for equal distribution of value and sources across gender could limit the effectiveness

Supply chain segment

Educational, outreach and empowerment aspects

Maturity level

Gaining traction

Criteria

Food quality Food affordability

SDG target

SDG 1: No Poverty SDG 2: Zero Hunger SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being SDG 5: Gender Equality SDG 10: Reduced Inequality

Context

Urban Peri-urban Rural

Examples and additional resources

Real-world examples

See this solution in action in different contexts and settings around the world

Gender Centrality of Mobile Financial Services in Bangladesh

Project information

UN Capital Development Fund study on gender centrality to digital financial services in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

sdghelpdesk.unescap.org/si...pdf

Shared by PRE-LAUNCH RESEARCH TEAM

Additional resources

Learn more about this solution through studies, articles, business cases, and other information

Empowering Women Through Financial Inclusion: A Study of Urban Slum

Scientific paper

The study contributes to existing literature by advancing the debate on women in urban slums and identifies the substantial need for the development of formal financial system to enhance the scale of financial inclusion.

journals.sagepub.com/doi...7809