a2i to hold webinar on women-focused financial inclusion strategy in Bangladesh

a2i has been organising a webinar series on different thematic areas related to digital financial inclusion ensuring participation from relevant stakeholders.

This webinar on "Reducing Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion" will be held on Monday at 7pm. The webinar series has started from 23 June 2021, reads a press release.

The initiative is called 'Bangladesh Financial Inclusion Forum 2.0' with the theme - accelerating women participation in financial services through women financial inclusion policies.

Financial inclusion has entered into the global development agenda in recent years. It is more than just reducing the gender gap. It is about empowering the women to increase their financial autonomy, the relative capacity of each of the parties and self-esteem, while reducing their manifestation to risks. It is about improving women's livelihood development and building a more equitable and sustainable future for all.

Over the last couple of years, the Bangladesh government has achieved significant growth in Financial Inclusion. The government continues to make progress on its financial inclusion goals through the implementation of initiatives designed to reach the financially excluded, particularly the poor. The government's focus on women and their inclusion in the financial sector can have a transformative impact in boosting household economic resilience. Women's engagement with financial institutions and their ability to access participation in work and credit from such institutions can increase their social capital.

Bangladesh recently launched the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS-B) with a specific roadmap of actions to achieve financial inclusion objectives. The NFIS-B strongly recommended to develop a separate policy/strategy and undertake special programs by all regulatory bodies of financial sector on women financial inclusion. The separate strategy should cover the following issues- Dedicated focus on catering the need financial services (saving, credit, payment, investment and insurance) of women individuals and entrepreneurs from both rural and urban areas; convenient service delivery channel for women; separate focus for women in DFS.

Developing countries have been pursuing access and usage of financial services for poverty alleviation and economic development. To ensure a more comprehensive approach to expand access and usage of financial services among women, a gender-focused strategy could bring transformative changes for Low and Middle Income segment.

The objective of this webinar is to provide insights into the aspect of women in the existing National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS-B) in Bangladesh. The discussants will discover whether a separate gender-focused strategy for financial inclusion is required in our country context. In addition, the session will engage experts to find out key barriers and policy gaps in order to identify possible interventions to bridge the gap in Bangladesh.