Better Practice Guidance on Women’s Digital Financial Capability

This guidance document is intended to aid providers and organizations on how to develop a better understanding of the gendered norms that guide women’s lives and the challenges many women face with using digital technology.

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AUTHORS

Julia Arnold

Topics

This guidance document brings together best practices and lessons learned to aid providers and international organizations that are working to improve women’s financial capabilities, skills, and inclusion. It demonstrates how practitioners can develop a better understanding of women – in particular, the gendered norms that guide their lives as well as the challenges that digital technology poses for women. This document outlines four steps to work through when designing approaches to women’s digital financial capability: Diagnose, Design, Deliver, and Document.

This guidance document accompanies CFI’s report “Building Women’s Financial Capability: A Path Toward Transformation” which was published in June 2021.

Julia Arnold

Consultant

An expert in gender and financial inclusion, Julia Arnold serves as a consultant for CFI. From 2020-2022, she worked as CFI’s Senior Director of Gender and Financial Inclusion. Julia has more than 12 years of experience in inclusive finance, leading implementation and research projects across a range of customer- and provider-focused topics such as digital financial inclusion, financial capability, and microsavings. Julia brings an understanding of the enabling environment needed to catalyze real change for women’s economic lives, as well as a deep understanding of the microeconomic constraints to women’s empowerment. Prior to CFI, Julia was Financial Inclusion and Livelihood Specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) where she led mixed-methods research and primary data collection for evaluations and gender analyses, as well as curriculum development for youth and adults, focused on household dynamics and livelihoods. Before this, she was a consultant working with a diverse range of clients such as MetLife Foundation, CGAP, the World Bank, CFI, and others. Julia holds a master’s degree in international development from American University in Washington, DC.