Date: Tuesday, 7 October 2025
Time: 4:00 PM to 4:30 PM (Asia/Dhaka)
Type: Webinar
As part of Financial Inclusion Week 2025, this session explored the unintended risks and vulnerabilities women face when engaging with digital financial services (DFS). Organised by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University, the discussion highlighted how platforms that are not designed with women’s safety and autonomy in mind can compromise privacy, shift household power dynamics, and even facilitate gender-based violence.
Our distinguished speakers included:
• Munshi Sulaiman, Director of Research & Professor, Master of Development Studies, BIGD, BRAC University (Bangladesh)
• Matthew Bird, Associate Professor, Universidad del Pacífico (Peru)
• Nabila Khurshed, Advisor & Director, Insight Metrics Ltd. (Bangladesh)
• Kojo Baffoe-Eghan, Chief Executive Officer, BRAC Ghana Savings and Loans Ltd. (Ghana)
This panel was part of BIGD’s WEE Initiatives (WEE-DiFine and WEE-Connect), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Both initiatives aim to generate rigorous multi-country evidence on how digital financial services and digital connectivity affect women’s economic empowerment across South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia.
The session shared practical insights for providers, policymakers, and advocates on how DFS can be redesigned to safeguard women’s dignity, enhance autonomy, and build resilience rather than reinforce vulnerabilities.
