Women’s Economic Empowerment and Digital Finance (WEE-DiFine)

The White Paper focuses on developing a conceptual framework to explore the causal mechanisms linking WEE and DFS in great detail, reviews the current empirical evidence for each of these mechanisms, identifies challenges observed in interpreting the evidence, and highlights a set of priority questions that cut across the different research areas to be explored in the WEE-DiFine Initiative. 

Before submitting proposals, interested candidates are encouraged to read WEE-DiFine's full RFP document, budget guidelines, and white paper, which includes critical details about the Initiative’s core research themes and questions. WEE-DiFine has five main categories of funding, based on the type of research study, which have been grouped into two categories: Large Grants and Small Grants.

Calls for proposals may be dedicated to one or both of the following categories:

Large Grants

• Large-scale Greenfield Evaluations: Intended for greenfield projects explicitly designed on strong theoretical grounding to target key questions in the initiative’s research agenda.  The maximum award amount for this grant type is USD 500,000.
• Extensions to Existing Studies: Intended to add extensions to existing experimental research designs that would yield results of central relevance to the initiative’s research agenda. Researchers often lack the funding for accommodating the necessary sample size that would allow decomposing the mechanisms mediating the impacts of interventions, particularly in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Alternatively, researchers may not have the budget to effectively include sufficiently large strata of women in an experimental sample, particularly in cases where women are less represented than men. This tier of funding will enable researchers to add additional intervention arms, female strata to samples, and/or other extensions to existing study designs, enabling researchers to investigate mechanisms influencing women’s economic empowerment. This tier of award is expected to yield results more quickly than funding for new projects, enabling funding to be distributed more evenly across the duration of the Initiative. As such, funding will be awarded to proposals that clearly focus on adding survey rounds or samples to current studies or adding a WEE-DiFine targeted treatment arm to an existing study. The maximum award amount for this grant type is USD 200,000.

Small Grants

• Measurement Studies: This funding category is meant to support measurement studies (including, but not limited to, developing novel measurement techniques, an adaptation of an existing measure to a different cultural context, or population) in field surveys. Effectively, measuring indicators such as (digital) financial inclusion and women’s economic empowerment are crucial for estimating important outcomes such as financial health, female agency and empowerment, intra-household bargaining power, control of household decision-making, etc. Measurement studies do not have to be associated with an RCT - they can be attached to any form of quantitative data collection. The maximum award amount for this type of grant is USD 50,000. Before being peer-reviewed, submissions must demonstrate that 1) They have a skilled researcher(s) who are experts at measurement studies on their team (either as a PI or in another key role) and 2) There is clear potential for a publication-quality paper to emerge from the research.
• Qualitative Studies:  Qualitative studies can be used to disentangle the causal mechanisms of an RCT or shed light on specific sub-themes in the Initiative’s white paper. This funding category has two sub-categories.
  
  
  1. Qualitative Studies as Extensions to Existing Studies: This subcategory is designed to “top-up” existing projects to encourage the inclusion of talented sociologists, anthropologists, and other social scientists who employ qualitative research methods, such as ethnography, in the research team to advance high-quality, mixed-method research. This funding sub-category is motivated by the recognition that rigorously investigated qualitative narratives about how and why interventions impact their subjects is essential but often omitted.
  2. Qualitative Studies as Formative or Standalone Research: This subcategory does not need to be attached to an existing project. This subcategory is designed to allow for pre-pilot qualitative research that may inform subsequent experimental evaluations or measurement studies to be conducted by the research team applying for funding or other teams exploring the pathways between DFS and WEE. This funding sub-category is motivated by the need for high-quality, rigorous qualitative research that can inform the Initiative’s research agenda.

The maximum award amount for this type of grant is USD 50,000. Applicants who receive funding under this category are eligible and encouraged to apply to future RFPs. 

Before being peer-reviewed, submissions in both categories must demonstrate that 1) They have a skilled qualitative researcher on their team (either as a PI or in another key role) and 2) There is clear potential for a publication-quality paper to emerge from the research.

• Pilot Studies: These proposals are intended to stimulate early pilot fieldwork to explore promising opportunities for future large-scale projects. This tier of funding can also be used to support data acquisition and analysis of natural experiments where projects are consistent with the research agenda. The maximum award amount for this grant type is USD 50,000.Before being peer-reviewed, submissions must demonstrate that 1) They have a skilled researcher(s) who are experts at RCTs on their team (either as a PI or in another key role) and 2) There is clear potential for a large-scale study to emerge from the research.

Teams may apply for a large grant in conjunction with a qualitative or measurement study grant (e.g., an extension study combined with a measurement study) using a single proposal. Teams may also apply for more than one funding category within the small grants categories (e.g., a pilot study combined with a qualitative study) using a single proposal. Maximum budgets may be combined across the relevant grant categories (e.g., an extension study combined with a measurement study may apply for a maximum of USD 250,000). Should teams apply for more than one category, the proposal must clearly state that both categories are being applied for in a single application.

The submission deadline for WEE-DiFine’s Fourth Request for Proposals May 14th, 2024, 23:59 Bangladesh Standard Time (5:59 pm GMT / 1:59 pm EST). No late submissions will be accepted.

Application Instructions

The completed proposal will include:

1. Proposal cover letter 
2. Technical proposal 
3. Budget and budget narrative 
4. Letter(s) of support
5. Up to five page CVs of each Principal Investigator

All completed proposals should be submitted via the submission portal.

RFP Package

1. 1. RFP Guidelines
   2. Cover Letter Template
   3. Technical Proposal Template
   4. Budget Template
   5. Budgetary Guidelines
   6. White Paper

This page houses resources for candidates and organizations interested in opportunities with WEE-DiFine, as well as for teams that have been provisionally selected for funding.

WEE-DiFine Newsletter 2022

WEE-DiFine Newsletter 2023

WEE-DiFine Newsletter 2024

WEE-DiFine and WEE-Connect Newsletter January 2024