This Version 1 synthesis paper reviews evidence from the WEE-DiFine research portfolio on how digital financial services (DFS) contribute to women’s economic empowerment. Drawing on experimental and quasi-experimental studies across Africa and South Asia, the paper examines mechanisms including behavioural design, liquidity smoothing, privacy, bargaining power, digital capability, and access to finance. The evidence shows that DFS most consistently supports empowerment when product design aligns with women’s financial preferences, such as through earmarking tools, timely liquidity, and structured repayment features. Hardware-focused approaches, including smartphone distribution without sustained capability-building, show limited and short-lived effects. The synthesis also highlights trade-offs, including risks of debt stress, social pressure, and relational tensions, and identifies gaps in evidence on mobility, discrimination, and access to digital non-financial services. This Version 1 paper will be updated as additional studies in the WEE-DiFine portfolio are completed and further results become available.
Authors: Kipchumba, Elijah
Type: Synthesis Paper
Year: 2025
This policy brief examines the potential of a mobile money–enabled digital financial service, GasPay, to support LPG adoption in Ghana. Drawing on field research and feasibility testing, the brief highlights how features such as savings incentives, micro-credit, and delivery services can reduce liquidity and transaction barriers to clean fuel use. The findings suggest that LPG-focused DFS platforms may not only increase clean cooking adoption and reduce emissions, but also strengthen women’s economic agency by improving financial predictability, transparency, and time use.
Type: Policy Brief
Authors: Gill-Wiehl, Annelise; Jack, B. Kelsey; Jack, Darby William; and Asante, Kwaku Poku
Year: 2026
BIGD Reflections 2025 takes a critical look at our impact —more precisely, how and how well we are pursuing our mission: knowledge for a better world. Building on years of reflection on our Theory of Change, our Monitoring and Evaluation for Learning and Adaptation (MELA) team has developed BIGD’s first-ever impact framework. Designed through extensive literature review and institute-wide consultations, this framework provides a structured way to assess our work. This year’s Reflections uses it to examine and analyze several of BIGD’s flagship and ongoing initiatives, offering deeper insights into our progress and impact.
Publisher: BIGD
Type: BIGD Reviews
Year: 2025
Chars—riverine islands formed by erosion and sedimentation—cover roughly 8% of Bangladesh and are home to highly vulnerable populations facing isolation, weak infrastructure, and repeated natural shocks. To inform BRAC’s Integrated Development Programme (IDP), BIGD conducted a baseline survey of 6,120 households across 90 chars in Gaibandha and Kurigram. The population is young, literacy is low, and access to services is limited: few chars have road links, markets, or banks, while sanitation and secondary schooling remain scarce despite relatively high electricity coverage. Livelihoods are concentrated in low-productivity activities. BRAC’s Integrated Development Programme (IDP) has designed a suite of targeted livelihood interventions to improve the lives and livelihoods of char residents. To assess the impact of IDP interventions in the chars, the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) has developed a study using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) approach. This report presents the baseline survey’s key results, providing insight into the economic conditions, social status, access to essential services, and resilience and coping mechanisms of char residents.
Authors: Barua, Proloy; Islam, Md. Karimul; Ahmed, Md. Shakil; and Das, Narayan Chandra
Type: Baseline Report
Year: 2024
This policy brief examines whether allowing farmers to customize the timing and size of insurance payouts improves the perceived value and inclusivity of agricultural insurance. Evidence from a pilot study in rural Kenya shows that flexible compensation schedules are particularly valued by women with lower economic empowerment, even when uptake does not immediately increase.
Type: Policy Brief
Year: 2026
Using experimental evidence from Uganda, this article examines how different cash transfer modalities shape women’s economic empowerment and experiences of intimate partner violence. The findings highlight a key trade-off between strengthening women’s individual autonomy through digital transfers and fostering household cooperation through jointly disclosed cash transfers.
This article is based on a WEE-funded study and was originally published on VoxDev.
Type: Policy Brief
Author: Greco, Giulia; Gulesci, Selim; Prabhakar, Pallavi and Sulaiman; Munshi
Year: 2026
Over 2 billion people worldwide still rely primarily on polluting solid fuels for cooking. These households often have intermittent incomes and purchase firewood or charcoal day-to-day. In many low and middle income countries, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is the main feasible clean fuel, but requires larger lump sum payments to refill or exchange cylinders. Even when LPG’s total cost matches biomass fuels, liquidity constraints can prevent households from switching. GasPay addresses this barrier—a phone-based digital financial service platform connecting users with LPG suppliers while providing a designated savings vehicle for refills. We describe the platform’s design, the motivation behind it, and estimate its potential impact on charcoal demand, LPG use, and carbon emissions. Our results reveal how digital financial services can unlock clean energy access and advance multiple development goals simultaneously.
Authors: Gill-Wiehl, Annelise; Jack, B. Kelsey; Appiah, Alex; Aryee, Bernard; Awuni, Sule; Harned, Erin; Kubi, Benjamin; Lahr, Heather G.; Labi, Emmanuel; Mujtaba, Mohammed; Takyi-Appiah, Andrew; White, Lewis; Jack, Darby; and Asante, Kwaku Poku
Type: Working Paper
Year: 2026
This policy brief examines how receiving wages through mobile money affects women domestic workers’ financial control, decision-making power, and participation in household economic activities, drawing on survey evidence from urban Bangladesh.
Type: Policy Brief
Author: Malde, Bansi; Rahanaz, Maliha; Wahhaj, Zaki
Year: 2026
This policy brief draws on qualitative evidence from in-depth interviews with women domestic workers in Southwest Nigeria to examine how access to mobile phones and digital financial services affects women’s economic empowerment. It highlights policy-relevant insights on financial autonomy, privacy, and reduced reliance on intermediaries, with implications for designing inclusive digital finance systems for low-income women workers.
Type: Policy Brief
Year: 2026
