Tasnuba Sinha is a Senior Initiative Communications Manager of the WEE-DiFine project at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University.
Prior to joining BIGD, Tasnuba was a Digital Tools Manager at DAI, where she managed digital tools to build the capacity of value chain actors and empower vulnerable groups. She has also worked with FHI 360, where she promoted financial awareness and women’s financial inclusion in the garment industry. At Startup Dhaka, she drove business growth and supported entrepreneurs through strategic planning and accelerator programs.
Tasnuba holds an Executive MBA from North South University and a Bachelor of Social Science in Economics from BRAC University.
In Bangladesh, only 34 percent of women have an account, compared to 52 percent of men — a gap of almost 20 percentage points, roughly five times the global average. And in South Asia, nearly one in five adults who receive government transfers depend on someone else to make the withdrawal, showing that access does not always equal control. The logic of the last decade was clear: remove barriers, design women-friendly products, and tally the number of accounts opened. But as access expanded, complications grew. The question now is no longer how many women are inside the system. The real question is this: does inclusion protect them—or does it put them at risk?
From July 2-3, 2025, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners gathered in Accra, Ghana, for the Access to Agency: Empowering Women through Digital Inclusion conference, hosted by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). The two-day event brought together nearly 200 participants in person and many more online to examine a question critical to women’s economic empowerment: even when women gain access to phones, mobile wallets, or the internet, why does genuine empowerment so often remain out of reach? This blog offers insights from the Access to Agency conference on what it takes to empower women in the digital age.
BIGD has once again made significant strides in advancing women’s economic empowerment through two Requests for Proposals (RFPs) in 2024. This year marked the first call for WEE-Connect, which along with WEE-DiFine, aims to build a robust research pipeline in the Global South. These initiatives have resulted in the selection of high-impact studies that will deepen our understanding of how digital connectivity and financial services empower women economically.
Digital connectivity is vital for women’s empowerment in Bangladesh, offering access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. However, barriers like socio-cultural norms, digital illiteracy, and economic constraints persist. Initiatives like BIGD’s WEE-DiFine and WEE-Connect are addressing these challenges through research-driven solutions. The recent political upheaval, marked by the government's collapse in August 2024, poses risks to digital inclusion but also presents opportunities for reform. To ensure progress, Bangladesh must expand digital literacy, reduce economic barriers, prioritize online safety, and collect gender-disaggregated data, fostering collaboration to secure women’s place in the country’s digital future.
A recipient of the Developing Solutions Scholarship from the University of Nottingham, Maliha Rahanaz's research focuses on development economics, women’s economic empowerment, migration, and education. She is currently involved in a project that investigates the role of digital financial services in enhancing the economic empowerment of female domestic workers in Bangladesh. BIGD's WEE-DiFine team sat down with Maliha and learned about her passion for research, her ongoing projects in Bangladesh, and much more.
WEE-DiFine is a research initiative (2019–2024), which aims to generate a comprehensive body of evidence around the impact of digital finance (DiFine) on women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and the causal mechanisms between the two through funding rigorous research studies across South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
WEE-Connect is a pioneering initiative addressing the persistent gender gap in digital connectivity in the Global South, aiming to bridge barriers for women, foster economic empowerment, and establish evidence-based strategies through inclusive research, best case practices, and the creation of a scholarly community focused on the intersection of digital connectivity and gender.
