EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Financial inclusion is an important part of women’s empowerment, which itself is important for poverty eradication. Encouraging women’s financial inclusion has enhanced their productivity and increased their incomes. ASEAN has emphasised financial inclusion to encourage women entrepreneurs in the region. ASEAN’s financial inclusion gender gap has narrowed, while overall progress to increase financial inclusion for men and women has been encouraging. To boost the level of women’s financial inclusion in ASEAN, more work is needed in relevant areas, such as property ownership and reducing the risk of gender-based violence enabled by fintech.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. ASEAN may consider how to ensure that financial inclusion contributes to mainstreaming gender equality.
2. ASEAN may further strengthen its focus on financial inclusion, targeting women’s empowerment beyond MSMEs, since financial inclusion also contributes to empowerment beyond entrepreneurship, as it enhances women’s decision-making capacity.
3. ASEAN may strengthen its capacity to monitor relevant indicators on gender and financial inclusion to better measure its progress. A more consolidated database on relevant indicators, linked to the achievements of financial inclusion as well as gender mainstreaming goals will help policymakers to assess the progress in a more comprehensive and sustainable manner
4. ASEAN may continue to strengthen its initiative to boost financial and digital literacy rates of women, particulary those who are identified as being at a higher risk of being left behind from development
5. ASEAN and AMS may promote more women-centred initiatives to regional banks to boost women’s participation in the financial system for productive purposes. This may be done through the inclusion and strengthening of gender perspective in the initiative under ASEAN the ASEAN Banking Integration Frameworks.
6. ASEAN may consider further aligning the initiatives on gender mainstreaming and financial inclusion in ASEAN’s Post-2025 vision. This may be done through identifying and acknowledging more clearly the interconnections between the initiatives related to financial inclusion and gender mainstreaming and exploring ways to integrate them more effectively.
