Women's World Banking Blog

Southeast Asia

Explore the latest global and regional insights from Women’s World Banking’s work in policy, leadership, women’s entrepreneurship, gender lens investing, and more.

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Products & Solutions

Five Design Principles to Help Reach and Serve Cambodian Young Adult Women

By Ker Thao, Maria Serenade, and Elwyn Panggabean Globally, the emerging youth population presents a potential for economic growth. However, youth in developing countries also still face barriers to access financial services, such as three of 10 million Cambodian young adults who remain financially underserved. Youth savings, in particular, has

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Research & Perspectives

Report: Building Digital Finance Solutions for Women E-Commerce Entrepreneurs: A Demand-Side Exploration in Indonesia

Until early 2023, 64.2 million MSMEs in Indonesia represented 96% of the labor force. Of these businesses, about two-thirds are women-owned. While not all of these are e-commerce businesses, 24% of MSMEs (~17.5 million MSMEs) have used e-commerce in marketing their products in 2021. This growing sub-segment of Indonesian businesses

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Products & Solutions

Policy Advocacy Across Indonesia: A Promising Beginning for Women Ultra-Micro Entrepreneurs

By Vitasari Anggraeni, Elwyn Panggabean, Freya Nadira Women’s World Banking identifies regulations, mandates, or country level priorities such as presidential mandates or G20 recommendations that can be the driving force for women’s financial inclusion and engagement. During the 2022 G20 Presidency, held by Indonesia, women’s entrepreneurship served as one of

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Products & Solutions

How to get low-income women to save in bank accounts

By Angela Ang and Elwyn Panggabean, Women’s World Banking Last year, we collaborated with Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), one of Indonesia’s largest state-owned banks involved in distributing benefits of the PKH (Program Keluarga Harapan or Family Hope Program), a conditional cash transfer program for low-income families. Together, we developed an

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Research & Perspectives

Report: Sharia Finance & Women’s Financial Inclusion in Indonesia

Indonesia has the largest number of Muslims of any country in the world, at 237 million. In recent years, the national Government of Indonesia and some of its province-level governments have shown interest in increasing the availability of Sharia-compliant financial products and services for Indonesians. Indonesia aims to reach 90

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Research & Perspectives

Understanding and Unlocking the Potential of Women Ultra-Micro Entrepreneurs in Indonesia

Micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play a significant role in Indonesia’s economy, accounting for 61% of its gross domestic product. An even smaller segment—ultra-micro businesses—is helping drive economic growth, as well. Since 2017, Pusat Investasi Pemerintah (PIP), an Indonesian government agency, has disbursed loans to 5.4 million ultra-micro entrepreneurs,

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Research & Perspectives

How we are leveraging Nobel-prize winning techniques in our research

Applying Angrist and Imbens’ research methodologies enable Women’s World Banking to explore the impacts of its products and solutions on women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment across the globe in the context of real-world conditions By Sonja Kelly (Director of Research & Advocacy) and Justin Archer (Global Research Lead, Quantitative)

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Products & Solutions

Accelerating Adoption of Digital Financial Services: Replicating a digital account usage solution for factory workers in Cambodia

By Whitney Mapes, Elwyn Panggabean For low-income women worldwide, digital financial services can act as a stepping stone to greater financial inclusion, yet barriers to activating usage have prevented women from realizing their full benefits. Among the many obstacles women face to using digital financial services are a lack of

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Research & Perspectives

Report: Women’s Economic Empowerment and Financial Inclusion in Indonesia

In 2020 and 2021, Women’s World Banking conducted exploratory research — both qualitative and quantitative — to map the linkages between women’s financial inclusion and women’s economic empowerment in Indonesia. Grounded in an analysis of norms governing women’s agency, ability to enact preferences, bargaining power, and financial independence, this resulting

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Products & Solutions

Deepening Women’s Financial Inclusion through G2P Programs: Building Savings Behavior among PKH Beneficiaries in Indonesia

By Angela Ang, Andi Setianto, Whitney Mapes, and Elwyn Panggabean As COVID-19 has exposed economic fault lines around the world, governments have responded by extending economic lifelines to the most vulnerable populations. According to the World Bank, at least 200 countries and territories have offered some kind of COVID-19-related financial

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Research & Perspectives

Report: Building Capacity for Client-Centered Cash Assistance

In May 2020, Women’s World Banking conducted its first remote research during the Covid-19 pandemic with 44 beneficiaries, PKH facilitators, and bank agents across 11 districts of Indonesia. The research reveals that further efforts are needed to ensure beneficiaries have critical information about the program to support their financial planning and

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Research & Perspectives

Report: From Cash to Digital Wage Payments in the Philippines

With support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and in partnership with the International Labour Organization, Women’s World Banking assessed the awareness, use, and acceptance of digital wage payments among enterprises and workers in the Philippines. The Philippines’ thriving digital economy and proliferation of new digital solutions,

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Research & Perspectives

Report: Empowering Women on a Journey Towards Digital Financial Capability

Financial inclusion is becoming more and more digital. To accelerate this journey to digitization, and not let women customers be left even further behind, we need to ensure policymakers and financial service providers focus on effectively supporting women customers build their digital financial capabilities, so they can use digital financial services with ease and confidence.  This report

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Products & Solutions

Women’s World Banking and the Australian Government’s Renewed Partnership for 2020-2024: Advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment in Southeast Asia

By Julie-Ann Guivarra, Ambassador for Gender Equality, DFAT and Mary Ellen Iskenderian, CEO & President, Women’s World Banking In 2016, Women’s World Banking and the Australian Government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), teamed up to build a more secure and prosperous future for low-income women in

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Leadership & Diversity

Investing in Women Leaders and Empowering Women Customers Go Hand-in-Hand at AMK, a Cambodian Financial Institution

By Victoria Johnson, Research Associate and Sonja Kelly, Director of Research and Advocacy Investing in women is smart business. Data shows that having women leaders improves financial performance, increases sales, leads to better decision-making, and creates a more inclusive corporate culture. On the other hand, women customers are often underserved,

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Event

Women’s World Banking announces renewed funding from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for Southeast Asia Partnership from 2020-2024

This renewed, four-year partnership will enable Women’s World Banking to accelerate its support for low-income women throughout Southeast Asia, with a focus on COVID-19 recovery and resilience New York, October 22, 2020 – Women’s World Banking announces that Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has renewed its support

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Research & Perspectives

Indonesia’s largest cash transfer program pivoted quickly in response to Covid-19. Can beneficiaries keep up?

By Sophie Theis, Victoria Johnson, Rahmi Yunaningsih, and Elwyn Panggabean Indonesia’s Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) was uniquely positioned to rapidly modify its conditional cash transfer program in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. As government-to-person (G2P) payment programs around the world adjust to accommodate the reality of the pandemic, Women’s

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Research & Perspectives

Report: Delivering on the potential of digitized G2P: Driving women’s financial inclusion and empowerment through Indonesia’s Program Keluarga Harapan

Financial institutions and governments have been working for years to leverage digitized G2P for women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment. COVID-19 has increased the stakes, as governments look to use G2P programs to strengthen women’s resilience. New research from Women’s World Banking offers insights on Indonesia’s PKH program, the country’s largest conditional cash transfer. Click here to download the

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Research & Perspectives

Getting G2P Right in Indonesia—Right Now

By Sophie Theis, Giudy Rusconi, Elwyn Panggabean, Sonja Kelly Women’s World Banking’s research shows government-to-person payments, if well-designed, hold potential for women’s economic empowerment and inclusion in Indonesia. With Covid-19, the stakes are even higher. For more than a decade, the financial inclusion community has recognized the potential of digitizing

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Research & Perspectives

Covid-19, Low Income Finance and Nine Takeaways from a Quick Survey

By Mehrdad (Mehi) Mirpourian, Senior Data Analyst, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, at Women’s World Banking  “There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.” – Albert Camus, The Plague Introduction Businesses function in environments that are agile and hard

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Research & Perspectives

Report: Unlocking Credit For Women-Owned Enterprises in Southeast Asia through Value Chain Digitization

This report summarizes efforts by Women’s World Banking to answer three key questions: Which value chains in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam represent priority opportunities to develop increased credit offerings for women-owned MSMEs (micro-, small- & medium-sized enterprises) through value chain digitization? What forms of value chain digitization would

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Gender Lens Investing

Gender Lens Investing: Moving Beyond Numbers

Gender lens investing (GLI) is interpreted and implemented in many different ways, from investing in women-owned and -led enterprises to investing in enterprises specifically targeting women, and more. Shuyin Tang is a Partner at Patamar Capital, a venture capital firm focused on Series A and Series B investments in South

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Research & Perspectives

Peer-to-Peer Learning Between Countries Can Foster Financial Inclusion

In April, Women’s World Banking convened policymakers from around the world—including Indonesia—at Oxford University’s Saïd School of Business for a leadership program for regulators focused on the development and promotion of policy initiatives for women and supporting banks in creating a pipeline of women leaders internally. This is not the first time that Women’s World Banking has partnered with regulators in Indonesia to encourage financial inclusion.

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WWB News

PRESS RELEASE | On International Women’s Day, Indonesia Announces Partnership with Women’s World Banking to Improve Women’s Financial Inclusion

On International Women’s Day, the Secretariat of the National Council for Financial Inclusion of Indonesia (Secretariat) and global nonprofit Women’s World Banking announce a partnership to promote women’s financial inclusion in Indonesia. The project, made possible with funding from the Department of Foreign and Trade of Australia (DFAT), will support Indonesia’s goal to reach 75 percent financial inclusion by 2019.

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Leadership & Diversity

In the Philippines, Leadership and Experience Help Clients Rebuild after Haiyan

By Maura Hart, Manager, Public Relations Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF) was founded in time of crisis in the Philippines 29 years ago. Decades later, NWTF has seen its clients through countless typhoons (an average of 22 per year in the Philippines) and other natural disasters, experiences that proved invaluable when Typhoon Haiyan (known in the Philippines as Yolanda) hit in November.

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WWB News

BSP | CARD Bank inaugurated into Philippine central bank’s Hall of Fame for Financial Inclusion

This elevated the bank to become a Hall of Fame awardee for the said category. Looking back, CARD Bank, Inc. was established on September 1, 1997 and envisioned to build a sustainable financial institution owned, managed and controlled by the landless rural women by providing continued access to financial services to an expanding client base by organizing and empowering landless rural women.

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