In Indonesia, subsistence practices remain widespread, shaping how millions of low-income households manage their livelihoods and meet day-to-day needs. Bank Indonesia’s Subsistence Group-Based Inclusive Economic and Financial (EKI) Development Program has played an important role in supporting these communities by leveraging financial inclusion and digital literacy to empower low-income populations and ultimately improve economic resilience, providing business capacity and access to formal financial services. However, the program can only result in sustainable and lasting positive outcomes if it effectively assesses the population’s specific needs and structural barriers and leverages financial inclusion and digital literacy to empower low-income populations and ultimately improve economic resilience, providing business capacity and access to formal financial services.
In this report, Women’s World Banking worked together with Bank Indonesia to explore the experiences and needs of the communities participating in the subsistence Group-Based EKI program. The study looks at the factors that shape women’s participation and ability to benefit from the program, including access to financial services, training, support systems, and gender roles and responsibilities. The study also seeks to formulate evidence-based recommendations to strengthen a gender-responsive approach for replicating inclusive economic and financial development programs. Fundamentally, by bringing together knowledge and resources from various stakeholders, including government bodies, financial institutions, and organized civil society, this report is part of a greater effort to embed women’s financial inclusion into economic development policies.
Policy Recommendations
To embed gender intentionality into subsistence-level programs, Women’s World Banking recommends that policy making stakeholders implement the following key actions across three intervention stages:
- At the preparation stage, use the developmental project core principles of Access, Participation, Control, and Benefit as the baseline to map local conditions, gender norms, and unpaid care burdens that may limit women’s participation and ability to benefit from the program.
- At the implementation stage, create opportunities for women to take on leadership decision-making roles within local collectives, while introducing and implementing digital tools in ways that respond to women’s varying levels of digital literacy, access, and confidence. Building on trusted group structures can help strengthen participation and uptake.
- At the monitoring and evaluation stage, establish and track quantitative and qualitative indicators using sex-disaggregated data that measure progress from a gender perspective and that take into consideration social norms, group structures, and financial access. These should tangibly translate and demonstrate relevant economic outcomes for women.
Read the report to explore field insights, access evidence-based strategies, and take note of practical recommendations for designing inclusive, group-based economic development policies that strengthen women’s financial empowerment based on the Indonesian example.
