A two-day hybrid international convening titled “Making Digital Finance Work for Women.” The conference took place on June 21-22, 2023 at BRAC Centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh convened by BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) .
Two hundred and twenty attendees had The event, including international guests from Kenya, India, the United States, Canada and the UK.
The conference featured two engaging panel discussions, five thought-provoking academic sessions, and three keynote presentations. Esteemed researchers and practitioners including Michael Carter of the University of California, Davis; Timothy Ogden of the Financial Access Initiative at NYU-Wagner; Erica Field of Duke University; and Munshi Sulaiman of BIGD presented research findings on how digitalization of microfinance and wages in both formal and informal sectors can empower women economically. They also identified some of the key barriers to and opportunities for women’s use of digital financial services (DFS).
BIGD also organized a poster presentation exhibition featuring the work of a broad array of researchers, implementers, and policymakers in the field of DFS and women’s economic empowerment. Jonathan Fu, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Zurich, received the top poster award for his work titled “The benefits (and limits) of digital financial capability training: Evidence from Cambodian payroll accounts.”
The event concluded with a panel discussion including Anir Chowdhury of Aspire to Innovate (a2i); Lila Rashid, formerly of Bangladesh Bank; Issam Mosaddeq of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; Seth Garz of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Imran Matin, the executive director of BIGD, moderated the event.
See more: এক দশকে আর্থিক খাতে নারী-পুরুষের ব্যবধান কমে ৪ শতাংশে
