How to Implement
Guidance
Collaborate and engage ecosystem in user awareness.
The Inclusive IPS collaborates with DFSPs, regulators, and a representative range of end users to increase low-income end user’s awareness of the benefits of available Inclusive IPS services and products, how to use them, and expected fees and risks.
Establish an integrated, capability-building approach.
A capability building approach should be integrated into the end users’ engagement with payment services, from initial awareness training, through first use, and sustained engagement. Capability approaches capitalize on learning-by-doing and motivate meaningful learning with the promise of tangible value. This approach is particularly beneficial for low-income women as the disbursement of government social payments (G2P) and digital wages (B2P), are often their first exposure to digital payments, and provides a particularly meaningful opportunity to integrate a capability approach.
Deliver fraud awareness education.
The Scheme requires DFSPs to educate end users, employees, and partners on fraudster tactics and mitigation practices on an ongoing basis and at payment initiation using proven approaches.
Market and educate with representative communication.
Marketing and financial capability campaigns delivered through videos, billboards, signs, and other visual methods, prominently feature women from various statuses as users and purveyors of Inclusive IPS.
Engage Gatekeepers toward transformation.
Regulators, DFSPs, and Schemes themselves find opportunities to acknowledge and influence social norms constraining women’s use of digital payments, including incorporating intentional strategies to engage gatekeepers* in their financial capability efforts, go-to-market strategies and awareness campaigns. Successful engagements will transform gatekeepers into champions of women’s full financial participation in the household and economic system.
*Gatekeepers is a term used to describe an individual who exerts control, explicit or implicit, over women’s financial choices and behaviors. These include stakeholders such as husbands, male relatives, mothers-in-law, community leaders, government leaders, and employers.
Why It Matters
This empowers women, low-income users, and others who lack access to financial services to confidently adopt and use Inclusive IPS, increasing accessibility, trust, and the overall utility of digital financial services.
Seeing More Clearly
Select a lens to learn the “why” this practice.
Women’s Inclusion
Women face structural barriers to digital payments adoption that may limit their awareness of and clear understanding of products and services. They stand to benefit from intentional marketing and capability-building efforts that are integrated into and tailored to daily habits, patterns, and preferences of women’s varied lives.
Fraud Lens
End users contribute to mitigating fraud by staying alert to fraudster tactics and when possible, stopping a fraud attempt by not initiating a suspicious payment. An end user educated about fraud can be a powerful tool of fraud prevention and complementary to other Scheme, DFSP, and regulatory actions intended to prevent fraud and mitigate its impact.
Tools
Design Guides
Dig into how to implement each of the practices.
Practical Approaches Acknowledge Social Norms Toward Women’s Inclusion
Summary of existing resources on ways to address gender norm barriers to inclusion.
Review Practical Approaches Acknowledge Social Norms Toward Women’s InclusionRepresentation of Women in Marketing and Financial Capability Campaigns
Summary of existing guidance on gender-inclusive communication in marketing and financial capability campaigns.
Review Representation of Women in Marketing and Financial Capability CampaignsBuilding Financial Awareness and Capability
This guidance summarizes the key attributes of a strong financial awareness and capability approach, with a focus on government social disbursement programs, which are often…
Review Building Financial Awareness and CapabilityRole of Ecosystem to Increase Women’s Awareness of Inclusive IPS Services and Products
Type of Stakeholder: Instant Payment System What The Stakeholder Can Do to Increase Women’s Awareness: Type of Stakeholder: Regulator What The Stakeholder Can Do to…
Review Role of Ecosystem to Increase Women’s Awareness of Inclusive IPS Services and ProductsPIX Minimum Requirements for User Experience, Version 7.0
These are the user experience rules for financial institutions participating in Pix
Review PIX Minimum Requirements for User Experience, Version 7.0Generic payments scheme rulebook categories and example table of contents
A generic scheme rules that IIPS operators can use to build their own rulebook
Review Generic payments scheme rulebook categories and example table of contentsMarket Illustrations
Learn from design choices in action.
Gatekeeper Engagement from TEB Bank Turkey and Jazz Cash Pakistan
Country
Turkey, Pakistan
Challenge
DFSPs in each country recognized the impact of gatekeepers on women’s financial inclusion.
Outcome
Through targeted engagement campaigns, providers have challenged traditional gender norms related to financial inclusion.
Representative Communications Example from Pakistan
Country
Pakistan
Challenge
In Pakistan, women’s adoption of digital financial services lags men’s, with only about 10–15% of JazzCash users being women.
Outcome
Targeted SMS campaigns led to a 34% increase in account opening referrals, particularly by women.
Financial Capability Initiative Led by IPS: Jordan’s JoPACC
Country
Jordan
Challenge
Despite advancements in Jordan’s digital payment payments, financial inclusion remains a challenge, particularly among smallholder farmers and rural vendors.
Outcome
A targeted intervention campaign at the National Olive Festival led to higher digital payment usage, supporting financial inclusion goals.
Digitalizing Female Garment Worker Salary Payments in Bangladesh with HerProject
Country
Bangladesh
Challenge
In Bangladesh, female garment workers faced major barriers to digital financial inclusion, including low digital literacy, restrictive social norms, and limited access to mobile financial services and mobile phone devices.
Outcome
As a result of digital literacy training and social norms interventions, many women began actively using their accounts for savings and transactions beyond wage receipt, indicating stronger engagement with formal financial services.
Building Financial Capability in G2P Payments in Zambia
Country
Zambia
Challenge
Women in Zambia’s poorest communities faced limited financial literacy, low participation in formal financial systems, and barriers to accessing and using financial products, which constrained their ability to save, invest, and manage payments effectively.
Outcome
100% of Zambia Girls’ Education and Women’s Empowerment Livelihoods Project participants use digital payments to receive their GEWEL benefits.
Related Resources
From the Community
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