Types of consumer groups to consider may include:
- Consumer Advocates: Focus on protecting user rights, transparency, and recourse mechanisms – often with a focus on women and the most marginalized.
- Women-Focused SME Innovation Hubs: Foster entrepreneurship, digital onboarding, capacity building, and payments innovation among women-led small businesses.
- Small Business Associations: Represent micro and small enterprises where many women operate in both formal and informal sectors.
- Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs): Often women-led and women-dominated, these member-led savings and lending groups are critical access points for financial inclusion. In some markets, associations represent their collective interests. Associations or group members themselves could be invited participants.
- Informal Trader Associations or Market Women’s Associations: Represent women who sell in markets or operate informal businesses; vital for understanding cash-digital transitions.
- Women Farmers’ Cooperatives or Agricultural Producer Groups: Provide collective voice and services to women in agriculture, a major economic sector for women in LMICs.
- Domestic Worker or Care Economy Unions/Associations: Advocate for and support women in informal labor sectors often underserved by formal financial systems.
- Health and Maternal Welfare NGOs: Engage with women regularly for service delivery and can offer insights into health-linked payment needs (e.g., digital G2P payments).
- Youth- and Girl-Focused Empowerment Organizations: Work on digital literacy, education, and entrepreneurship for younger female demographics.
- Remittance Intermediary Networks: Work with migrant women or families receiving international remittances—key users of digital transfers.
- Faith-Based Women’s Networks or Religious Community Groups: Trusted institutions that often facilitate education, microenterprise, and welfare programs targeting women.