Migration, Remittances and Financial Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities for Women’s Economic Empowerment

This report looks at current and future possibilities for women’s economic empowerment through increased financial inclusion, by adopting a gender lens to address and examine financial inclusion policies, strategies, and remittance service providers (RSPs). The report addresses the gendered financial challenges and opportunities faced by migrant women and their families, as well as the gendered practices and costs of sending and receiving remittances.

Highlighted are the different strategies (both formal and informal) through which women and their families can be supported, including those that may fall outside of the scope of RSPs. Further, this report outlines barriers to women’s financial inclusion, and identifies opportunities to remove these for disenfranchised migrant and remittance-receiving populations, specifically women. In this context, concrete recommendations are provided to RSPs, governments, and NGOs on ways to enhance financial inclusion, and seize the potential for empowerment through gender-responsive policies and frameworks.