Women Agents for Financial Inclusion: Exploring the Benefits, Constraints, and Potential Solutions

This Working Paper presents learnings from CGAP research that show how digital financial service (DFS) providers, policymakers, regulators, and funders can influence agent networks to be more inclusive of women and other vulnerable customer segments. It seeks to answer the following questions:  

1. What are the benefits of increasing the number of women agents, for women agents themselves, for customers, their communities, and for DFS providers? 
2. What are the constraints experienced by women as agents? 
3. What are the potential solutions to these constraints that promote women agents at scale?