Women in Agriculture Using Digital Financial Services : Lessons Learned from Technical Assistance Support to DigiFarm, Fenix, and myAgro

Women in rural areas, and in particular female farmers, have significantly less access to financial services than their male counterparts. Such limited access is harmful to female farmers and their families and significantly impedes their ability t...

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Main Authors: Varangis, Panos, Buchenau, Juan, Ono, Toshiaki, Sberro-Kessler, Rachel, Okumura, Asuka
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/222361617683660582/Women-in-Agriculture-Using-Digital-Financial-Services-Lessons-Learned-from-Technical-Assistance-Support-to-DigiFarm-Fenix-and-myAgro
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35471
id okr-10986-35471
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-354712021-06-14T09:54:06Z Women in Agriculture Using Digital Financial Services : Lessons Learned from Technical Assistance Support to DigiFarm, Fenix, and myAgro Varangis, Panos Buchenau, Juan Ono, Toshiaki Sberro-Kessler, Rachel Okumura, Asuka FINANCIAL SERVICE DELIVERY DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE FEMALE FARMER ACCESS TO FINANCE SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES AGRIBUSINESS SMALLHOLDER FARMERS FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS GENDER Women in rural areas, and in particular female farmers, have significantly less access to financial services than their male counterparts. Such limited access is harmful to female farmers and their families and significantly impedes their ability to grow and prosper. Female farmers tend to have limited access to formal savings and credit, which limits their ability to manage shocks and invest in seasonal inputs or in durable goods and productive assets. It is estimated that closing the gender gap in access to productive assets could lead to a 20-30 percent yield increase per household, which would benefit not only female farmers, but also their families (FAO 2011). One of the main issues that keeps financing out of the reach of female farmers is that women tend to be time constrained, which indicates the need for easy access to and convenience of financial products. Suitability, ease of use, and convenience are important determinants of access to financial services for women in agriculture. Digital financial services (DFS) have the potential to unlock financial services for women in agriculture; however, currently, significant gender gaps exist in DFS access and usage. By allowing female farmers to make financial transactions without the need to go to the branch of a financial institution, DFS can offer them a safe, private, and convenient way to save money, access loans, make and receive payments, or access insurance. However, many DFS providers see an imbalance in the uptake and usage of financial services by gender. In 2018, the World Bank provided technical assistance (TA) to three financial service providers (FSPs) to help them deliver financial services to female farmers using digital means. 2021-04-20T21:13:04Z 2021-04-20T21:13:04Z 2021-04-05 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/222361617683660582/Women-in-Agriculture-Using-Digital-Financial-Services-Lessons-Learned-from-Technical-Assistance-Support-to-DigiFarm-Fenix-and-myAgro http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35471 English Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Insight; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Financial Sector Study Economic & Sector Work Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) East Africa Kenya Tanzania Uganda
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic FINANCIAL SERVICE DELIVERY
DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES
WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE
FEMALE FARMER
ACCESS TO FINANCE
SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES
AGRIBUSINESS
SMALLHOLDER FARMERS
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS
GENDER
spellingShingle FINANCIAL SERVICE DELIVERY
DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES
WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE
FEMALE FARMER
ACCESS TO FINANCE
SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES
AGRIBUSINESS
SMALLHOLDER FARMERS
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS
GENDER
Varangis, Panos
Buchenau, Juan
Ono, Toshiaki
Sberro-Kessler, Rachel
Okumura, Asuka
Women in Agriculture Using Digital Financial Services : Lessons Learned from Technical Assistance Support to DigiFarm, Fenix, and myAgro
geographic_facet Africa
Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE)
East Africa
Kenya
Tanzania
Uganda
relation Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Insight;
description Women in rural areas, and in particular female farmers, have significantly less access to financial services than their male counterparts. Such limited access is harmful to female farmers and their families and significantly impedes their ability to grow and prosper. Female farmers tend to have limited access to formal savings and credit, which limits their ability to manage shocks and invest in seasonal inputs or in durable goods and productive assets. It is estimated that closing the gender gap in access to productive assets could lead to a 20-30 percent yield increase per household, which would benefit not only female farmers, but also their families (FAO 2011). One of the main issues that keeps financing out of the reach of female farmers is that women tend to be time constrained, which indicates the need for easy access to and convenience of financial products. Suitability, ease of use, and convenience are important determinants of access to financial services for women in agriculture. Digital financial services (DFS) have the potential to unlock financial services for women in agriculture; however, currently, significant gender gaps exist in DFS access and usage. By allowing female farmers to make financial transactions without the need to go to the branch of a financial institution, DFS can offer them a safe, private, and convenient way to save money, access loans, make and receive payments, or access insurance. However, many DFS providers see an imbalance in the uptake and usage of financial services by gender. In 2018, the World Bank provided technical assistance (TA) to three financial service providers (FSPs) to help them deliver financial services to female farmers using digital means.
format Report
author Varangis, Panos
Buchenau, Juan
Ono, Toshiaki
Sberro-Kessler, Rachel
Okumura, Asuka
author_facet Varangis, Panos
Buchenau, Juan
Ono, Toshiaki
Sberro-Kessler, Rachel
Okumura, Asuka
author_sort Varangis, Panos
title Women in Agriculture Using Digital Financial Services : Lessons Learned from Technical Assistance Support to DigiFarm, Fenix, and myAgro
title_short Women in Agriculture Using Digital Financial Services : Lessons Learned from Technical Assistance Support to DigiFarm, Fenix, and myAgro
title_full Women in Agriculture Using Digital Financial Services : Lessons Learned from Technical Assistance Support to DigiFarm, Fenix, and myAgro
title_fullStr Women in Agriculture Using Digital Financial Services : Lessons Learned from Technical Assistance Support to DigiFarm, Fenix, and myAgro
title_full_unstemmed Women in Agriculture Using Digital Financial Services : Lessons Learned from Technical Assistance Support to DigiFarm, Fenix, and myAgro
title_sort women in agriculture using digital financial services : lessons learned from technical assistance support to digifarm, fenix, and myagro
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/222361617683660582/Women-in-Agriculture-Using-Digital-Financial-Services-Lessons-Learned-from-Technical-Assistance-Support-to-DigiFarm-Fenix-and-myAgro
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35471
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