NFIS and Women’s Financial Inclusion: Global Lessons and Recommendations

Women's World Banking (WWB) is a global nonprofit that works with financial institutions and policymakers to expand access to financial services for women. WWB's policy and advocacy work helps shape the regulatory environments that determine whether and how women can participate in formal financial systems. As governments increasingly adopt National Financial Inclusion Strategies (NFIS), it remains unclear which approaches most effectively advance women's financial inclusion. The NYU Wagner Capstone Team was engaged to conduct a comprehensive global literature review, market-level data analysis, and a deep dive into strategies promoting digital payment usage across eight countries to assess the comparative effectiveness of these policy approaches. Using a mixed-methods framework combining quantitative analysis of Findex data with qualitative and comparative policy review, the team found that while the implementation of NFIS and standalone policies has successfully expanded financial access, persistent gaps in usage, gender-disaggregated data, and sociocultural barriers remain the central obstacles to meaningful women's financial inclusion and integration into economic systems. The team identified a set of best practices and policy recommendations for countries to implement to support women’s financial inclusion by encouraging the use of digital payments.