Strengthening women’s financial inclusion: Indonesia’s policy note for the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group (EWWG)

Posted on by Melya Findi Astuti

Indonesia continues to advance financial inclusion at a steady pace. The 2025 National Survey on Financial Literacy and Inclusion (SNLIK) reports that 80% of men and women now have access to formal financial services. This indicates a positive parity in financial access. However, this surface-level equality conceals structural disparities. Financial literacy, according to the SNLIK, remains comparatively low, with women’s literacy at 65% versus 67% for men. These numbers are even lower among informal workers and homemakers and range between 49% and 63%.

The G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group recognizes gender gaps in financial inclusion as a key concern, and the topic has now gained prominence in the broader G20 agenda. Indonesia’s Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (MoWECP) sought to support the Government of Indonesia’s meaningful participation in this dialogue. The MoWECP appointed MSC (MicroSave Consulting) to develop a policy note on women’s financial inclusion. The note will guide Indonesia’s delegation at the upcoming G20 2025 Summit in South Africa and inform evidence-based discussions to strengthen women’s financial health and well-being worldwide.

The 2024 G20 Summit in Brazil introduced financial health and well-being as key global priorities. This marked a shift from access-focused metrics toward outcome-driven indicators that reflect individuals’ ability to manage financial stress, build resilience, and achieve long-term stability. This policy note presents evidence-based recommendations that go beyond access and usage in alignment with the agenda. It focuses on outcomes that enhance women’s financial health and well-being.

The policy note is structured around four interconnected pillars:

  1. Access to suitable financial products and services, which focus on the development of gender-intentional financial products and services;
  2. Financial literacy and capability that enable behavioral changes for long-term financial health and resilience;
  3. Digital and FinTech inclusion through inclusive and interoperable digital public infrastructure; and
  4. Gender-intentional policy, regulation, and institutional strengthening through public–private partnerships.

The development process involved several stages, which included an extensive desk review, analysis of G20 members’ initiatives and policy priorities, and identification of international good practices. The paper underwent peer review by development partners such as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate (UN-SGSA), J-PAL Southeast Asia, and Women’s World Banking. It was further refined through consultations with key Indonesian stakeholders, such as the MoWECP, the Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS), the Bank of Indonesia, the Financial Service Authority (OJK), the National Islamic Finance Committee, Women20, Business20, and G20 EMPOWER representatives.

The final policy note provides strategic recommendations to strengthen women’s financial inclusion and financial health in Indonesia. It also highlights potential areas for collaboration through the G20 platform. MSC reaffirms its commitment to support the Government of Indonesia through this initiative in its efforts to advance inclusive financial systems that empower women and contribute to sustainable economic growth.

Link to the policy note document in English: Policy Note G20

From access to impact: Building financially healthy women-owned microbusinesses

Posted on by Adityaraj

MSC conducted research in 17 emerging markets to uncover regional financial trends that affect women-owned microbusinesses. We developed the SCALE financial health framework to assess and improve the financial health of women-owned microbusinesses.

We launched the report during the Financial Inclusion Week (FIW) session on 9th October 2025, where we shared crucial findings that emphasize the need to move beyond access and focus on resilience and security. The discussion also underscored that gender-specific data drives innovation, financial health enhances risk protection, and holistic design supports household and business stability. Watch this video to learn more.

 

 

Strengthening financial health pathways for women-owned microbusinesses (wMBs) in emerging markets

Posted on by M1croSave!2025

Step by step: Building the ladder from AePS to UPI for India’s last-mile users

Posted on by Adityaraj

Written in collaboration with PayNearby, this whitepaper offers a data-driven roadmap for accelerating the journey from assisted digital payments to true financial inclusion. Drawing on field insights and national trends, it addresses access, digital literacy, trust, and infrastructure, and points out actionable ecosystem enablers to empower last-mile users toward sustainable digital adoption at scale.

Scaling what matters: Empowering agents with meaningful communication design

Posted on by Adityaraj

Business correspondents (BCs), the backbone of India’s financial inclusion efforts, now struggle to remain viable. BCs are agents who enable the cash-in cash-out (CICO) expansion to drive growth and financial inclusion, especially in underserved, rural, and remote areas. Most rural BC agents earn just INR 8,000 (USD 97) a month, and some make as low as INR 600 (USD 7). While BCs in a few in high-footfall areas perform better, they remain the exception.

For most BC agents, CICO alone no longer provides a sustainable livelihood. Agents face a limitation on the number and type of financial products and services, or use cases, they can provide. They face high competition, shrinking margins, and the growth of digital payment modes that bypass them altogether. As a result, multiple partners or providers face high levels of inactivity or dormancy, as much as 30% to 65%, among agents.

MSC (MicroSave Consulting) and the Airtel Payments Bank (APB) embarked on a transformative pivot to respond to this growing crisis. We enabled agents to move beyond basic cash-in and cash-out transactions, such as deposits and withdrawals, and become providers of additional meaningful, value-driven financial products.

MSC and APB used Suraksha, a basic no-frills deposit product with multiple additional features, such as hospicash insurance, cashback incentives, and higher transaction limits, to achieve this. Suraksha was designed with the low-and moderate-income (LMI) customer in mind. It reflects the financial aspirations of underserved communities and provides agents with an opportunity to earn commissions beyond standard cash transactions. Although few APB retailer outlets sold Suraksha, its customers remained unaware of the products’ features, such as insurance, cashback, hospicash, and a seamless UPI experience.

MSC and APB sought to address this challenge and drew on insights from an earlier successful intervention to combat the lack of awareness. We took lessons from a behaviorally informed communication approach that had encouraged rural women to make small deposits. Based on this proof of concept, we designed a new communication toolbox that included a suite of sales pitches, posters, banners, short videos, and WhatsApp-ready messages. The intervention did more than simply design leaflets and banners. It designed materials that agents would actually use, and customers would remember.

The toolbox resulted in a surge in adoption. The number of agents who sell Suraksha increased more than 75-fold, from just more than 4,000 in 2023 to more than 3,00,000 by 2025. Customers opened more than 3.9 million Suraksha accounts, and 80% of those accounts remain active. Suraksha has now become a best-selling product at APB, and we have redefined it as a “safe second account.” Most importantly, agents’ incomes have increased by at least 5%, as they now have more relevant use cases to offer and the confidence and capability to sell them effectively, which brings them closer to economic viability.

This experience taught us that effective communication is an infrastructure in itself for inclusive finance. We also learned how:

  1. LMI customers think in terms of households, not individuals: LMI customers often view financial risk as a threat to the entire family. Based on this insight, we redesigned the visuals to highlight families instead of individuals. This shift aligned with how rural customers interpret risks as a collective burden. It made the product more relevant and reassuring.
  2. Functionality makes collaterals more durable and relevant: The sustainability of marketing materials has long been a concern for providers. APB, too, sought durable collateral that would not be discarded or covered up over time. To address the issue, we added functional elements, such as QR codes for customer payments, to ensure that the materials served a daily purpose. This practical value encouraged agents to keep providers visible and in use for longer.
  3. Simple, accurate messaging reduces the risk of misselling: Clear, easy-to-understand communication boosted product adoption, and importantly, minimized the risk of misselling, a growing concern among regulators. Suraksha equipped agents with precise messaging to ensure they could explain bundled products confidently and accurately, which efficiently aligned what is sold with what is understood.

This experience with Suraksha reveals a crucial shift. It addresses how new products alone cannot solve the agent viability crisis. We need to reimagine how we communicate, adopt, and embed these products into the everyday lives of customers and agents alike.

As the sector looks ahead, one thing is clear: Sustainable financial inclusion will depend on what financial service providers offer and how they enable agents to deliver it. We need to empower agents with the right products and the right narratives. This will enable them to move from dormant touchpoints to dynamic engines of trust and transformation.

Although the CICO model faces challenges, it remains fundamentally sound. The model simply needs constant reimagination to serve the communities that depend on it and empower our invisible business correspondents.

“This article was first published on “The Pioneer” platform on 30th September 2025.

We have developed this blog as part of the project, Scaling agent viability and quality, funded by the Gates Foundation.