INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this special report is to highlight the key gender-related issues facing society during the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the specific gender-sensitive financial inclusion responses that policymakers can undertake to ensure their mitigation and recovery activities are fully inclusive and work towards the AFI membership commitments in the Denarau Action Plan. 1

Gender is a cross-cutting theme in all aspects of society and it is important to situate the wider context of how gender and financial inclusion intersect before we can look at the development of effective policy and regulation. The paper first presents a broader overview of the gendered nature of COVID-19 and how it disproportionately affects women and girls’ opportunities to be financially included, and then it moves onto how women’s financial inclusion can be an enabler in both the mitigation and recovery phases, and finally presents five pillars or policy themes that can act as buckets for policymakers to focus on. These buckets are:

1. Women and Regulatory Institutions 2. Women and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) 3. Women and Social Protection 4. Women and Digital Finance Services (DFS) 5. Women and Regulatory Frameworks GIF COVID-19 POLICY TRACKER

AFI has developed a GIF COVID-19 Policy Tracker, which provides information on policy measures undertaken by AFI member institutions, such as remote working arrangements and paid leave allowance for women with children below the age of 12 years, as seen in Egypt, refinance and credit guarantee scheme for women entrepreneurs, as seen in Pakistan, and mobile money transfers with a top-up for women beneficiaries, as seen in Togo, among others.

In addition, the tracker provides information on relevant AFI and external resources to help navigate policymakers and regulators in taking their next steps and ensuring they develop a fully gender-sensitive and resilient future for all segments of the population.