Design in Action - What Does Gender-Intelligent Consumer Protection Look Like?

The third webinar in the ‘Design in Action’ series focused on the importance of consumer protection that is designed to meet women’s financial needs. 

Profiling FinEquity’s Gender-Intelligent Design Knowledge Guide, this webinar offered a discussion on how to design gender-inclusive consumer protection, incorporating findings from CGAP’s recent evidence review of digital financial services (DFS) consumer risks, and discussing it in the context of some of FinEquity's members' work.  

Consumers International discussed the systemic challenges for women within DFS consumer protection, sharing examples from some of their member countries on how they approach different contexts and expectations – highlighting the need to understand these elements in order to build consumer protection mechanisms that work for women. Consumers International also discussed how they have approached training to ensure that women’s needs are included, and incorporated into consumer protection. 

Lastly, the webinar featured Rose Mpofu, Acting Executive Director at Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, a Consumers International member. Rose drew on specific consumer protection efforts in Zimbabwe that address women’s financial lives, stressing the importance of understanding specific context and the diversity of women’s experiences. 

The purpose of this webinar was to help regulators, financial service providers, and other partners consider consumer protection with a gender lens, utilizing the Gender-Intelligent Design Knowledge Guide to better consider women's lives (and risks), resulting in more responsive and resonant consumer protection for women.