Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment in Payment Projects: A Short Module to Complement Context-Specific Measures

Cash transfers and digital payments hold promise for women’s economic empowerment through their potential to enhance women’s privacy, financial autonomy, decision-making, and labor force participation  Yet, despite this potential, gaps in data and evidence persist. This note aims to provide actionable advice on measurement for project teams working on digital government-to-person (G2P) projects, as well as practitioners and researchers working on cash transfer payments and financial inclusion more broadly. It is not meant to serve as a comprehensive guide to women’s economic empowerment. Instead, the note provides short measures focused on key outcomes related to women’s economic empowerment as a complement to more in-depth context-specific measures. The indicators suggested in this guide can be used for measurement in impact evaluations, monitoring and evaluation, or general population descriptions.

This CGD Note was first published as a World Bank Knowledge Note here.