Microfinance and Gender Equality in Indonesia

Abstract

The financial inclusion of women micro entrepreneurs is both important and necessary for the holistic socio-economic development of a nation. This paper aims to address the gap in the study of the processes of financial inclusion by women micro-entrepreneurs in Indonesia. The research will contribute to the pool of academic resources related to financial inclusion, micro credit, and women entrepreneurship that intend to improve the processes and benchmarking for financial inclusion initiatives. In writing this paper, there was extensive literature research plus in situ research conducted in Indonesia. There is also a significant amount of evidence that is related to factors that contribute to gender inequality. Both desk research and field research found that financial exclusion is linked to financial education, cultural norms of rural Indonesia and high banking cost and mobile payments. In conclusion, the authors recommend improving processes in designing financial products and financial education, and lowering the cost of banking, especially in the use of mobile payment technology, and instituting microinsurance. Further research is recommended to generate hypotheses relating to financial inclusion and women entrepreneurship in Indonesia.

The transformation of conventional microfinance into Islamic microfinance in Bangladesh: proposed Shariah-based model(s)

“…This has been evidenced in the studies ofAli et al (2023) andAfroze et al (2014).3. MethodologyThis is a conceptual paper that is based on the desk research method, involving the collection of existing literature from different journals, reports and books, consistent with other studies(Vong and Song, 2015;Zain and Muhamad Sori, 2020). Some secondary and relevant data were obtained from the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA), a government regulatory body established in 2006 to monitor and supervise microfinance activities in Bangladesh.…”