DCED-BEAM Webinar: Invisible Barriers - Addressing gender norms for lasting transformation

Описание: This webinar happened on Tuesday 17 February 2026.

Gender norms shape the behaviour of market system actors; they determine how different genders are perceived and treated, influencing everything from policies to business practices. These collectively held expectations and perceived rules for behaviour based on gender identity are often the root cause of women’s financial and market exclusion. In practice, these norms can restrict women's mobility, financial decision-making, ownership of assets, and access to mobile phones, creating obstacles for consumers and causing biases and unsuitable products from financial and market service providers.

CGAP’s gender norms resources include a practical framework, based on diagnostics in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, that classifies gender norms by their strength and prevalence and proposes tailored strategies for addressing them. From working around deeply entrenched norms to accelerating transformation where norms are shifting, research shows how market actors can become active agents of change and build inclusive systems that expand women’s economic opportunities.

This webinar was part 1 of a 2-part series, and served as an introduction to gender norms and how development actors can pragmatically address such norms for inclusive system change. Speakers highlighted ways in which stakeholders can move beyond symptoms to address the root causes of women’s exclusion, and offered a roadmap for building more inclusive and equitable financial and market systems.

Antonique Koning and Nisha Singh (CGAP) presented CGAP’s practical framework, discussing why gender norms are important to advancing women’s economic empowerment, and how development actors can pragmatically address norms in their programmes.
Sophie Mills (Financial Sector Deepening, FSD, network) interviewed Victoria Adong Abuin (FSD Uganda) who will share her experiences of applying the social norms diagnostics tool in a financial inclusion context.

This webinar was particularly valuable to development actors (e.g., bilateral and multilateral donors, foundations, concessional investors; market facilitators such as FSD organisations and INGOs) aiming to develop inclusive program strategies to guide multiple projects and interventions at the portfolio level.

Photo credit Iwaria Inc (Unsplash)