Driving women’s digital inclusion is essential to gender equality

Juho Uusihakala Senior Development Impact Adviser juho.uusihakala@finnfund.fi

Advancing gender equality is a cross-cutting strategic priority at Finnfund. Our aim is to increase women’s employment, entrepreneurship, and leadership as well as to reinforce women’s financial agency and influence. The topic of women and digitalisation is a key focus area, as the digital inclusion of women is vital to driving gender equality.

With International Women’s Day just around the corner, we caught up with Finnfund’s Senior Development Impact Adviser Juho Uusihakala to find out how Finnfund is advancing gender equality and the digital inclusion of women.

Q: To kick-off, how is Finnfund improving gender equality?

Gender equality is and has been a significant cross-cutting priority for Finnfund. We always assess the impact of our investments on gender equality when making investment decisions. Finnfund’s gender statement compiles the measures Finnfund takes to guide its investment decisions to better promote gender equality. Moreover, our aim is that half of our investments are gender investments. There’s ample evidence that gender equality is good for both business and society.

I am proud to highlight that Finnfund was one of the first signatories to the 2X Challenge and applies the criteria to its investments in equality. The 2X Challenge was launched at the G7 Summit in 2018 to mobilise private sector investments in developing country markets, which has played a critical role in building the field of gender lens investing. Importantly, the 2X Challenge has defined what constitutes a gender-smart investment. It has introduced investors to a solid framework, which can help assess the level of gender equality in their potential investments, and monitor the progress over time in their portfolio companies. The 2X Challenge really spearhead gender equality and has emerged as a global standard for gender finance that we are proud to be part of.

Q: What are some of the key challenges regarding women and digitalisation?

Firstly, good news is that globally the digital gender gap is decreasing – 65% of women and 70% of men use the internet. In 2023, additional 120 million women got access to the mobile internet. Despite the progress, in Finnfund’s priority markets, in lower middle income and low-income countries, the gap is still over 10%. For example, in Africa only 31% of women use the internet compared to 43% of men. In line with our current strategy, we aim to double our investments in digital technology. The digital infrastructure and solutions sector is one of Finnfund’s strategic priorities and most rapidly growing sector, and closing the gender usage gap is a priority for Finnfund.

Mobile connection is the most common way of accessing the internet. Yet, 785 million women in the low- and middle-income countries don’t use mobile internet, and the most common reasons are both the lack and cost of suitable devices such as mobile phones – 400 million women still don’t own a mobile phone. Furthermore, there are nearly 400 million women who own a mobile phone, but they don’t have access to the internet. The main reasons for this include cost of data, bad connectivity experiences, safety and security concerns, as well as literacy and digital skills.

At Finnfund, we work towards closing the gender usage gap by financing companies that make connections cheaper, faster and more reliable. Improving broadband internet connections also plays an important role in this regard. I would also like to emphasise that equally important to connectivity is to make the internet better, to offer more relevant on-line services to women through better, tailored applications specifically targeted for female customers.

Q: In terms of Finnfund’s investments, how is gender equality and the digital inclusion of women advanced in practice?

Gender considerations are integral to Finnfund’s investment process from early origination to management and exit. Following the 2X Challenge criteria, we assess how women are represented in the company and whether the company offers services or products that specifically support women.

For example, Finnfund’s investments include Kasha, which is an innovative e-commerce platform improving women’s access to health, hygiene and self-care products in East Africa. The company enables women to buy health and sanitary products easily and discreetly at a reasonable price. Kasha also provides much needed information about different kinds of products and operates in close cooperation with selected health partners.

In a study commissioned by Finnfund, Kasha’s customers overwhelmingly confirmed improved quality of life through enhanced convenience and good quality products at affordable prices. Half of the respondents said that they would struggle in finding a good alternative to Kasha.

TradeDepot is another digital distribution platform serving informal retailers and small shop keepers in Nigeria. About 80% of the retailers are women and often low income. TradeDepot connects shopkeepers with manufacturers and distributors thereby enhancing efficiency in the value chain resulting in decreased delivery time, and most importantly reducing out-of-stock situations. In a study, 90% of the retailers said that their quality of life improved after they started using Trade Depot’s services. Over half mentioned improved business operations and profit. Many also thanked the convenience in using the services and reduced stress.

Q: To conclude, anything else you would like to highlight?

Gender equality is also an important objective in our Africa Connected Programme which Finnfund launched together with the EU in 2023. The goal of the Programme is to mobilise more than €1 billion for Sub-Saharan Africa’s digital infrastructure. In terms of gender equality, the aim is to make ten gender investments in Africa, which will contribute to narrowing the gender gap to under 10 percentage points. Similarly, Finnfund’s upcoming Digital Access Impact Fund will have similar objectives but covering investments also in Asia and Latin America. At Finnfund, together with our investee companies we continue to accelerate action on gender equality and digitalisation.