Multiple research projects led by Caribou Digital have involved diverse groups of women from over twenty countries to understand the impact of digital technologies on their everyday lives. This ranges from looking at how women and young girls in vulnerable situations face challenges in identification which impacts their ability to work, earn, and access key services, to delving into the increasing numbers of women taking up social selling on digital platforms in emerging markets, and their experiences.
Explore the research below.
Women and Platforms
To what extent are platform livelihoods empowering for women? This report analyzes the research undertaken by Caribou Digital and several collaborators in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation to understand how women are using digital platforms to earn a living – what we call platform livelihoods – in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. A total of 150 women were interviewed, with additional male sampling in Kenya and ten gender and platform livelihoods experts in each country. Our partner Value for Women conducted both quantitative and qualitative research analyzing the gender-inclusive policies and practices of seven platforms operating on the African continent.
Women, work, and ID
We know ID is often seen as an essential piece of documentation for women. What we know less about is what motivates women to obtain an ID. What are the key drivers or the pull factors? Around the world, women seek work and income for financial independence but also to assert their own identity where they are able. It is this link between financial independence and identity that we sought to explore between ID and empowerment for women.
Human impact of ID
This research is the foundation for Women in Identity to build an Identity Code of Conduct — a set of guiding principles and a framework for inclusive ID-product development. Nowhere is this more necessary than in financial services, where ID is needed to protect users (e.g., from financial crime), but at the same time provide access to specific products. Service providers need to know who users are, but how does that process happen, why, and when does it become problematic? The Identity Code of Conduct will establish a set of guiding principles around inclusion, building on the broader Digital ID Principles. It will offer a practical set of tools to address inclusion at every stage of identification.
Payment System Design and the Financial Inclusion Gender Gap
In partnership with the Gates Foundation, this research sought to predict the likely gender impacts of the Level One Project Principles and determine whether updates or additions to the principles could make them more effective in closing the gender gap in financial inclusion. Using three complementary research approaches, our findings overall predict positive impacts for women when L1P Principles are implemented.
Identity in a Digital Age
Digital identification systems play a critical role in the development of ethical, sustainable digital economies and societies. Caribou Digital has developed a holistic, multi-level perspective on such systems, joining contextual insights on user practices, an understanding of business models and technical innovation, and an awareness of changing country-level policy landscapes. Where others may focus on discrete identification systems, this perspective helps us see how complex, thriving national and regional identification ecosystems can be made more inclusive and effective, while protecting and promoting an individual’s agency, dignity, and privacy. We have worked on research for clients such as the Omidyar Network, DFID, World Bank, Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade and UNICEF. Our research has taken us to users in countries such as India, Lebanon, Côte d’Ivoire, Jordan, Uganda and Brazil.
Explore some of our Identities work below:
Pages
- Blog
- Call for Proposals: Platform Livelihoods Gender Study
- Collaboration for Impact
- Event Management
- Gender
- Home
- Identity and migration
- Live Learning: MTN DigiFin Fintech Edition – Apps in action
- Measurement and Impact Services
- MTN Live Learning
- Newsletters
- People
- Platform-Led Transformational Upskilling Report
- Projects & Services
- Publications
- Request for Proposals Video Storytelling: Platform Livelihoods & Covid-19
- Senior MEL advisor
- Skills for a Digital Age
- Strive Community Privacy
- Strive EU Privacy Policy