Diagnostic of Gender and Age Norms in Financial Inclusion: A Pilot Study in Five Districts of Malawi

"Only by understanding the normative constraints that hinder women and men from realizing their full potential can we design programmes that directly address these constraints, fostering more inclusive, equitable, resilient and productive agrifood systems." - from page 6 of the report

[Editor's note: The text below comes directly from the report and/or has been adapted from it.]

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), discriminatory gender norms are at the heart of gender inequality in agrifood systems (source: The Status of Rural Women in Agrifood Systems). They limit women's access to, control over, and benefit from productive resources, services, and technologies that are critical for agricultural productivity, climate resilience, and, ultimately, women's wellbeing. This report presents an investigation, conducted by CARE International in Malawi in the framework of the Joint Programme on Gender Transformative Approaches for Food Security and Nutrition (JP GTA), into how social norms impact rural women's and youths' ability to access and use formal financial products and services in Malawi. Based on the findings, it offers concrete recommendations for the development of interventions to improve women's and youths' economic empowerment.

In order to ensure that this diagnostic study supported the overall financial inclusion objective of the JP GTA in Malawi, the research team identified the following four desired financial inclusion outcomes for women and youth in the selected communities:

1. Women have autonomy over bank or e-money decisions and transactions.
2. Women have a bank or e-money account in their name.
3. Women have an account and use the account to access formal financial services and products.
4. Youth have autonomy over bank or e-money decisions and transactions.

Malawi has two main descent systems: patrilineal and matrilineal. In patrilineal societies, property and assets are passed down through the male lineage, and men have more decision-making power, particularly when it comes to financial matters. In matrilineal societies, property and assets are passed down through the female lineage, which typically strengthens women's financial security and gives them important informal rights to land. If a woman moves to her husband's village of origin following marriage, this is considered a virilocal marriage. If a man moves to his wife's village, the marriage is uxorilocal.

A total of 1,169 individuals (770 women and 399 men) participated in the study. Youth represented 37% of the study participants, and young women comprised 65% of the total youth participants. These participants lived in five districts: Nsanje, Zomba, Mangochi, Balaka (all in southern Malawi) and Kasungu (in central Malawi). Nsanje is a predominantly patrilineal society where virilocal marriages are the norm, while Zomba, Mangochi, and Balaka are predominantly matrilineal with uxorilocal marriages. In Kasungu, the picture is mixed.

The study was guided by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)'s diagnostic guidance on gender norms in financial inclusion. The guidance proposes a four-stage process to diagnose the effect of social norms on women's financial inclusion. The study was also informed by CARE's Social Norms Analysis Plot (SNAP) framework and the Social Norms Exploration Tool (SNET) from Georgetown University's Institute for Reproductive Health. From the SNAP framework and the SNET, the study adapted tools for behaviours exploration and initial data analysis.

The study identified and investigated the following five gender and age norms affecting financial inclusion:

1. Married women should seek approval from their spouses on all financial decisions.
2. Married women should not have financial privacy from their spouses.
3. Women should not have assets in their name.
4. Women should use their money for household expenses and not savings.
5. Youth should not have assets in their name.

The study found that these five norms are prevalent throughout the districts studied and are upheld by strong sanctions and rewards. The proverb "a passenger on a bike does not ring the bell" expresses how women are viewed in these communities: They are expected to be submissive to their husbands. Even in matrilineal communities, men are the financial decision-makers due to the prevailing gender norms. Selected findings include:

• Social norms have a strong impact on the financial behaviours of rural women and youth in the communities studied and are, therefore, significant obstacles to their financial inclusion.
• The most prevalent gender norms in the communities studied are: "Married women should seek approval from their spouses on all financial decisions", and "married women should not have financial privacy from their spouses". Two meta-norms strongly influence all gender norms under investigation: "Men should be the head of the household", and "women should take care of the home".
• The main reference groups (the people who have the most influence on the primary study participants regarding the behaviours under investigation) include traditional influencers, such as spouses, parents, parents-in-law, traditional (local and religious) leaders, and peers, but also non-traditional influencers, such as marriage and initiation counsellors.
• Young women are socialised not to own property or assets and rarely inherit property, and unmarried youth are often viewed as household "property" and are seen as incapable of making independent financial decisions.
• Strong sanctions, including various forms of gender-based violence, and rewards exist for women and youth in regard to their financial behaviours.
• Key positive deviants exist and indicate opportunities for norm change. Women who exercise more financial autonomy and appear to have more leeway to deviate from the norms include: (i) those with higher literacy and more exposure to women's rights education; and (ii) first wives in matrilineal polygamous relationships.

Recommendations for programming and communication-centred approaches to social norm change include:

• Prioritise resources on facilitating change in the meta-norms, which influence multiple behaviours. Interventions and messaging should focus on shifting the perception that men, as head of the household, should make all decisions.
• Change reference groups' expectations of appropriate behaviours. The study found that there were differences between the primary study participants' personal beliefs about the norms and what their reference groups considered appropriate behaviours.
• Develop interventions for influencing social norms that take a participatory community approach and that reach out to both reference groups and community decision-makers. These interventions should not enforce certain ways of thinking but, rather, encourage reference groups and community decision-makers, especially men, to understand how current social norms have a negative impact on their wellbeing and social and economic development.
• Use messages that are meant to challenge gendered stereotypes and harmful personal beliefs to weaken discriminatory social norms.
• Reduce the resistance to and backlash from non-conformity with norms by:
  • Using participant-led social change activities in which participants critically reflect on, explore, and challenge discriminatory social norms, beliefs, and practices that are important to them;
  • Promoting healthy relationships at the household level by encouraging programme intervention and couple sessions, facilitating household visioning processes, and promoting and rewarding role models of healthy relationships in the community;
  • Engaging men and boys through male involvement programmes, particularly by working with community leaders to foster positive masculinities that recognise the role of women; and
  • Working with social norm influencers such as micro-influencers on social media channels, as well as religious, traditional, and political leaders in the community. Engaging these groups can be particularly important for establishing the legitimacy of new information that may contradict the current norm. This approach is particularly critical in contexts where a backlash is possible, as opinion leaders can play a key role in risk mitigation.

Recommendations for addressing barriers to women's and youths' economic empowerment include:

• Promote, at the national level, savings by all people - e.g., through a government-sponsored long-term savings system to assist citizens, especially women, in saving for retirement. Communicating the fact that women's savings can also benefit their families and homes will help normalise women's access to savings accounts.
• Disseminate information and enhance women's awareness of their rights so as to facilitate women's access to financial products and services.
• Encourage women to register for national identification in their own name so they can open bank and e-money accounts, which can then be used to obtain social assistance transfer payments. Participation in social assistance programmes can help legitimise women's independent usage of accounts to help the family economy.
• Explore mechanisms of promoting increased access to formal financial products and services by:
  • investing in capacity-building activities such as financial literacy and home-budgeting training;
  • designing and piloting financial products that are designed for women and youth; and
  • developing marketing campaigns that address women's financial needs and highlight the importance of women's financial inclusion for the wellbeing of the whole household.

In conclusion, this study demonstrates "the importance of incorporating a deeper understanding of social norms into the design of financial inclusion programmes. Development organizations and FSPs [financial services providers] must consider the interdependent forms of discrimination and disadvantage that impact women's and youth's financial behaviours. Empowering these individuals to have more financial autonomy is an essential step on the path to improved food security and development outcomes for communities in rural Malawi."

The JP GTA is implemented by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP), in collaboration with and through financial support from the European Union.