Digital technology, including digital financial services (DFS), presents a potential solution for increasing women’s access to financial services where mobility and accessibility to traditional financial services may be limited. However, the digital gender gap is far too prevalent in low-income countries. In considering the overall role of financial services it is thus important to keep in mind the existing gaps low-income populations face, as well as the diversity of geographies, climate shocks or stresses, women’s lives and livelihoods, and existing gender norms that lead to varying financial needs when women are faced with climate-related risks.

This Working Paper aims to illustrate how women’s lives and livelihoods are differently impacted by climate change and how financial services can play a better role in strengthening their autonomous adaptive capacities to climate change. This concept will be explored through illustrative examples of gendered impact when women face climate shocks and stresses that affect health, agricultural livelihoods, and women-owned businesses.