Digital Financial Services

Use of mobile money and other forms of digital payments have grown tremendously and can help make transactions cheaper, more accessible, more secure, and more transparent. However, many people don’t have the digital skills necessary to take advantage of digital financial services like mobile payments, digital banking, and new lending products.

To overcome these barriers to access, Digital Frontiers is:

Partnering with the private sector to enable access to wider market resources for entrepreneurs and women-led enterprises.
Bringing together local and national institutions to promote safe and inclusive digital finance policies and infrastructure.
Developing training and upskilling approaches to enhance digital literacy for digital finance tool access and adoption.

Through our activities, we aim to improve the enabling environment for digital financial services and help our beneficiaries successfully and safely navigate the digital economy.

Activities

Advancing Timor-Leste’s Autonomous Telecommunications Landscape (ATLATL)

ATLATL, an activity under the Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership, is working to promote business-friendly policy and investment in the ICT sector in Timor-Leste. Through ATLATL, Digital Frontiers has supported the drafting of e-commerce legislation.

Learn more here.

Digital Tools Research

Under this activity, Digital Frontiers provided technical assistance on consumer protection and regulatory compliance to a digital financial services provider in Colombia implementing an innovative model for making remittance and other payments using cryptocurrency.

Project Kirana

Around the world, gender inequality limits the ability of women-owned businesses to launch, grow, and thrive. To address these gaps, USAID and Mastercard launched Project Kirana, which works to increase revenue streams, expand financial inclusion, and promote digital payments adoption by kirana shops that are owned or operated by women in India.

Learn more here.

Start Path Empodera

Start Path Empodera, a collaboration between Mastercard and USAID, seeks to advance womenʼs economic opportunities and foster a more inclusive digital economy. The program is designed to support early-stage, female-founded ventures and inspire a new generation of female entrepreneurs in Latin America.

Learn more here.

WomenConnect Challenge (WCC)

The USAID WomenConnect Challenge, implemented by DAI, is a global call for solutions to improve women’s participation in everyday life by meaningfully changing the ways women access and use technology. To date, USAID has awarded over $4.9 million to 16 grantees working to bridge the gender digital divide so that women can fully participate in the global economy.

Learn more here.