Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T13:35:04.538Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Regulating exclusions? Gender, development and the limits of inclusionary financial platforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2020

Serena Natile
Serena Natile*
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Socio-legal Studies, Brunel Law School, Brunel University, London, UK
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Digital financial-inclusion platforms have gained increasing attention as instruments for economic growth that also contribute to development goals such as poverty reduction and gender equality. One of the most acclaimed digital financial platforms to date is M-Pesa (M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money) in Kenya – a mobile-phone-enabled money-transfer service realised via a public–private partnership between the UK's Department for International Development, Vodafone and its local partner, Safaricom. Since its launch in 2007, M-Pesa has grown at a phenomenal rate and it is now used by over 70 per cent of the Kenyan population. Bringing together socio-legal enquiry, feminist political economy analysis and post-colonial literature, this paper discusses M-Pesa's inclusionary regulatory arrangements and examines their implications for gender equality. It shows that, while these arrangements contribute to including women in the formal financial system, they fail to adopt the redistributive measures necessary to address the gendered socio-economic disadvantages that cause and reproduce financial exclusion.

Keywords

gender justicepost-colonialitylaw and developmentfinancial inclusiondigital platformsKenya
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 461 - 478
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, B and Pingeot, L (2013) Whose Development, Whose UN? Reclaiming the UN's Values-based Framework. New York: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.Google Scholar
Allon, F (2014) The feminisation of finance. Australian Feminist Studies 29, 12–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ardener, S and Burman, S (1995) Money-go-rounds: The Importance of Rotating Saving and Credit Associations for Women. London: Berg Publisher Ltd.Google Scholar
Armendariz, B and Morduch, J (2010) The Economics of Microfinance. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT.Google Scholar
Austin, G and Sugihara, K (1993) Local Suppliers of Credit in the Third World: 1750–1960. New York: St Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakker, I and Silvey, R (2008) Beyond States and Markets: The Challenges of Social Reproduction. Abingdon-New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Banda, F (2003) Global standards: local values. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 17, 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banks, N and Hulme, D (2014) New development alternatives or business as usual with a new face? The transformative potential of new actors and alliances in development. Third World Quarterly 35, 181–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batchelor, S (2005) Sending money outside the envelope. Development Magazines 31, London: DFID.Google Scholar
Bateman, M, Duvendack, M and Loubere, N (2019) Is fin-tech the new panacea for poverty alleviation and local development? Contesting Suri and Jack's M-Pesa findings published in science. Review of African Political Economy 49, 480–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beneria, L (2003) Gender, Development and Globalisation: Economics as if All People Mattered. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bergeron, S (2004) Fragments of Development: Nation, Gender and the Space of Modernity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blowfield, M and Dolan, CS (2014) Business as a development agent: evidence of possibility and improbability. Third World Quarterly 35, 22–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boserup, E (1970) Women's Role in Economic Development. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Bouman, FJA and Houtman, R (1988) Pawnbroking as an instrument of rural banking in the Third World. Economic Development and Cultural Change 37, 69–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caufield, C (1996) Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations. New York: Henry Holt and Company.Google Scholar
Chant, S (2008) The ‘feminisation of poverty’ and the ‘feminisation’ of anti-poverty programmes: room for revision? Journal of Development Studies 44, 165–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chant, S and Sweetman, C (2012) Fixing women or fixing the world? ‘Smart economics’, efficiency approaches, and gender equality in development. Gender and Development 20, 517–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, T and McKay, C (2015) How M-Shwari Works: The Story so Far. Washington: CGAP and FSD Kenya.Google Scholar
Cornwall, A and Rivas, A-M (2015) From gender equality to global justice: reclaiming a transformative agenda for gender and development. Third World Quarterly 36, 396–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Castri, S and Gidvani, L (2013) The Kenyan Journey to Digital Financial Inclusion, GSMA, July. Available at http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/MMU-Infographic-The-Kenyan-journey-to-digital-financial-inclusion.pdf (accessed 30 April 2019).Google Scholar
Elson, D (1989) The impact of structural adjustments on women: concepts and issues. In Onimode, B (ed.), The IMF, The World Bank and the African Debt, Volume 2: The Social and Political Impact. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Elson, D (1991a) Male Bias in the Development Process. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press and St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Elson, D (1991b) Structural adjustment: its effect on women. In Wallace, T and March, C (eds), Changing Perceptions: Writings on Gender and Development. Oxford: Oxfam.Google Scholar
Elson, D (2010) Gender and the global economic crisis in developing countries: a framework for analysis. Gender and Development 18, 201–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elson, D (2014) Economic crises from the 1980s to the 2010s: a gender analysis. In Rai, SM and Waylen, G (eds), New Frontiers in Feminist Political Economy. Oxford and New York: Routledge, pp. 189–212.Google Scholar
Elson, D and Cagatay, N (2000) The social content of macroeconomic policies. World Development 28, 1347–1364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Federici, S (2011) Women land struggles, and the reconstruction of the commons. The Journal of Labour and Society 14, 41–56.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J (2006) Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order. Durham: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, J (2015) Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Redistribution. Durham: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredman, S (2013) Engendering socio-economic rights. In Hellum, A and Aasen, HS (eds), Women's Human Rights: CEDAW in International, Regional and National Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 217–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FSD (2007) Financial Access in Kenya: Results of the 2006 National Survey. Nairobi: Financial Sector Deepening Kenya.Google Scholar
FSD (2009) FinAccess National Survey 2009: Dynamics of Kenya's Changing Financial Landscape. Nairobi: Financial Sector Deepening Kenya.Google Scholar
FSD (2013) FinAccess National Survey 2013: Profiling Developments in Financial Access and Usage in Kenya. Nairobi: Financial Sector Deepening Kenya.Google Scholar
FSD (2016) The 2016 FinAccess Household Survey on Financial Inclusion. Nairobi: FSD Kenya.Google Scholar
FSD (2019) 2019 Finaccess Household Survey. Nairobi: Financial Sector Deepening Kenya.Google Scholar
Gabor, D and Brooks, S (2017) The digital revolution in financial inclusion: international development in the fintech era. New Political Economy 22, 423–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, C (1962) The rotating credit association: a ‘middle rung’ in development. Economic Development and Cultural Change 19, 241–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goetz, AM (1996) Who takes credit? Gender, power and control over loan use in rural credit programs in Bangladesh. World Development 24, 45–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GSMA (2018) Mobile Money Policy and Regulatory Handbook. London: GSMA. Available at https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GSMA-Mobile-Money-Policy-Handbook-2018.pdf (accessed 30 April 2019).Google Scholar
Guyer, JI (1991) Female farming in anthropology and African history. In Di Leonardo, M (ed.), Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist Anthropology in the Postmodern Era. Berkley: University of California Press, pp. 257–277.Google Scholar
Houpis, G and Bellis, J (2007) The regulatory implications of mobile and financial services convergence. In The Transformational Potential of M-Transactions: Moving the Debate Forward, Policy Paper Series No. 6. London: Vodafone Group PLC.Google Scholar
Hughes, N and Lonie, S (2007) M-Pesa: mobile money for the ‘unbanked’: turning cellphones into 24-hour tellers in Kenya. Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalisation 2, 63–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaquette, JS and Summerfield, G (2006) Women and Gender Equity in Development Theory and Practice: Institutions, Resources and Mobilization. Durham: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, S (2012) From microfinance to inclusive financial markets: the challenge of social regulation. Oxford Development Studies 41 (Supplement), 35–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, S and Williams, R (2013) The political economy of financial inclusion: working with governments on market development. Bath Papers in International Development and Well-being, Working Paper n. 23.Google Scholar
Juma, L (2002) Reconciling African customary law and human rights in Kenya: making a case for institutional reformation and revitalisation of customary adjudication processes. St. Thomas Law Review 14, 459–512.Google Scholar
Kabeer, N (2001) Conflicts over credit: re-evaluating the empowerment potential of loans to women in rural Bangladesh. World Development 29, 63–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kabeer, N (2015) Evolving meanings of ‘the social’ in the international development agenda. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy 31, 114–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karim, L (2011) Microfinance and Its Discontent: Women in Debt in Bangladesh. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, C (2001) Vagabond capitalism and the necessity of social reproduction. Antipode 33, 709–728.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusimba, S, Krunyu, G and Gross, E (2018) Social networks of mobile money in Kenya. In Maurer, B, Musaraj, S and Small, IV (eds), Money at the Margins: Global Perspectives on Technology, Financial Inclusion and Design. New York and Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 189–209.Google Scholar
Lairap-Fonderson, J (2002) The disciplinary power of microcredit: examples from Kenya and Cameroon. In Parpart, JL, Rai, SM and Staudt, KA (eds) Rethinking Empowerment: Gender and Development in a Global/Local World. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 182–198.Google Scholar
Maathai, W (2008) Unbowed: One Woman's Story. London: Arrow Books.Google Scholar
Manji, A (1999) Imagining women's ‘legal world’: towards a feminist theory of legal pluralism in Africa. Social and Legal Studies 8, 435–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manji, A (2006) The Politics of Land Reform in Africa. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Mas, I and Radcliffe, D (2010) Mobile Payments go Viral: M-Pesa in Kenya. Seattle: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.Google Scholar
Maurer, B (2012) Regulation as retrospective ethnography: mobile money and the arts of cash. Banking and Finance Law Review 27, 299–313.Google Scholar
Maurer, B (2015) Data-mining for development? Poverty, payment, and platform. In Roy, A and Crane E, Shaw (eds), Territories of Poverty: Rethinking North and South. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, pp. 126–143.Google Scholar
Mayoux, L (2002) Women's Empowerment or Feminisation of Debt? Towards a New Agenda in African Microfinance. London: One World Action.Google Scholar
McKemey, K et al. (2003) Innovative Demand for Models for Telecommunications Services: Final Report. London: Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation and Reading: Gamos Ltd.Google Scholar
Molyneux, M (2006) Mothers at the service of the new poverty agenda. Social Policy and Administration 40, 425–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muthiora, B (2015) Enabling Mobile Money Policies in Kenya: Fostering a Digital Financial Revolution. London: GSMA. Available at https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/resources/enabling-mobile-money-policies-in-kenya-fostering-a-digital-financial-revolution/ (accessed 30 April 2019).Google Scholar
Nicholls, A (2006) Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Obeng, P (2003) Gendered nationalism: forms of masculinity on former Asante Ghana. In Linsday, L and Miescher, S (eds), Men and Masculinities in Modern Africa. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, pp. 192–208.Google Scholar
Ocran, JM (2006) The clash of legal cultures: the treatment of indigenous law in colonial and post-colonial Africa. Akron Law Review 39(2). Available at https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol39/iss2/4 (accessed 10 May 2019).Google Scholar
Oduol, W and Kabira, W (1995) The mothers of warriors and her daughters: the women's movement in Kenya. In Basu, A (ed.), The Challenge of Local Feminisms. Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press, pp. 187–208.Google Scholar
Okeyo, AP (2005) Definitions of women and development: an African perspective. In Oyewumi, O (ed.), African Gender Studies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 299–311.Google Scholar
Omwansa, TK and Sullivan, NP (2012) Money, Real Quick: Kenya's Disruptive Mobile Money Innovation. Appledore: Balloonview.Google Scholar
Owino, D and Tanui, J (2011) The State of Competition Report: Mobile Money Transfer, Agricultural Bulk Storage and Milling, and the Media Sectors in Kenya. Nairobi: Institute of Economic Affairs.Google Scholar
Picchio, A (2003) Unpaid Work and the Economy: A Gender Analysis of the Standards of Living. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Prügl, E (2016) Neoliberalism with a feminist face. Feminist Economics 23, 30–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rahman, A (1999) Women and Microcredit in Rural Bangladesh. Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Rankin, KN (2002) Social capital, microfinance, and the politics of development. Feminist Economics 8, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rankin, KN (2013) A critical geography of poverty finance. Third World Quarterly 34, 547–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ribot, JC and Peluso, NL (2003) A theory of access. Rural Sociology 68, 153–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rittich, K (2006) The future of law and development: second-generation reforms and the incorporation of the social. In Trubek, DM and Santos, A (eds), The New Law and Economic Development: A Critical Appraisal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 199–243.Google Scholar
Roberts, A (2015) The political economy of transnational business feminism. International Feminist Journal of Politics 17, 209–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, A and Soederberg, S (2012) Gender equality as smart economics? A critique of the 2012 World Development Report. Third World Quarterly 33, 949–968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, M (2001) The Microfinance Revolution: Sustainable Finance for the Poor. Washington, DC: World Bank/New York, Open Society Institute.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roodman, R (2012) Due Diligence: An Impertinent Enquiry into Microfinance. Washington, DC: Centre For Global Development.Google Scholar
Roy, A (2010) Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soederberg, S (2013) Universalising financial inclusion and the securitisation of development. Third World Quarterly 34, 593–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soederberg, S (2014) Debtfare States and the Poverty Industry. London and New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spivak, GC (1993) Outside in the Teaching Machine. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stamp, P (1991) Burying Otieno: the politics of gender and ethnicity in Kenya. Signs 16, 808–845.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suri, T and Gubbins, P (2018) How is Digital Credit Changing the Life of Kenyans? Evidence from an Evaluation of the Impact of M-Shwari. Nairobi: FSD Research Brief.Google Scholar
Suri, T and Jack, W (2016) The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science 354, 1288–1292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tan, C (2018) The risk of using blended finance in development. University of Warwick, Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE). Available at https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/research/centres/globe/policybriefs/web_pb4_final_c_tan_by_research_retold_-_27_sept_2018.pdf (accessed 20 September 2019).Google Scholar
Taylor, M (2012) The antinomies of financial inclusion: debt, distress and the working of Indian microfinance. Journal of Agrarian Change 12, 601–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Economist (2008) A happy roar from Kenya: a successful IPO brings cheer to Safaricom and to Kenya's Small Investors, 9 June.Google Scholar
Williams, T (2001) Requiem for microcredit? The decline of a romantic ideal. Banking and Finance Law Review 19, 145–198.Google Scholar
Wooder, S and Baker, S (2012) Extracting key lessons in service innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 29, 13–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank (2006) Gender Equality as Smart Economics: A World Bank Group Gender Action Plan. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.Google Scholar
World Bank (2008) Finance for All? Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
World Bank (2012) World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
World Bank (2015) Women, Business and the Law 2016: Getting to Equal. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
World Bank (2018) The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Yunus, M (1999) Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle against Poverty. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Yunus, M (2008) Creating a World without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar