AIR’s Gender Disaggregated Data (GDD) for Inclusive Regulation Program supports financial sector regulators to strengthen how GDD is collected, analyzed, and applied in supervision and policy making. By positioning data as both a diagnostic and an accountability tool, we aim to advance more adaptive, inclusive regulation.
Significant progress has been made across the gender-disaggregated data ecosystem, creating strong foundations and a timely opportunity to bring these efforts together in a coordinated and cohesive way.
As the African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
We believe this is the right path forward. Strengthening GDD for inclusive regulation has never been the work of one institution. It has been shaped by international organizations, local experts, regulators, researchers, funders, technologists, financial service providers, and advocates who have spent years building the evidence, advancing the policy case, and pushing for practical implementation.
At the Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR), we see our role not as starting this conversation — but as helping move it into its next phase for inclusive regulation.
Through this program, we support regulators and supervisors in better understanding and addressing gender gaps in financial inclusion. The focus is not only on improving how gender-disaggregated data is collected, but also on how it is analyzed and — critically — applied.
Across many countries, some form of gender-disaggregated financial data already exists. Yet it is often underused. Common challenges persist:
The result is a paradox: data is reported, but not fully leveraged.
Our program responds to these persistent gaps. Combining research, structured collaboration, design sprints, and prototype development, we aim to strengthen GDD ecosystems so that regulators can:
At the center of this effort is a simple but powerful premise: inclusive regulation requires data that is not only observed, but actively used to shape systems and behaviors.
GDD makes inequities visible. Application makes change possible.
Recognizing the critical work already delivered across these contexts, we begin by mapping what already exists and collaboratively building from that foundation.
The program includes a landscape review across Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, and Tanzania, to understand:
This is not an exercise in reinvention. It is about recognizing existing leadership and identifying where alignment can unlock greater impact.
By strengthening GDD practices, regulators can move beyond high-level reporting and embed gender insights into supervisory processes, dashboards, and decision-making tools. To do this effectively, we are:
If the first chapter of GDD was about establishing why it matters, this chapter is about operationalizing how it works.
This project is rooted in collaboration.
Through innovation sprints, cross-sector and cross-border engagement, and real use cases, we aim to demonstrate how to embed GDD into regulatory practice. Rather than producing static reports, we are working toward applied experimentation — testing what works in specific contexts and iterating accordingly.
We are also exploring a dedicated collaboration platform — a space for global-to-local and local-to-global dialogue. This will allow experts to exchange insights, share tools, and contribute to research in real time. The aim is to cultivate meaningful, sustained impact engagement rather than convening a series of meetings.
For those engaging and collaborating with the program, it is an opportunity to:
To strengthen and maximize the impact of the project throughout its design and delivery phases, AIR has convened a Global Advisory Group of leaders across the gender-disaggregated data ecosystem.
In February, we hosted the group for the first time at a roundtable in Washington, D.C. The discussion focused on the critical role of GDD in advancing inclusive regulation — and marked an important milestone in shaping this next phase of work.
We are honored to include leaders from:
These institutions bring decades of experience in research, implementation, funding, advocacy, and regulatory engagement. Their role within the Advisory Group will surface shared priorities, aligning problem statements to consider for the Sprint and identify coordination opportunities towards country-level sprints. Alongside the global work, we will convene country-level steering committees to engage local experts and stakeholders.
Members of our global structures may choose to engage at the country level, depending on the jurisdictions that move forward from the five outlined.
The aim is to create a truly collaborative model — where expertise informs experimentation, and experimentation feeds back into global learning. This work spans the full GDD lifecycle — from data collection and governance to analysis, visualization, and informed decision-making. The objective is not only better data. It is also better decisions that advance inclusive regulation.
We will continue building the infrastructure to support collaboration. A dedicated platform for the duration of the program will help foster dialogue, share resources, and enable ongoing engagement across geographies and sectors; it will also form the backbone for the workshops and sprints.
We will continue to engage and convene the Global Advisory Group, shaping the ongoing project activity and building on impactful initiatives being led across the GDD ecosystem.
Country-level sprints will move from design to implementation. Lessons will be documented and shared. Promising prototypes will be refined.
If you are interested in learning more about the program or upcoming work relating to gender-disaggregated data for inclusive regulation, I would welcome the conversation.
Because if we want to go far — truly far — we will go together.
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