Inclusive online platforms: the great market opportunity and the challenges

E-commerce and the digital economy are growing at a rapid speed, but are women entrepreneurs able to take advantage of this growth?

To address this question, IFC partnered with Digital2Equal members Jumia and Lazada, among the largest e-commerce platforms in Africa and Southeast Asia respectively, to publish the first large-scale research on women and e-commerce. We found that closing gender gaps can bring the value of the African e-commerce market up by nearly $15 billion between 2025-2030 and triple the size of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market by 2025, but barriers remain to realizing this potential.

In 2020, IFC launched an innovative project with Ureed.com designed to try to narrow that gap by positioning women freelancers in Jordan and Lebanon to access work opportunities in the digital economy. Efforts were also made to pilot approaches to include female refugees and women from disadvantaged communities. Many interesting learnings have come out of this project that can be used to inform future programming that seeks to increase women’s inclusion in the digital economy.

IFC and Ureed invite you to this webinar to share key findings, lessons learned and recommendations on gender inclusion in the digital economy.

AGENDA:
Opening remarks
Key research findings on women and e-commerce
Lessons and recommendations on the digital inclusion of women and refugees in online marketplaces
Q&A