Linda Dounia is a Senegalese Lebanese artist and designer.

She specializes in visual design, interaction design, and design research. She is most interested in how technology can adequately represent and empower people, no matter who they are. She has managed design teams that leverage the power of play, co-creation, and prototyping with communities to better understand systemic inequality, and to make technologymore accessible and useful to them.

In 2023, Linda was recognized on the TIMEA100 list of most influential people in AI for her work on speculative archiving — building AI models that help us remember what is lost. In 2024, she was also the recipient of Mozilla’s RISE25 award for her work in AI.


linda.rebeiz@gmail.com

    ABOUTWORK

    UNDERSTANDING THE STATE OF WOMEN’S FINANCIAL INCLUSION
    IDEO.ORG x THE GATES FOUNDATION

    Women and Money is an IDEO.org program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is a three-year initiative to surface the complex realities that keep women excluded from financial services and build solutions that unlock new opportunities to include women.  In 2019, the global team conducted research in six contexts: Tanzania, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, and India culminating in a report that illuminates global insights and opportunities for design. I was part of the team that researched Kenya, specifically Northern Kenya. 



    RESEARCH

    In Kenya where 70% of the population is financially included, Northern Kenya represents an extreme example of how women have been left behind by financial services. Interestingly though, Northern Kenya’s context is similar to 40% of Sub-saharan Africa. 

    We found ourselves starting this research at a unique moment in time. Life in Northern Kenya was rapidly changing, especially for low-income women. Climate change and other macro economic factors were forcing women to earn a living and contribute financially to their household. The gender dynamics of financial decision-making were shifting in unprecented ways. 

    We conducted a variety of research activities: 

        Observations: We shadowed women in their daily activities. We shadowed financial services agents. We embedded in places of business and gatherings of women doing business, and made notes of the interactions we saw. 

        Conversations: We conducted one on one interviews, focus groups, and in-situ intercept interviews. 

        Co-creation: We developed an interactive game for our participants to articulate their needs/pains with regards to finances, and come up with alternatives that suit them better. 



    ARCHETYPES

    Based on women we met, we were able to identity 6 archetypes to design for. We established profiles for each archetype, distilled important moments in their financial journeys, their needs, and opportunities for design





    INSIGHTS

    We developed learnings about women in Northern Kenya in three key areas that are central to this story. Firstly, we spent time understanding their world and what would make DFS relevant to their life.  Then, we looked at how they use both cash and mobile money, understanding what barriers there are for their to access DFS more regularly and successfully. Finally, we looked at their potential to do more with mobile money, if they had awareness of the services available to them and the confidence to try them.




    CONCEPTS

    Our concets focused on three areas: building new products and services that are relevant to women’s new roles, designing products and services that are more accessible to them, building their confidence and showing them the possibility with agency over their finances.

    Example concept: Boda Pesa, a mobile application that equips trained riders with the ability to perform agent transactions and provide  basic financial advice guided by preloaded content on the application. This concept was later turned into a prototype and tested in Northern Kenya.




    You can read the Kenya report here, the global report here, and the lifestages report here.