At the G‐20 Seoul Summit in November of 2010, Women’s World Banking was asked by several G‐20 governments to comment on the report, “Strengthening Access to Finance for Women SMEs in Developing Countries.”
We welcomed the opportunity to expand upon the analysis presented in the report and are delighted to see a commitment to financial inclusion by the G‐20 Leaders and their acknowledgement that women face different or additional barriers to entry in accessing finance. Overall,the report accurately portrays the challenges facing women with respect to owning and growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Women’s World Banking crafted this response to highlight what we know to be the major barriers that impede the inclusion of poor women from the financial sector, and to offer solutions to these barriers as well as to encourage the subgroup to consider broadening the definition of financial inclusion to include a full suite of financial products including access to savings accounts, insurance and pensions.
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