Explore the latest global and regional insights from Women’s World Banking’s work in policy, leadership, women’s entrepreneurship, gender lens investing, and more.
The impact of COVID-19 has hit women and girls hard. The World Bank reports that 2021 will bring the first increase in extreme poverty since 1998, with a minimum of 71 million people expected to fall into destitution, and UN Women estimates that at least 47 million more women and girls will fall below the
Unlocking Credit for Women Owned Businesses This report summarizes efforts by Women’s World Banking to answer three key questions about unlocking credit for women owned businesses and for women entrepreneurs around the globe: Which value chains in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam represent priority opportunities to develop increased credit
How does Data Collection help financial service providers serve low-income women profitably and sustainably?
How does Customer Centricity help financial service providers serve low-income women profitably and sustainably?
How does Branding and Marketing help financial service providers serve low-income women profitably and sustainably?
How does Leadership and Change Management help financial service providers serve low-income women profitably and sustainably?
High-level findings on challenges and opportunities for digital financial inclusion in India, and the building blocks for a digital economy friendly to women.
A series of one-pagers highlighting select topics from our comprehensive publication, “Health Microinsurance: An Inclusive Approach.”
The publication highlights how the insurance industry can play a major role in increasing financial protection for women—including those from low-income levels—through approaches that target their specific needs.
Women’s World Banking outlines specific recommendations for public and private sector players to address the challenges to women’s financial inclusion.
A case study on the experience of Nigeria in implementing promising approaches to gender-focused financial inclusion policies.
A case study on the experience of Tanzania in implementing promising approaches to gender-focused financial inclusion policies.
Women’s World Banking, with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, examined enabling policy and regulatory frameworks for women’s financial inclusion .
The study looks at opportunities for workforce participation and advancement for women at select multinational and local banks in five countries in Southeast Asia.
Women’s World Banking, together with The World Bank, the UN-housed Better Than Cash Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation authored the report “Digital Financial Solutions to Advance Women’s Economic Participation” for the Turkish G20 Presidency.
This guide focuses on microentrepreneurs and documents Women’s World Banking’s framework for developing individual lending products for women, outlining specific aspects of the methodology that are necessary to reach the low-income women’s market.
Women’s World Banking conducted research to examine the profile of women-owned SMEs in five countries in Southeast Asia, surveyed the landscape of their access to finance and, based on these findings, give recommendations in order for stakeholders to create an enabling financing environment for women.
This report outlines Women’s World Banking’s research into the landscape of digital savings for women and emerging best practice in the space.
Why is it important to serve low-income women with microinsurance products? In this one-pager, we provide a brief summary of our product development approach and an example of a successful product rollout.
Why is it important to serve low-income rural women with individual lending products? In this one-pager, we provide a brief summary of our product development approach and an example of a successful product rollout.Modify your meta description by editing it right here
Why is it important to serve low-income women with savings products? In this one-pager, we provide a brief summary of our product development approach and an example of a successful product rollout.
Why is it important to serve low-income youth with savings products? In this one-pager, we provide a brief summary of our product development approach and an example of a successful product rollout.
Women’s World Banking was invited by e-MFP to contribute to this publication and we have shared our lessons learned from implementing a youth savings program in the Dominican Republic with Banco ADOPEM.
Women’s World Banking network members participating in a virtual learning community compiled key insights on successfully marketing to women to share with the wider financial services industry
Four years after collaborating with Banco ADOPEM to develop its youth savings program, Women’s World Banking returned to the bank to evaluate the impact of the program on the bank.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) commissioned Women’s World Banking to conduct research on global practices of financial institutions in serving women-led SMEs and developed recommendations for banks to adopt the best practices.
This publication is a guide for deposit-taking institutions in any stage of youth savings program development.
With support from McGraw Hill Financial, Women’s World Banking sought to gain a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities for financial institutions to offer individual microenterprise lending to low-income entrepreneurs in Mexico. This report highlights findings that we hope will spur financial institutions to reach this underserved market.
“Promoting Women’s Leadership” is a collection of best practices that both companies and women leaders can implement to promote greater gender equity in their institution.
These “Select Five” key indicators are the starting point—the minimum that all industry stakeholders should use to track and improve gender performance.
A woman with a bank account can dream, plan and hope for a better future for herself and for her family. Learn why you should help us bank on her.
Our President and CEO Mary Ellen Iskenderian introduces our 2013 Annual Report: In the last three years we have completed 27 research studies on the lives of low-income women; reached 1.2 million clients in 24 financial institutions with new products; and trained more than 200 leaders of financial institutions.
Women’s World Banking presents the five minimum indicators that financial institutions must track in order to measure and improve gender performance.
For poor women, access to a safe place to save and build assets is as important as access to loans. Women’s World Banking knows from its research that poor women are inherent savers. In this publication, we share the findings of our most recent savings work, including a three-year project with four of our network members.
Women’s World Banking considers clients’ financial goals and needs, the institution’s business objectives, and the existing market for financial services and information. We then work with the institution to develop a financial education strategy that uses existing delivery and communications channels and fits within client and business routines.
Youth Savings specialist Ryan Newton was cited as a resource for her work with our network member PEACE MFI S.CO on the UNDCF/ Mastercard Foundation report “Building the Business Case of Youth Services.”
The Optimizing Capital Structure Toolkit is essential for microfinance institutions (MFIs) undergoing transformation and beginning to mobilize deposits, MFIs have two new major sources of capital (equity and deposits), and it becomes a challenge to understand prudent or optimal mixes of savings, debt, quasi-equity, and equity.
At the G‐20 Seoul Summit in November of 2010, Women’s World Banking was asked by several G‐20 governmentsto comment on the report, “Strengthening Accessto Finance for Women SMEs in Developing Countries.”
Quality data—accurate and useful—is critical for the microfinance sector.
Women’s World Banking conducted a gender study in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Samoa to explore the issues women face in order to provide them with effective financial services.
The gender performance indicators help financial institutions determine whether they are serving women well, and with what outcomes.
Microfinance practitioners attend numerous training, workshops, exchanges, and conferences during the year. The skills and theories learned are invaluable for the participants of such events who normally leave these programs re-energized and full of ideas they want to implement in their organization and toward modifying their own management styles. However, at times it is difficult to get buy-in from others in the organization, and the concepts or organization development goals are often forgotten and never put into practice.
In 2012, Women’s World Banking turned to understanding women’s financial barriers and opportunities in the Pacific Islands for the first time with support from the New Zealand Aid Programme.
Research has shown that healthcare costs often exert the most financial pressure on poor families. Given the negative impact a health emergency can have, microinsurance has tremendous potential to provide security and stability to a poor household.
This toolkit will allow microfinance institutions to conduct a gender-focused self-assessment of their recruitment, retention and promotion of women staff.
Women’s World Banking contributed to case studies to this European Microfinance Platform publication on successful low-income youth financial services programs.
This Cash Management Toolkit is part of a suite of practitioner guides and tools developed by Women’s World Banking for use by microfinance institutions (MFIs). It integrates closely with the Tool for Developing a Financial Risk Management Policy (Women’s World Banking, 2005) and expands on the fundamental guidance regarding liquidity risk management provided there. Cash Management includes all activities related to the efficient planning, procurement, investment and control of cash in a financial institution.
Women’s World Banking’s Excellence in Leadership Award recognizes a financial institution within the Women’s World Banking’s network.
A summary of Microfinance Opportunities’ impact assessment study of our program, “Savings and Financial Education for Girls in Mongolia.”
As the microfinance industry continues to shift its focus into understanding client’s needs and more effectively targeting specific segments, it is essential for management to understand an institution’s performance based on data.
Microfinance as an industry is still quite young, and when it comes to addressing institutional support for gender diversity, the efforts are nascent. Much has been learned—both about what has worked and what has failed—in the corporate world about engaging women professionals. The question to the microfinance industry is how well can we take advantage of these inroads, these tested efforts and do even better at building inclusive institutions?
Using Uganda as a case study, Women’s World Banking set out to better understand the needs of rural women and to use the research and lessons learned there to make recommendations on the design and delivery of microfinance products within Uganda and throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
Something decidedly new is on the horizon in Africa since the mid-1990s. Many African economies appear to have turned the corner and have moved towards a path of faster and steadier economic growth. Their performance between 1995 and 2005 has reversed the economic collapses that marked the period from 1975 to 1985, and the stagnation that was rife between 1985 and 1995. Moreover, per capita income is now also increasing in tandem with other developing countries.
Providing credit to poor women can encourage the financial stability and economic progress of low-income households. But in Morocco as in many countries, gender-based constraints, burdens and responsibilities mean that more than credit is necessary if women are to make progress women in lifting their families out of poverty.
This report shares several years of WWB’s hands-on experience and lessons learned in the use of competency-based human resource systems and creates awareness among microfinance institutions of the importance of building organizational capability.
The Toolkit for Developing a Financial Risk Management (FRM) Policy is the leading practical, step-by-step guide that assists MFIs in developing effective risk management strategies and policies.
“Transforming the Landscape of Leadership in Microfinance: Maintaining the Focus on Women” introduces Women’s World Banking’s new methodology for helping MFIs support gender diversity at all levels of their institution.
This toolkit gives MFI managers the theoretical understanding and practical examples to conduct an equity valuation of their institutions.
“Microinsurance that Works for Women: Making Microinsurance Programs Gender-Sensitive” introduces the ground-breaking work that Women’s World Banking has done on developing microinsurance programs tailored to the unique needs of women.
This paper provides an overview of the process by which microfinance institutions (MFIs) convert from NGOs into regulated financial institutions—known as transformation—and examines the impact of transformation on a control group of MFIs tracked by WWB over the past five years, giving particular attention to the effect of transformation on MFIs’ outreach to low-income women.
The book Saris on Scooters, which tells inspiring stories of women in India who have overcome many obstacles and successfully built businesses using small loans, features a foreword written by Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President of WWB.
This article highlights the launch of the savings and financial education product for girls in Mongolia by Women’s World Banking along with its network member XacBank.
This case study published by Making Cents International was featured as part of their Youth Inclusive Financial Service Case Study Series and details how Women’s World Banking has helped one of its network members, XacBank (Mongolia) design and roll-out savings products and financial education programs for girls ages 14 to 17.
This paper highlights recent advances in minimizing foreign exchange risk in microfinance, via both local currency lending by international investors, and risk hedging by microfinance institutions.
Marketing for Microfinance is designed as a reference guide for microfinance organizations seeking to develop their marketing capabilities.
This paper outlines the design and implementation of credit scoring policies based on Women’s World Banking’s experiences working with network members and presents factors to consider when introducing credit scoring including cost, staff training, scoring policies, data collection and reporting.
