Women's World Banking Blog

Women-led SMEs

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.

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Products & Solutions

Empowering Women Microentrepreneurs in Emerging Markets through Business Skills Education 

Business Skills Education Running a business is challenging for any entrepreneur, but for women microentrepreneurs in emerging markets, these challenges are even greater. Often lacking institutional support, formal business training and confidence in engaging with digital financial services, many of these women struggle to realize the full potential of their

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October 31, 2024
Research & Perspectives

Understanding and Unlocking the Potential of Women Ultra-Micro Entrepreneurs in Indonesia

Micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play a significant role in Indonesia’s economy, accounting for 61% of its gross domestic product. An even smaller segment—ultra-micro businesses—is helping drive economic growth, as well. Since 2017, Pusat Investasi Pemerintah (PIP), an Indonesian government agency, has disbursed loans to 5.4 million ultra-micro entrepreneurs,

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April 6, 2022
Event

Beyond Credit: How to Support Women-Owned MSMEs for Sustainable Growth

SME Finance Forum and Women’s World Banking’s hosted panel explores how financial service providers can leverage business support services to empower women-led businesses with the skills, networks, and resources needed to reach their growth potential. For micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), monetary support is not the sole determinant of

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March 1, 2022
Research & Perspectives

Report: Designing Digital Payments for Mexican Women Entrepreneurs

Mexico’s 6.3 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) generate nearly half of Mexico’s GDP and employ 37 percent of the workforce. Of MSMEs, 94.2 percent are microenterprises, and over half of these are women-owned or women-led. Despite this segment’s dominance in the economy, the majority of MSMEs transactions are

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June 17, 2021
Products & Solutions

Rural Credit Product Overview

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

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June 8, 2015
Research & Perspectives

Global Best Practices in Banking Women-Led SMEs

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.

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November 14, 2014
Products & Solutions

Deepening financial inclusion for microentrepreneurs in Mexico

Mexico is one of the most populous countries in Latin America so it is not surprising that they have one of the largest number of microfinance clients: a whopping six million borrowers which is roughly 5% of the population (2013). Yet there is something distinct about how microfinance has developed

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October 13, 2014
Products & Solutions

Individual Lending to Microenterprises in Mexico: A Survey of Constraints and Opportunities

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.

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October 8, 2014
Products & Solutions

Adding Gender to the Microfinance Bottom Line

Jaclyn Berfond, Senior Associate for Strategy at Women’s World Banking guest blogged on the Center for Financial Inclusion blog on the important of measuring a financial institution’s gender performance in order to know and track whether they are serving women well.

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December 20, 2013
Products & Solutions

Lessons from Syria: building resilient microfinance leadership in the Middle East and North Africa

Around the end of August, the weeks leading up to the Women in Leadership program (WIL) in Jordan, my team was glued to the news watching the events unfolding in Egypt, Syria and across the Middle East. Egypt had called a state of emergency and the Syrian crisis had come to a head with reports of chemical weapons and talk of a military strike. It was precisely this regional uncertainty that made it so important for us to go forward with the Women in Leadership program in Amman in September.

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November 4, 2013
Research & Perspectives

Beauty as Business: Research on Women Entrepreneurs in India

Thanks to television and Bollywood, Indian women have become more aware of new trends and demand an ever-expanding range of services for their hair, skin and nails from local beauty parlors. The result is that beauty parlors can be seen in almost every neighborhood and street, from low-income neighborhoods to busy streets and markets to posh suburbs.

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September 30, 2013
Products & Solutions

Fact sheet: Rural Credit in Latin America

Women’s World Banking, with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Multilateral Investment Fund, developed rural credit products that extend financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs in Peru, Paraguay and Colombia. This fact sheet details the challenge, objectives and initial results of the project that will run until December

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September 3, 2013
Research & Perspectives

Stemming the Tide of Mission Drift: Microfinance Transformations and the Double Bottom Line

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.

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October 7, 2010
Products & Solutions

How Microcredit is Changing Villages in India

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.

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August 1, 2010
Products & Solutions

Credit Scoring in Microfinance

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.

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October 7, 2003

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