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.
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 ventures. This is
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,
Given COVID-19’s economic impact, this study is timely. The labour market force is shifting as employers reduce their workforce and childcare needs at home increase. Women’s livelihoods have changed. It is more critical now than ever to harness the power of digital platforms for women’s economic empowerment. This report summarizes
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
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
Important findings for post-COVD recovery show how a mix of financial and business support from Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) empowered women-owned MSMEs Nairobi, December 1, 2020 – Financial institutions need to tailor financial services to support women business customers and fuel women-led micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) growth according
Women, especially the low-income segment, are often overlooked by traditional financial service providers in Egypt. Women’s World Banking and Lead Foundation developed an innovative individual lending methodology that successfully reached women entrepreneurs.
Vietnam has millions of economically active women who interact with the formal financial sector at a superficial level. Women’s World Banking worked with Maritime Bank to develop a strategy to deepen its outreach the women’s market.
While Mexico has made great strides in driving financial inclusion for low-income women but many more barriers, albeit surmountable, need to be addressed before the country can realize the economic benefit of financial inclusion.
13 high-profile leaders have gathered at the Southeast Asia Advisory Council this week to advocate for women in financial inclusion throughout the region.
La visita facilitó el intercambio de las mejores prácticas y lecciones aprendidas por Fundación delamujer a Lead Foundation, en las etapas de diseño e implementación de productos de crédito rural y microseguros.
An exposure visit to Colombia unveiled Fundación delamujer’s client-centric approach toward innovating for the women’s market.
Supported by FSD Africa, we uncovered the must-haves for any financial service provider looking to give women-owned SMEs with access to credit.
Our microinsurance specialist shares best practices in sales training for microinsurance to ensure maximum outreach and uptake for low-income women.
Our Chief Product Development Officer wrote a piece on serving rural women sustainably with financial services for the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
Read the recap of the webinar hosted by The World Bank’s Agrifin Facility, featuring our Chief Product Development Officer Anna Gincherman.
The pilot assessment of our project in Mexico revealed the keys to successful delivery individual lending for women-owned micro, small and medium enterprises.
Our Director of Consumer Insights and Engagement Cathleen Tobin and CEO of Ujjivan Financial Services Samit Ghosh are featured in this video on Metlife’s Multipliers of Prosperity microsite.
How can women-focused financial institutions mitigate the challenges in keeping their outreach to women when expanding to individual lending?
Microfund for Women is a pioneering financial institution in the Middle East serving women clients and promoting women’s employment and leadership.
Financial inclusion for low-income women has for years meant group loans. Three financial institutions on why the tide is shifting towards individual loans.
There are 10 million women-owned SMEs globally, 30% of the total. 70% are un- or underbanked, presenting a $300 billion market opportunity.
The study looks at opportunities for workforce participation and advancement for women at select multinational and local banks in five countries in Southeast Asia.
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.
New research on women-owned SMEs in Southeast Asia, their barriers to accessing finance and recommendations for stakeholders to overcome barriers and enable access.
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.
Norah Prida Bay, CEO of Kitty 10, highlighted our BETA Savings product with Diamond Bank in Nigeria in an article highlighting the gender gap in access to credit.
How our Philippine network member Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation has been helping low-income women entrepreneurs in its community through small loans.
Shahida Pervin, Deputy Director of Shakti Foundation for Disadvantaged Women in Bangladesh interviews the founder of the organization, Humaira Islam.
Eva Gantz of Stellar highlighted our Bank On Her blogpost featured in the Huffington Post last month.
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
Women’s World Banking worked with Diamond Bank to design a loan that uses clients savings behavior to help them get access to credit quickly and easily.
Women’s World Banking contributed an article on how to best serve women-led small-to-medium enterprises for Wall Street Journal/ MetLife Foundation initiative Multipliers of Prosperity.
Women’s World Banking co-authored a piece on the market opportunity of financing women-led SMEs with the SME Finance Forum and the World Economic Forum.
Women’s World Banking and NBS Bank (Malawi) toured TEB (Turkey), a best practice bank serving SMEs to learn from its approach and innovations in serving this segment.
Women’s World Banking CFO Michael Mohr meets rural women clients in Colombia and doffs his finance cap to understand risk and success in micro-agribusiness.
For individuals, the new year is typically the time to make resolutions and vow to practice new, better habits. For businesses, the new year might be a good time to look for new opportunity.
Nithya Palanisami of Ujjivan Financial Services (India) shares her exclusive interview with Vinatha Reddy, founder of GrameenKoota, in this guest post.
Women’s World Banking co-hosted a roundtable with financial inclusion players in Mexico to the challenges to offering individual lending in the country and a path forward to begin.
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.
Women’s World Banking helped network member institutions in Latin America develop loans that meet rural women’s needs and deepen inclusion for the rural market.
On October 28, 2014, Women’s World Banking and UNIFIM A.C. host a roundtable to bring better loan opportunities to low-income Mexican microentrepreneurs.
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
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.
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.
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.
Women’s World Banking President and CEO Mary Ellen Iskenderian guest-blogged for CGAP’s ‘Gender and Finance’ blog series.
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.
Chief Strategy Officer Harsha Rodrigues participated in a discussion about how to measure the impact of development organizations’ economic empowerment work for women.
Saif Mohammad Moinul Islam, private sector engagement coordinator at Care Bangladesh, wrote a letter to to The Guardian Global Development Professionals Network last week with the provocative headline: "Domestic violence in Bangladesh: blame it on microfinance."
A Colombian newspaper, Vanguardia, featured the upcoming launch of rural credit products by network member Fundación delamujer. Women’s World Banking worked with the institution to develop these products.
Women”s World Banking President and CEO Mary Ellen Iskenderian was on a panel entitled “Different perspectives on reaching poor households” at The MasterCard Foundation Symposium on Financial Inclusion in Turin, Italy this past July.
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
Women’s World Banking board member and head of network member Ujjivan Samit Ghosh was quoted in an article in Business Standard about difficulties of transformation in the Indian microfinance industry.
President and CEO of Women’s World Banking Mary Ellen Iskenderian spoke with Susan Yackee of Voice of American’s Middle East Monitor Podcast on Women’s World Banking’s recent research engagement in Cairo, Egypt on the lives of low-income women entrepreneurs after the Revolution.
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.
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.
We present five key messages from the study here, giving both anecdotal and data-driven evidence of the power of microfinance, especially in the hands of 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 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.
