Bridging the Financial Inclusion Gap for Women-Led Businesses

Join us for this next event in our Gender Lens series in which we will discuss how providing wider access to financial services & non-financial services to micro-enterprises/SMEs led by women is a key factor to the post-pandemic reactivation of the economy in emerging markets. 

Micro-enterprises, a significant portion of which are founded by women, have limited access to financial services because they are either too small to access traditional banking services or too big to benefit from microloans. This gap is often characterized in literature on financial inclusion and women empowerment as the "Missing Middle." Beyond financial inclusion, developing a comprehensive set of tools and gender-focused programs - inclusive of non-financial services (education and health) is critical to empower women entrepreneurs and make them stronger customers for financial institutions and partners for investors, and ultimately a way to unlock growth in the post-pandemic economy.

Some of the topics we will be discussing include: 

• Analyzing the gender differences in terms of access to financial services & capital for small and micro-enterprise
• Perception by financial institutions and investors of women-owned SMEs compared to men owned enterprises, gap in knowledge and experience to be efficient in serving this segment
• Financing the real economy and providing a broader business development services and inclusion tools for women
• Gender sensitive programs that help banks perceive women as a strong business opportunity, and take into account the specific barriers faced by women-led micro-enterprises and SME

Our distinguished panelists are:

• Carmen Correa, VP and COO at Pro Mujer
• Barbara Magnoni (moderator), President, EA Consultants; Co-Founder at Noahui Soluciones
• Helene Meurisse, Operations Officer at IFC
• Camilla Nestor, CEO at MCE Social Capital

Participation in this GLI Working Group is free for all active ICF Members.  Non-members of ICF are welcome to join one GLI Working Group event for the standard event price of $15, but will then be asked to become an ICF member.

Login instructions for this Zoom videoconference will be emailed after your registration is completed.