The gender Focal Point and the e+i Focal Point invite you to a presentation and discussion on
Women’s financial inclusion: creating growth and opportunity
Why is access to financial services important for women’s economic empowerment? Why the need for gender sensitive financial products? What role does digital finance play for women’s financial inclusion?
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, will be visiting us for an exchange at SDC Bern, answering the above questions and giving insights to the latest developments and challenges in the field of women’s financial inclusion. Women’s World Banking is a global nonprofit devoted to giving more low-income women access to the financial tools and resources they require to achieve security and prosperity. For nearly 40 years Women’s World Banking has worked with financial institutions to show them the benefit of investing in women as customers, and as leaders.
For downloading Mary Ellen’s presentation, please click here.
For downloading the SDC e+i case study on “Women and their money”, please click here.
For downloading the SDC Factsheet on Financial Sector Development, please click here.
The key takeaways are:
Financial inclusion of women and men means the access to and the use of formal financial services. These services are not restricted to credit alone, but include savings, insurance, loan, leasing, payment and transfer services, and other.
The official indicator for financial inclusion is having a savings account with a formal financial service provider.
What WWB has learned about Women. From research and from its own experience in 32 countries, Women's World Banking (WWB) has learned that:
Understanding lifecycle events and risks that poor women face is crucial. Women are the primary care givers in the household. They use loans, savings and insurance – when available – to manage risks for the family.
Women save constantly and in small amounts. The most important reasons for women to save are 1) children's education, 2) health of the family members, 3) improving housing.
Women take more time to make financial decisions and want more information about financial products than men. Once they build trust with the financial institution, they stick with it. Men tend to opt for the institution which offers the best deal at a given moment.
Women may not want to involve family members. Women appreciate privacy.
Women's financial and digital literacy is critical.
Depending on the cultural context, women's mobility is restricted.
The engagement of women in financial services contributes to different dimensions of change.
Material change: The access and the use of financial services helps improving the women's income, helps them to cover basic needs, and helps them to increase their productive assets.
Cognitive change: The use of financial services demands and creates knowledge, skills and awareness.
Relational change: The women gain more independence and a better bargaining power, and have been reported to more often participate in decision-making processes at household and community level. Unfortunately, these changes can also lead to increased domestic violence as one unwanted outcome. There are Microfinance Institutions knowing about this issue and connecting women in emergencies with women's shelters.
Perceptional change: all the above mentioned gives women more self-esteem and self-confidence, and hence increases their visibility and respect in society.
Women and the digital financial services: great opportunities and important obstacles to overcome.
Digital financial services provide solutions in the fields of increased accessibility, convenience, privacy and security. But the barriers for women to use digital financial services are still huge starting with owning and knowing how to use a mobile phone. Using their husband's or their children's mobile phones for their financial transactions is not giving them enough privacy.
