Financial services are a core enabler for consumption smoothing, risk mitigation, self-employment, SME growth, asset accumulation, and wealth creation. Lack of access to financial services reduces women’s ability to climb out of poverty; increases their risk of falling into poverty; contributes to women’s marginalization to the informal sector; and reduces their ability to fully engage in measurable and productive economic activities. Forty-two percent of women and girls worldwide – approximately 1.1 billion– remain outside the formal financial system, according to the Global Findexdatabase.
SDC Gender Guidance Sheet - Women's Financial Inclusion (2019)
This guidance sheet is one of a series written to support SDC staff in ensuring that gender issues are taken into account transversally in different thematic areas – focusing in this case on financial inclusion. It outlines key issues regarding women’s financial inclusion (WFI) and how these can be integrated in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of cooperation strategies and project interventions.
2018
