Trends in Gender Finance in DFIs in African Region

Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) have a key role to play in promoting gender responsive finance and women’s economic empowerment (WEE). While the initiatives of multilateral banks are well-documented and communicated via events and publications, visibility of the efforts of national and sub-regional DFIs on this topic is low. Gender finance is not commonly highlighted on their websites or in annual reports, and their efforts to promote gender finance are rarely covered in research articles or other publications. As a result, national DFIs experience successes and challenges in their efforts to promote gender equality without the benefit of broader recognition and the chance to inspire their peers to action, or supportive networks that can help identify solutions to difficulties faced.

Are you interested in more on the topic?

Read our blog post now!

INVESTING IN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN ACP COUNTRIES: AN OPPORTUNITY AWAITS

Upcoming events

By supporting business climate and investment environment reforms, the ICR Facility aims to help generate more decent jobs and contribute to improving livelihoods in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Trends and Best Practice in Mainstreaming Gender in Chambers of Commerce and Business Membership Organisations in ACP Countries

22.01.2025 // Online

Women's Economic Empowerment

The ICR Facility aims to provide capacity building to Chambers of Commerce and more broadly Business Membership Organisations in member states of the OACPS so that they can identify good practices in promoting and encouraging women economic empowerment, and support these organisations by providing tools and guidance to apply this knowledge. The identification of good practices […]

Training on Business Environment Reforms to Support Women’s Economic Empowerment

Women's Economic Empowerment

Training on Busines Environment Reforms to Support Women’s Economic Empowerment What? The course develops awareness and provides tools to advance Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) through Business Environment Reform (BER) in African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Participants learn to apply a gender-sensitive and gender-transformative lens when they work on their own reforms, taking into account […]

How to develop a gender approach in Development Finance Institutions

Access to Finance

What? In these free, self-paced training modules you will learn how to develop a gender finance approach in the development finance institution. It is an interactive way to learn more about institutional gender mainstreaming, actions and measures to be taken in the organisation to ensure gender inclusion. The training contains videos, texts, interactive exercises and […]

Training on Business Environment Reforms Tools

Business Regulation and Policy

In these self-paced modules in “Business Environment Reform Tools”, representatives from public and private stakeholders in African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries will learn how to use practical and straight-forward tools to improve the business environment in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. You will earn a PDF certificate once you pass all the tasks of the four modules. […]

You may also be interested in these ICReports

Enhancing Access to Finance for Women-Owned Enterprises

Women’s economic empowerment is key to ensuring that women not only enjoy equal rights and liberties but also, that they are able to contribute to a nation’s socio- economic progress.Beyond the subject of social justice, women’s economic empowerment is also recognised as a critical driver of sustainable economic growth When women are economically empowered, […]

Gender Inclusive Access to Finance Checklist

This gender inclusive access to finance checklist has been designed to guide the development and implementation of gender-sensitive access to finance programmes for Women-owned Enterprises. It is divided into the following key areas: Design, Promotion, Delivery, and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E). Each section contains specific questions that can be answered with “Yes” or “No,” allowing […]

Trends in Gender Finance in ACP Development Finance Institutions: Overview and Selected Examples

Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) have a key role to play in promoting gender responsive finance and women’s economic empowerment (WEE). While the initiatives of multilateral banks are well-documented and communicated via events and publications, such as 2021’s “Public Development Banks Driving Gender Equality: an Overview of Practices and Measurement Frameworks” by UNWOMEN and the Agence […]

Honour Loans: A Comprehensive Mechanism to Foster Development by Supporting MSMEs

The honour loans mechanism is a multidimensional one combining financing free of interest or requirement for securities or guarantees, with support to entrepreneurs. It has several benefits for entrepreneurs: Firstly, it finances their development, serving as seed funds and strengthening their project’s equity. It can therefore create financial leverage with microcredit or banking loans. Secondly, it can help […]

You may also be interested in these ICR Stories

Boosting the financial success of female entrepreneurs in Nigeria

With approximately 223 million people, Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and has the largest economy, with its entrepreneurs and their enterprises the engine of the economy. They account for roughly 96% of all businesses (most of which are micro, small and medium enterprises, also known as MSMEs) and 33% are owned by […]

How are Development Finance Institutions Empowering Women Entrepreneurs? And how is the ICR Facility supporting DFIs to do so?

The ICR Facility is supporting its partners to increase women’s economic empowerment (WEE) by facilitating their access to finance. Our new ICReport How to make the Business Environment work for Women’s Economic Empowerment builds on an earlier publication Trends in Gender Finance in African Caribbean and Pacific Development Finance Institutions and demonstrates how the recommendations made […]

Finance solutions for female entrepreneurs in Botswana

Botswana is looking to reshape its future. The longest uninterrupted democracy in Africa, the middle-income country has set out a transformational agenda that it hopes will see it achieve prosperity for all. Vision 2036 has an aim to turn Botswana into a high-income country by building an inclusive and thriving private sector, with a particular […]

How Technical Assistance for Public Development Banks can be Transformational in Achieving National Climate and Gender Objectives

On financing and capital markets, women are worse-off than men. Women have less access to finance, assets and collateral. Additionally, the world is faced with an unprecedented climate crisis, with disasters increasing in their severity, frequency and unpredictability. To achieve a gender-equal and ecological transformation of economies, Public Development Banks (PDBs) come into play. PDBs […]

You may also be interested in these event recordings

Session 4 of DFI Exchange Group

You’re Invited to the 4th ICR Facility DFI Exchange Group on Wholesale Lending! Join us for an engaging peer learning experience focused on Wholesale Lending for Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). This two-part DFI Exchange Group will provide valuable insights, technical guidance, and real-world examples from DFIs on key aspects of wholesale lending. Our guest speakers […]

DFI Exchange Group – Session 3: The Green Climate Fund (GCF)

The DFI Exchange Group is a platform for all DFI-related knowledge sharing and group activities of the ICR Facility and provides DFIs with the opportunity to share and showcase their best practices and experiences with peers. Once per quarter, we facilitate peer sessions where DFIs can come together to meet on a specific topic […]

Business Environment Reform for Supporting Young Entrepreneurs: Opportunities for the ACP Region

Many countries in the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) region have made supporting young entrepreneurs a top priority for economic development and youth employment. Despite this, young entrepreneurs face challenging business conditions and complicated policy and regulatory contexts in launching and running their businesses. This webinar hosted by the ICR Facility provided an opportunity for […]

The Role of Investment Promotion Agencies in Public-Private Dialogue in ACP Countries

Through Public-Private Dialogue, Investment Promotion Agencies contribute to economic policy making and reform, whether through formal and structured processes or informally through their day-to-day activities and contacts with investors. In a previous series of peer-to-peer workshops, IPAs from 8 countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region had the opportunity to exchange knowledge, share […]

Contact us