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.

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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.

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 […]

Training for Development Finance Institutions: how to Develop a Gender Approach

Access to Finance

Coming soon! In these 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 organization to ensure gender inclusion. The training contains videos, texts, interactive exercises and quizzes, […]

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. […]

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Business Environment Reforms to Support Women-Owned Businesses in ACP Countries

Legal, Administrative And Policy Reforms To Access Finance And Manage Businesses Executive Summary: Business creation and business revenue growth is a crucial engine of economic growth and job creation. Investing in women is not only a moral imperative; it is good business. Taking action now to advance gender equality can add $13 trillion to global Gross Domestic Product […]

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 […]

Promoting Women’s Organisations into Public-Private Dialogues in order to Foster Women’s Economic Empowerment in ACP Countries

Executive Summary: This report focuses on how to support the creation, growth and sustainability of women’s business associations (WBA) and women’s chapters in chambers of commerce. Secondly, it shows how these women’s organizations can positively promote women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and thus sustainable economic growth in African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries by advocating for […]

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 […]

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Leading the fight for Women’s Economic Rights in Uganda

Under Ugandan law, a woman who lives with a man but is not legally married to him has no legal rights to their joint finances. It’s a situation that needs to change for women to gain equal access to property and ownership, and to fulfil their economic potential. FIDA-Uganda is an association of women’s lawyers which would like to see the law changed so that women in cohabiting relationships have equal access their property. This is crucial for women’s economic empowerment – without the ability to access and control their own economic assets, women cannot have economic autonomy or access credit.

Malawi takes action on sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace

In Malawi 37% of women have experienced some form of gender violence in their lifetime. However, only half of MSMEs surveyed by the ICR Facility have documented some guidelines to address issues of gender inequality and sexual discrimination. In close cooperation with the ICR Facility, the Employers’ Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM) has been working to address these deficits by identifying the problems women face through gender audit and raising awareness by training the ECAM members. It is, however, only the first step to eliminate sexual harassment and allow women to fulfil their potential at the workplace.

How family law reforms improve women’s economic participation in the DR Congo

Only around 4% of women-led businesses could service a loan in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is because of the regulations and practices which require women to seek approval from their husbands on conducting economic activities or their inability to claim commonly acquired property during marriage as collateral. However, due to the efficient advocacy by civil actors who promoted an economic case for gender reforms, some legislative improvements have been recently made, such as the revision of the Family Code. Implementing the new laws, however, remains a major task.

Closing the gender gap in Senegal’s economy

Women make up most of the agricultural workforce in Senegal and many have ambitions to start or grow their own farming businesses. But lack of finance and traditional cultural norms are holding them back. A new initiative between the Union Nationale des Commerçants et Industriels du Sénégal (UNACOIS), finance partners and with the support of the ICR Facility has proved that targeted and timely support can transform their fortunes – and those of their country.

You may also be interested in these event recordings

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 […]

Using Domestic Financial and Fiscal Policy to Mobilise Private Adaptation Finance in ACP Countries

The countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region are some of the most vulnerable to climate change. Scaling up finance for climate adaptation is critical, particularly across the diversity of private actors from households, through micro-small medium enterprises (MSMEs) to corporations, financial institutions and investors; all of which are influenced by public policy […]

Promoting Equal Opportunities for Women in the Labour Market through Business Environment Reforms

Date 30.09.2021 Women are more likely to be unemployed, be economically inactive, work in the informal sector, and to have temporary or more precarious employment than men. A mix of social norms, time scarcity – in particular due to unpaid care activities – or the lack of quality and affordable care, discrimination, lack of mobility, […]