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Co-funded by the European Union

Study on access to finance for women-led MSMEs in the Caribbean

Location

Anguilla, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Trinidad and Tobago

Topic

Access to Finance, Public Private Dialogue, Women's Economic Empowerment

Status

Completed

Year

2024

Context

The CDB submitted a technical assistance request to the ICR Facility to support the SheTrades Caribbean Regional Hub, a programme within the Bank’s Private Sector Division to increase women’s access to finance and investment in the Bank’s client countries.

Objective

This intervention focused on conducting a flagship feasibility study aimed at reducing the research gap in the Caribbean MSME sector, enhancing the understanding of the needs and opportunities for women-led and owned businesses to make better financial decisions, unlocking of investments for women-owned businesses, and better measurements of the impact on their growth and sustainability.

Result

The Caribbean Development Bank has a feasibility study on access to finance for women MSMEs in four pilot countries: The Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica and Saint Lucia, in addition with four country assessments and a stakeholder mapping, giving a state of play of the regional landscape of access to finance for women-led enterprises and potential measures to improve it.
 
On September 2025, CDB’s board approved a new capacity building program on gender mainstreaming for financial institutions, developed based on the study’s results.

This intervention took place under ICR Facility project, co-funded by the European Union (EU), the Organisation of African, Caribbean  and  Pacific  States  (OACPS)  under  the  11th  European  Development  Fund  (EDF),  together with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the British Council. The ICR Facility was implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (German Development Cooperation, GIZ), the British Council, Expertise France, and Stichting Nederlandse Ontwikkelingsorganisatie (Netherlands Development Organisation, SNV).   

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