Spotlight On: Accelerating Action
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day was Accelerate Action. Long before that was announced we decided the best way to encapsulate what we are trying to achieve at this year’s Summit is Accelerating Enabling Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. It is fitting because while many of our incredible members are the leading bank in their market in supporting women entrepreneurs, we still need more debt and equity providers in more markets to back women-led businesses.
This takes nothing less than a national ecosystem approach, and it is why we are supporting the WE Finance Code. This week we are delighted to unveil how we are bringing all the latest best practices together at the taking place in Kigali, Rwanda on May 28-30.
The three days will start with the national launch of the WE Finance Code Rwanda and end with a full day Study Tour for the Code Community of Champions—a learning community of policy makers/regulators and leading bank signatories from 30+ countries implementing the Code. The focus Study Tour will focus on practical actions taken to support women entrepreneurs thus far as a result of launching a Code.
In between these two events is the Summit itself, which will be rich in examples from Alliance members and beyond on how to best enable more women to be successful entrepreneurs. Spaces for the Summit are filling up rapidly so please register your interest in attending now.
We are proud that several of our members are the first to sign the Code in their countries. Some of these first movers spoke during our just-finished eLearning Series,the Primer on the Business and Strategic Case for Serving WMSMEs, which supports WE Finance Code signatories to design and implement a program for women entrepreneurs. We are particularly grateful to the Alliance members—Davivienda Colombia; Bank al Etihad Jordan; First National Bank South Africa; NatWest, UK; Standard Bank, South Africa; HBL, Pakistan; Banco BHD, Dominican Republic; The City Bank, Bangladesh; and NMB, Tanzania—who shared their insights with a global audience of commercial and central banks from 58 countries. The incredible turnout is a testimony to the momentum being built around serving women MSMEs as more and more institutions get behind the Code.
The winds may have changed in the United States regarding workforce gender diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), but our members remain steadfast. At this month’s DEI Taskforce, we had the privilege of hearing from FNB, South Africa, where it is the law to set internal targets for DEI given the country’s history. The bank has made remarkable progress in gender DEI, with a female CEO and 40 percent women on the Board of their parent company, First Rand. In a country with 12 official languages, DEI is a strategic imperative to build a 21st century company that serves a diverse customer base. Defending it is about “encouraging dissenting voices and listening, with curiosity.” Wise words.
Our next DEI Taskforce session takes place May 8 and focuses on getting more women onto to Boards. This is critical to diversifying C-Suites, which in turn is critical to get more financial services providers to take a strategic approach to Women’s Markets.
Our members, however, are largely beyond that first step. With well over 50 percent having advanced Women’s Markets Programs, they are now at the point of deepening the value by supporting women throughout moments throughout their lives. Our next Ask the Expert session on April 23 focuses on one such moment, moving beyond middle age, and can be done to support the ‘silver economy’.
It’s been terrific to see the actions our members took to mark this year’s International Women’s Day, as summarized in this month’s network member roundup. Exemplifying with this year’s theme – Accelerate Action – we saw a range of initiatives, from Westpac’s earmarking of an additional AU$500 million funding for female entrepreneurs, to BAC’s support of women-led businesses to scale through exports, to The City Bank’s campaign to increase the visibility of female entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.
We thank all our members and strategic partners for investing in women and for the many ways they participate in the Alliance, including attending the Annual Summit!
In community,
