The GBA model of financial services providers sharing experiences and know-how so that they and their fellow members offer increasing value to the Women’s Market is fully vindicated by the results of our first, and to be annual, member value and satisfaction survey. With strong scores on overall satisfaction and willingness to recommend membership to others, what is most gratifying is the extent to which members seek to give as well as to get. In 2017, 50 percent of the members contributed their in-kind expertise to one or more of our programs, and 96 percent want to do so in the future. The survey also confirms that GBA’s peer learning model works: The largest cohort of members responding to the survey — 42 percent — reported moving from the “early” stage of their Women’s Market program development to the “intermediate” stage since joining GBA, with 8 percent moving from “intermediate” to “advanced” and 8 percent moving from “early” to “advanced.” With an average of 10 new members per year over the past 4 years, we obviously still have plenty of organizations in the “early” stage –but the pathway is clearly there.
As we scale – we are now at 52 members – more and more know-how is being developed, captured and shared, feeding the virtuous cycle that enables us to create a demonstration effect with our Women’s Market champions. This helps increase awareness of the Women’s Market opportunity among more financial services providers, attracting even more new members who ultimately support building the wealth of more women globally.
Our service announcements this month include a last call for our All-Stars Academyin South Africa June 25-29. The deadline to apply to the program has passed, but if you are working in or know of an exceptional, high-potential institution that is interested in the Women’s Market, we are happy to discuss options for enrollment. See our All-Stars Academy course preview story for more information.
The application process is also open for the second round of our Mentoring Program for 2018. Finally, due to strong interest in sharing new product ideas across our membership, we are kicking off our second Working Group of the year on the topic of Product Innovation for the Women’s Market. Working Groups and Mentoring are open to members only.
Last but not least, we are very pleased indeed to announce that Bank al Etihad is hosting the 2018 Summit in Jordan, November 13-15. Please mark your calendars.
This year’s theme is The Future of Financial Services for Women,enabling us to delve deeply into how digital transformation is impacting and will impact how women interact with financial services, the effect it is having and will have on financial services providers, and what the world of work will look like for our women customers and employees. We will also share innovations from across the GBA that increase value for women. The Summit will also be host to a special Middle East and North Africa region-wide Policy Forum to discuss what can and should be done to close the largest financial inclusion gender gap in the world.
My sincere thanks to Bank al Etihad for hosting the 2018 Summit, to our members for your constant engagement and to our many collaborators for your time and guidance.
