The Women’s Financial Inclusion Data (WFID) Community of Champions consists of national regulators and key stakeholders dedicated to enhancing women’s financial inclusion in their countries through improved data collection, analysis, and utilization.
Discussants
Moderator
Gender-Disaggregated Dashboards are Evolving: Countries have launched or upgraded dashboards to capture granular data by gender, business size, and geography.
Integrated Data Infrastructure is a Priority: Supply-side data sources are expanding beyond banks to include mobile money services, SACCOs, fintechs, and capital markets, enabled by collaboration with data aggregators such as credit reference bureaus and by using APIs to facilitate/automate data access.
Policy Goals Aim at Inclusion and Equity: Countries are setting gender-based lending targets, credit guarantee schemes, and product innovation strategies to ensure women-led MSMEs can grow.
Future Vision Focuses on Data Quality, Reach, and Use: Planned next steps include mapping informal sectors, using tax IDs to enhance tracking of formalized women-led businesses, and embedding demand-side data into analysis.
Discussants
Mr. Khaled Bassiouny, General Manager – Financial Inclusion Department, Central Bank of Egypt
Karina Villanueva Aritzmendi, Area Director, Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (Hacienda), Mexico
Paola Mariana Vivas Arango, Financial Inclusion Group Lead, Financial Superintendency of Colombia
Fizza Khalid, Assistant Director, Financial Inclusion Division, State Bank Pakistan
Moderator
Egypt’s ‘Nilepreneurs’ Initiative Drives Startup Support and Inclusion: With 126 centers and 60 banks across 25 governorates, the program supports entrepreneurship through five pillars, reaching over 317,000 people (40% women) and supporting 2,400+ women-led businesses with over 1 billion EGP in financing.
Mexico Promotes Gender Inclusion at All Institutional Levels: Mexico’s Ministry of Finance developed a multi-level guidelines framework (board, management, operational) paired with training, communication, and data tools to support gender-inclusive leadership and financial product development within FSPs.
Colombia Innovates with Alternative Credit Scoring: The Superintendency is piloting non-traditional data use (e.g., mobile phone data, utility payments, transaction patterns) to reduce gender gaps in access to finance, especially in rural areas. Guidelines are being formalized and integrated into open finance frameworks.
Pakistan Makes Major Strides in Women’s Financial Inclusion: From just 7% in 2008 to 50% in 2024, Pakistan achieved dramatic progress via its Banking on Equality Policy, mobile access initiatives, and mandatory gender-disaggregated targets for financial institutions.
Market Prods and Policy are Key Themes across All Countries: Whether through national financial inclusion policies (Mexico), mandatory board representation (Pakistan), or alternative scoring frameworks (Colombia), the trend is toward sustainable, regulation-aligned action to drive greater supported by data-driven diagnostics and capacity building, to drive women’s financial inclusion.
Established in 2022 as part of the Alliance’s leadership of the Women’s Financial Inclusion Data partnership, the WFID Community of Champions was created in response to national regulators’ interest in learning how their peers leverage gender data to boost women’s financial inclusion.
During meetings, regulators and policymakers share best practices and lessons learned in improving data usage to achieve women’s full financial inclusion. Focus areas include building gender data awareness, aggregating and visualizing data for actionable insights, and leveraging data to design evidence-based policies that address key barriers and gaps.
The Community of Champions meets three times annually, twice online and once in person.
National financial sector regulators are increasingly committed to using supply-side gender data to drive women’s economic growth. By engaging with peer regulators in the WFID Community of Champions, these leaders stay updated on the latest innovations in women’s financial inclusion strategies and learn from real-world experiences in implementing these strategies.
Currently, the WFID Community of Champions includes national regulators and policymakers from Bangladesh, Colombia, Chile, Egypt, Honduras, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Peru.
