Publication: Emerging Trends in National Financial Inclusion Strategies that Support Women’s Entrepreneurship
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Date
2023-03-10
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2023-03-10
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Starting a business is a way for women to generate income and become more resilient when dealing with shocks. However, large gender gaps in formal entrepreneurship impede women’s livelihoods and global development. The persistence of gender-based barriers-notably, unequal access to financial accounts, constrained credit, and normative roles that keep women in the role of primary caregivers underscores the need for broader support and regulatory reform, including reform of the financial sector. This brief presents data collected by the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law (WBL) project on selected contours of National Financial Inclusion Strategies that can support women’s entrepreneurship. In all, fifty-two economies worldwide had valid financial inclusion strategies in force as of June 30, 2022. An increasing number are now highlighting the need to promote women’s financial inclusion. However, as this initial foray shows, more could be done in National Financial Inclusion Strategies to promote credit to women entrepreneurs and enhance the national-level collection and reporting of financial data disaggregated by sex. The analysis also shows that the field for developing indicators at both the policy and regulatory level remains ripe for exploration by the WBL project and others.
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“Bin-Humam, Yasmin; Braunmiller, Julia Constanze; Elsaman, Mahmoud. 2023. Emerging Trends in National Financial Inclusion Strategies that Support Women’s Entrepreneurship. Global Indicators Briefs; No. 16. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39659 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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