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Empowering Female Entrepreneurs: Solutions to Five Key Barriers to Women’s Financial Inclusion
In developing countries, only 59% of women have a bank account – an issue VisionFund is addressing through its Women’s Empowerment Fund. But though the fund has supported thousands of female-led businesses, it has also faced persistent challenges – many of which are unique to women. Johanna Ryan, VisionFund's Global Director of Impact, discusses five obstacles the fund has encountered, and how they've responded.
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Bringing Digital Financial Inclusion to Women: The Impact of an Integrated Ecosystem Approach
Despite many global initiatives aimed at catalyzing formal banking, almost 1 billion women remain excluded from the financial economy. According to Ankur Seth and Neha Kumar at Intellecap, it's now clear that financial inclusion for women cannot be attained by simply giving them an account or internet access. Instead, it will require an integrated digital financial ecosystem designed for women's needs – an approach Intellecap is piloting in India.
- Categories
- Finance
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Jamaica Wants To Expand Agriculture, But Agribusinesses Are Finding It Impossible to Access Capital
Due to limited access to financial markets and a lack of legally recognized ownership of land, female-led agribusinesses are even more financially vulnerable.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- North America
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GSMA signs $46.5M funding partnership with DFID
The partnership will unearth critical insights on the needs of the underserved and identify and invest in mobile-enabled innovations and business models which can drive inclusion at scale.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Melinda Gates Pushes G7 to Close Digital Gender Gap in Africa
G7 finance ministers meeting in France are to endorse a paper from the Gates Foundation saying there is a serious risk that digital technology and mobile banking will bypass millions of women in Africa, leaving them disempowered for a generation.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Gender Equality Can Help Build Sustainable Peace
Persuading private investors to back projects that advance gender equality calls for concerted efforts to show that empowering women could reduce risks and enhance overall outcomes, especially in creating sustainable peace in conflict-affected regions around the world.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance
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Press Release: OPIC Backs Asset Manager Deetken Impact and Mission-Driven Company Pro Mujer to Empower Women in Latin America
Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer team up to invest in women and girls, delivering strong financial returns and meaningful, measurable social and environmental benefits. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation has committed $10 million to grow the fund.
- Categories
- Investing
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Why Women Should Not ‘Invest Everywhere’: The Trouble with Gender-Blind Investing
As an impact investor interested in gender equity, Pique Venture CEO Bonnie Foley-Wong recently shared a call to action on LinkedIn encouraging investors to focus more money and attention on women-managed funds. She soon faced some pushback from a male impact investor, saying that women shouldn’t just invest in other women, they should invest everywhere. She explains why that advice is not as simple as it sounds.
- Categories
- Investing
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