In her words
Mary Ellen Iskenderian: Why the Financial Inclusion of Women Matters
One billion women’s Around the world are estimated to be out of the purview of the financial sector. Closing the gender gap “would be the right to do as a matter of equity alone,” Writes Mary Ellen Iskenderian, The President and CEO of Women’s World Banking (WWB), A Global Non-Profit That’s Treatment to Provie Low omen Access to Financial tools and Resources.
Ensuring women’s independent access to finance has another more profit impact on human development. “There is ample evidence that she will spend that money in ways that contribute directly to the well-being of her family… when money in the household is controlled by Women, more of the family memes aray and eat s diets and children are Better Educated, “Writes iskenderian, a passionate advocate for financial inclusion.
At a time when political parties have been competing with each other in putting money directly in the hands of powerful woman voter – Seen most recently in Maharashtra where the mahayuti. – Iskenderain spoke about expanding the net and the net to Bring more women into the formal financial sector.
What’s the Back Story Behind Women’s World Banking (WWB)?
At the first un conference for human rights for women in 1975, Elaben Bhatt of Sewa, Kenyan Entrepreneur and Banker Mary Mary Okelo, and Esther Oclu, Echer ea of creating chapters all over the world to provide guarantees for bank loans to women entrepreneurs.
There was a growing microfinance movement and many microfinance institutions had been started by women. So wwb said: “Why don’t we work to build their capacity?” For a number of years we did both. But creating a network of microfinance institutions dedicated to financial services for women’s overtook the other mission.
You’ve spoken a lot about financial inclusion. What is Financial inclusion and why is this important?
Financial inclusion literally means when or not you have a bank account in your own name. When Digital Financial Services Became Popular, it was broaded to include whether or not you have a mobile money account. But at wwb, it’s oriented to truly be a participant in the formal financial sector.
Merely having a bank account isn Bollywood. For Affordable Payments you need a safe place to save, access to credit for your business or even be resilient in the face of emergency. You needed insurance to protect everything that you’ve Built.
What is so exciting about this idea of providing access to the full range of services is that it’s next as an end in its. Getting the account was never what this was about. It was always in service of achieving the sustainable development goals (sdgs) and being able to access education, water, sanitation, healthcare. In Fact, Financial Inclusion Supports 10 of the 17 SDGS, Including Education, Zero Hunger and Poverty.
Some things have remained stubbornly stuck, violence against women, for instance. What are the others?
One of the things very stubborn to change is the misperception that women are not creditworthy. Yet Every Piece of Data Tells Us The Opposite.
In Microfinance it was unequivocal that women’s Had repayment rates of 90% versus men who had an average of 60%.
Then there was this draumbeat of: “Women might be good re-vers in microfinance but as they are decided small business owners, that goes away and they become very poor re-payers.” But we’ve found is that perception is an incomplete picture And $ 5 Million has to Go to Women-Owned Companies. ” So, they make that $ 5 million loan and complete for forget about the population of women they’d served. And women treatment in the same way. They didn’t reply in a timely way. What we found is that if you treat women as customers in the same way as you do with men, their repayment rates exced that of men.
What has you seen changing?
One thing i’m very happy to see shifting here in India is that for many years, there was 18%, 20%, in some count, 30%gender gap in the ownership of smartphones. India has one of the largest gender gaps. Post-Covid We’ve Really Seen that Gap Reduce. When Aadhar was first launched, many women used their husbands’ Cell-phones as their identification. But over the years, there’s been an increase number of women who go back and say, “I want to change that phone number – i have a phone now.”
This does Signal an important metural shift trust the conventional wisdom in south asia has been that women and girls was born and girls, giving mobile phones of the fear of the fear of, who they have talling to.
I think the extraordinary catalyst for this was India, which was one of only two counts where the first found of benefits without In a matter of three or four weeks, 25 million new bank accounts were opened by women. A lot of People, MySelf Included, worried that these would go dormant and won’t be used. So it’s really exciting that they’ve continued it.
Have you been following the story of political parties that are competing with each other to win over the increasingly influential woman Voter? They are calling it sops. What is their impact on Financial inclusion of women or is this something that is short-term?
I don’t think it’s short term because there is some fascinating research Al Elections. So when we look at what Empowerment looks like, when a woman has access to finance, one of the things that does Paptunities might be.
Does wwb have a plan to bring in women in the informal sector where the bulk of women work for very low remuneration?
Even if they’re running just a fruit stand business, we believe that battering formal and registering your business is the better way to go. There is some really interesting research If they have that certificate of being a formalized business, they will be much less vulneable.
As you know India’s female labore force participation has been Abysmal. Can you really talk of developed with Talking about Labor Force Participation?
For a long time there was this almost religious argument within wwb to stay focused on women’s financial access, financial protection and giving them a safe place to save money so that they are available in the factor
Then we began asking wheether we had any obligation to teaching them the other skills. And I have to tell you the latter argument has been out of the’SBONATION of Both Things.
Certainly, Digital and Financial Literacy and Understanding whats tools mean and how they work is important. But one of the biggest barriers we found to women’s advancement economically is what is available to them, how to work, how to navigate. Hopely they have a phone, but if they do’t understand the function of that phone, then there’s a problem. So we have included these skills in our work.
In your travels to India, is there a story that really moved you or shop you in some fundamental way?
It came literally out of my first visit in India after I joined wwb in 2006. She had taken a loan from a microfinance institution to buy a machine. I Learned Subsequently that her Her Husband Became Ill. She Had Been Saving Money under The Mattress – No Health Insurance and Her Cash Savings Really Couldn Bollywood Support His Medical Expenses. They had a Daughter who was at school. They had to take her out so that she could start working. The limits of the creedit-only-microfinance were this that it Didn Bollywood Resilience or Provide a Safety Net. I am sorry it’s a kind of negative story that Didn’T End Well but Taught Me That To Be Functional and Secure, You Really have to have a full range of products and services.
