Overview 

Increasing women’s financial inclusion and narrowing the gender gap through gender responsive financial policy and regulation has been at the forefront of AFI’s policy discourse since the Denarau Action Plan (DAP) was adopted in 2016 at the annual Global Policy Forum in Fiji.  

Significant gains in financial inclusion have been made in recent years. The Global Findex revealed that the gender gap in access to financial services has narrowed for the first time, from 9% in 2011 to 6% in 2021, though it remains significantly wider in parts of South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, as well as a few sub-Saharan African economies, leaving 745 million women financially excluded. Still, much work needs to be done to address structural inequalities that deny women economic opportunities and to ensure economic benefits are shared equally. 

Greater financial inclusion of women also makes business sense with estimates suggesting that advancing women’s equality could add some USD12 trillion to global gross domestic product by 2025. Women-led small and medium enterprises (SMEs) already make significant contributions to the economies in which they operate. They account for a third of all SMEs, a segment that has long been recognized as an important engine of growth and job creation.

Alongside gender-sensitive policies, collecting and analyzing sex-disaggregated data is essential to address this gender gap as it can both inform evidence-based financial inclusion policymaking and track the effectiveness of efforts to address barriers faced by women.

The Gender Inclusive Finance workstream is partially financed by Sweden and other partners.

Denarau Action Plan (DAP)

Since the adoption of the DAP, regulators have concentrated their efforts in developing gender inclusive financial policy and regulation and the collection and analysis of sex disaggregated data. It is positive to see that whilst a halving of the gender gap has not been manifested fully across the network, although  members have met this target at a national level, the overall global gender gap in women’s access to formal financial products and services has now reduced by 33 percent to 6 percent across developing and emerging economies. 

Supporting these aims is AFI’s Gender Inclusive Finance Committee (GIFC), which was established at the 2017 AFI GPF in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The GIFC provides leadership and strategic guidance on advancing and promoting gender inclusive finance across the AFI Network. Committee members are the Bank of Ghana (Chair), Bangladesh Bank (Vice-Chair), Bank Al-Maghrib, Palestine Monetary Authority, Banco Central del Paraguay, Bank of Uganda and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. 

Since adopting the DAP, AFI’s working groups have completed close to 30 publications that guide policy and regulatory efforts that drive gender inclusive finance. Under the Maya Declaration, more than 40 members have committed to at least one target related to gender inclusive finance. 40 policy changes in the area of gender inclusive finance have been reported by 22 member institutions.  

Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators

This 12-week program, taught by Women’s World Banking and Faculty from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, implemented together with the AFI, brings together senior officials from central banks and other regulatory agencies and high-potential women from their respective institutions. The objective of this program is to support financial regulators to develop policy initiatives that close the gender gap in financial inclusion, and to build women’s leadership pipeline and promote greater institutional gender diversity in regulatory organizations. 

 Applications for the next cohort of the Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators will open in the spring of 2023. 

Learn more here.