1. Different Perspectives, Shared Goal: Accelerating Women’s Financial Inclusion in Africa
Rachel Coleman
Cindy Drakeman
Tazeen Hasan
Anca Bogdana Rusu

2. Women, Business and the Law women’s financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa
Tazeen Hasan
Wee global learning forum
May 24, 2017

3. WHAT DOES WOMEN, BUSINESS AND THE LAW DO?
Examines laws that treat men and women differently in ways that affect women’s economic opportunities
Looks at legal disadvantages women face relative to men, as well as gender-neutral laws that may have a disproportionately negative affect on women
Publishes a global report every 2 years and maintains a online database with country-level data and links to primary legal sources for 173 economies around the world

4. 95% of economies in Sub-Saharan Africa have at least one law impeding women’s economic opportunities
Legal gender differences
Average: 6.2
The report finds that 18 economies in the world, including Namibia and South Africa, have no legal barriers to women in the areas monitored. Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia are also amongst the region’s economies with very few barriers in the areas monitored by the report. The economies with the greatest barriers are Sudan, one of 10 most restrictive economies in the world, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Guinea, Benin, Swaziland, and Senegal.
Legal gender differences in Kenya: personal law is not subject to constitutional provisions on non-discrimination or equality (counted twice for married and unmarried women);  female and male surviving spouses do not have equal inheritance rights; and the Minister has power to prescribe the employment of women—but not men—in any specified trade or occupation.
Source: Women, Business and the Law database

5. spotlight on sub-Saharan Africa and women’s financial inclusion
Travel outside the home
Obtain a national ID card
Sign a contract
Open a bank account
Control marital property
In Sub-Saharan Africa married women do not have the same legal ability as married men to:
Travel outside the home
Sudan (1)
Obtain a national ID card
Benin | Cameroon | Mauritius Senegal (4)
Sign a contract
Congo, Dem. Rep. | Equatorial Guinea (2)
Open a bank account
Congo, Dem. Rep. | Niger (2)
Control marital property
Cameroon | Chad | Congo, Dem. Rep. | Congo, Rep. Côte d'Ivoire | Guinea-Bissau | Swaziland (7)
Access to financial services depends on the legal ability to
*Congo DRC reformed in 2016
Source: Women, Business and the Law database.

6. Where husbands legally control marital property women are less likely to have an account at a financial institution
Husbands legally administer marital property in: Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Dem. Rep., Congo, Rep., Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau and Swaziland
Source: World Bank Group's Women, Business and the Law database

7. Why Legal identity matters for Financial inclusion
WOMEN ARE LESS LIKELY TO BORROW FROM A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION WHERE PROCESSES FOR GETTING NATIONAL ID CARDS DIFFER BY GENDER
Women face more obstacles than men in obtaining a legal identity
LEGAL IDENTITY and LEGAL CAPACITY are critical to engage with financial institutions, but many economies make it more difficult for women to have both
Where married women cannot register a business or sign a contract in the same way as their husbands, for example, they may be discouraged from starting and operating their own businesses. In 4 economies business registration procedures differ for married women compared with married men and in 2 economies, a married woman cannot sign a legally binding contract in the same way as a man. And in 32 countries, married women cannot get a passport in the same way as men, and in 10 countries they cannot get a national ID card in the same way as men.
No in Benin, Cameroon, Mauritius, Senegal
Where processes for getting national ID cards differ, women are less likely to borrow from a financial institution. Married women cannot get an ID card in the same way as married men in 10 economies. In Pakistan, for instance, a married woman must provide her marriage contract and her husband's ID card or an electronic confirmation by the husband when renewing her national ID card.
Can a married woman apply for a national ID card in the same way as a married man?
Source: Women, Business and the Law database (2016); Global Findex and World Development Indicators databases..

8. Enabling WOMEN TO BUILD CREDIT HISTORY
Information from sources such as retailers, utilities and microfinance institutions can be used to assess borrower creditworthiness thus including women who lack traditional banking relationships
Utility bill in woman’s name
Utility company records her successful repayment
Credit bureau or registry collects repayment information
Women can leverage the payment of utility bills to build their reputation collateral
Credit bureaus collect information from all 3 sources in: Mauritius, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe

9. Examples of legal reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa impacting women’s financial inclusion
Ethiopia lifted husbands’ sole control over marital property and right to be head of household
Kenya established a credit bureau with no minimum loan amounts that also collects information from microfinance institutions
1988
2007
2016
Rwanda allowed wives to sign a contract, open a bank account and pursue a profession in the same way as their husbands
2000
Sierra Leone equalized inheritance rights for
male and female surviving spouses
2012
DRC lifted requirements that wives must have their husbands’ permission to open a bank account, get a loan, sign a contract, register land or a company and go to court

10. VISIT OUR WEBSITE at wbl.worldbank.org

11. Partnership for Financial inclusion
DIGITAL FINANCE IN THE SERVICE OF WOMEN
Partnership for Financial inclusion
Anca Bogdana Rusu
WEE Global Learning Forum
May 24th, 2017

12. Digital finance for women
UFA 2020 and the G20 focus on digital financial services as way to reach financial inclusion
Women use phones less
frequently and intensively
than men, especially
mobile money
and internet
200 million fewer women than men own mobile phones in low-middle-income countries
Digital can help empower women 12

13. Women Agents in DRC 27% of FINCA agents are women
Women agents are located predominately in disadvantaged areas
Women are 10% less likely to be open on Sundays
AND YET
Women register a 16% higher profit from their main business than men
Transact 12% more than male agents and surpass them in volumes transacted as well

14. So what?
Women can access networks men can’t and are trusted by their network and community
Women will embrace any opportunity to grow and gain access to other forms of finance
Women entrepreneurs can leverage unique talents and assets

15. Evidence-based pathways to improve access to finance for women entrepreneurs in Africa
Rachel Coleman
WEE Global Learning Forum
May 24th, 2017

16. What is the Gender Innovation Lab?
Figure out what works and what does not to improve gender equality and use it to shape policy
How?
Rigorous inferential work to understand problems
Impact evaluations (50) of government, donor, NGO, private company programs
Target (and help develop) innovative interventions
What for?
Estimates of gender gaps in productivity  the cost of inaction
Identified programs that work  the right action
The benefits of action, vs. the cost  the payoff

17. Three examples of GIL’s work
Better understand the problem: occupational segregation
Evaluate and help take things to scale: business training in Togo
Innovation for better outcomes: alternatives for traditional collateral

18. Inferential Research : Occupational Segregation
Female entrepreneurs in Africa can earn more in male-dominated sectors. What explains why some cross over while others do not?
Uganda: Large differences in performance by sector

19. Inferential Research : Occupational Segregation
Findings:
Firms owned by women who cross over are about three times as profitable on average as those owned by other women.
Businesses owned by women who cross over are just as profitable as those owned by men in those sectors.
What allows certain women to cross over, and what prevents more women from doing so?
Access to information
Having the right type of mentorship and exposure matters too
Now piloting and testing programs
Republic of Congo and Guinea

20. Impact Evaluation: a new kind of business training
We compared Personal Initiative (PI) training with a more standard business training (Business Edge (BE)) in Togo.
Compared to PI, Business Edge lead to:
Higher record keeping and financial management practices
More likely to have a business bank account
Compared to BE, Personal Initiative lead to:
Significantly higher assets
More capital investments
More workers
More paid workers
More likely to introduce new products or services
Borrowing higher amounts of money

21. Impact Evaluation: a new kind of business training
Women respond better to psychology focused training than men do
We can train women in these skills and it makes a difference for their business outcomes
PI training has impacts for female and male entrepreneurs on profits, investment, access to finance and innovation two years after the training
Traditional business training has limited impacts and is even less beneficial for women than men

22. Innovative Interventions
Collateral requirements are particularly constraining for women entrepreneurs
Women often do not own or hold formal titles over assets that can be pledged as collateral
Piloting innovative credit technologies with lenders that can predict the ability of a borrower to repay a loan and reduce the need for collateral

23. The psychometric screening pilot
Assess the ability (business skills, intelligence) and willingness (ethics & honesty and attitudes & beliefs) to repay a loan
Borrowers take a tablet-based test
If they score above a certain cut-off, they can get a large unsecured loan (up to $7,500)

24. Thank you!
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