Gender & the Economy Event: Getting to Equal with Women’s Access to Financial Services

Universal financial access, a goal the World Bank Group is committed to accomplishing, hinges on closing the persistent gender finance gap. How come 1.1 billion women, for example, still don’t have a bank account? Should we promote more women into leadership roles in the industry, gather more gender-disaggregated data to learn how to better reach unbanked women, make sure women have greater access to mobile phones, or better communicate the business case to banks and other financial institutions? These questions will be at the heart of the debate among industry leaders and economists during the annual Gender & the Economy event. Each speaker will highlight some of the business benefits and best practices for unlocking financial access for women, so that they as well as men can thrive as entrepreneurs, leaders, employees and customers.

The event will also mark the occasion of the eighth-annual IFC CEO Gender Award. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, bestows this honor to recognize the outstanding achievements its project teams have made toward taking a gender-smart approach to private-sector development. Following a competitive process with more than 100 submissions from around the world, two teams will receive the award.