Driving Inclusive Policy Change and Women's Leadership

Financial integration of women matters because it is a pre-requisite for achieving the sustainable development goals. It can make a major contribution to enhance income and reduce poverty of female-led households. Greater income also leverages other development goals as women are more likely to invest their financial resources in human capital leading to better health, education and employment outcomes for their families.

The Program supports gender mainstreaming of SECO's financial sector portfolio with the ultimate goal of deepening financial integration and gender equality in priority and complimentary measures countries.

(i) Regulators have implemented policy initiatives for a stable and enabling environment for women’s financial inclusion.

(ii) Enhanced gender diversity in decision-making bodies of regulators.

Principaux résultats attendus:  

(i) Participants successfully complete the LDR program- (ii) Targeted policy advisory support delivered- (iii) Gender action plans developed- (iv) Policymakers participate in network activities- (v) Evidence and insights disseminated to policymakers.

Principaux résultats antérieurs:  

General lessons learnt shared by WWB beyond the Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators include the following: policy change initiatives are more likely to be successful when they (i) are aligned with organizational priorities- (ii) have a senior champion and stakeholder buy-in- (iii) include a detailed implementation plan- (iv) are measured through clearly-outlined key performance indicators- (v) fulfill the Goldilocks condition – i.e. being not too big (broad) and not too small (limited impact)- (vi) come with an appropriate accountability mechanism. In addition, a greater degree of success can be expected when teams have: (i) adequate resources allocated- (ii) support for implementation from external partner or internal team- (iii) accountability / check-points to report out.