Transcript United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Developing Gender Statistics Gender, entrepreneurship and access to finance © 2009 The World Bank Group, UNECE, All Rights reserved.

United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe
Developing Gender Statistics
Gender, entrepreneurship and
access to finance
© 2009 The World Bank Group, UNECE, All Rights reserved
Women access to financial services is
essential to allow them to benefit
fully from economic opportunities.
What kind of resources?
Intangible:
Human
Capital
Tangible:
Land,
Financial
Capital
Why it is important?
Universal Financial Inclusion:



Economical Growth
Poverty Reduction
Expanding business
Economic and Financial Resources
Gender equality and the empowerment of
women
What is access to finance?
Access to finance is broadly
defined as access to products
(e.g. deposits and loans) and
services (e.g. insurance and
equity products) at a reasonable
Access to what?
A. Financial Institutions
 Formal
banks/near banks- foreign credit
union
other formal- mutual or pension
fund

Informal
money lenders,pawshops, NGOs
 non-intermediated- friends,
family
B. Financial Services
 Transactions/payments
 Savings
 Credits
 Insurance
 Pensions
Who has access to finance and
who does not?
Legal access is not an issue in UNECE
region:



Women's Access to land
Women's Access to Property Other
than Land
Women's access to bank loans
…but
more subtle forms of gender inequality
Women's entrepreneurship general profile
SIZE:
Micro, small or medium
sized firms profit
ECONOMIC SECTOR:
Service sector  output
hard to quantify, no
physical assets
Women in top management
in UNECE region
% of Firms With Female Top Manager
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Poland(2009)
Ukraine (2008)
Estonia (2009)
Belarus (2008)
Kazakhstan (2009)
Romania (2009)
Montenegro (2009)
Kyrgyz Republic(2009)
Moldova(2009)
Lithuania (2009)
Russian Federation (2009)
Hungary (2009)
Armenia (2009)
Uzbekistan (2008)
Source:
"Enterprise
Surveys,
The World
Bank
Group“,
Azerbaijan (2009)
2008, 2009
Turkey(2008)
Tajikistan (2008)
Are women discriminated in credit
markets?



In the U.S. only 4.2 percent of $19 billion in venture capital
went to women-owned businesses in 2003.
In the UK, a recent study shows that women enter businesses
with about a third of the starting capital used by men (Carter
and Shaw, 2006).
In ECA region, female-managed firms are 5.4% percent less
likely to get a loan and are charged 0.6 percent higher interest
rate than men (Muravyev et.al. 2007)
Why? Barriers for Financial Access and for
Expanding Women's Businesses
DEMAND-SIDE BARRIERS

Male signature for
opening an account and
for credit


Borrowers Property
Rights: Access to
Collateral
SUPPLY-SIDE BARRIERS

Financial institutions
lack technical know
how to design products
that suit the needs of
women clients

Women lack access to
networks which are
largely male dominated

Less financial literacy

Domestic responsibilities

Limits on women mobility


The strong link
between legal
framework for secured
transactions and
secured registry
Government and
financial sector
policies-unintended
effects
Small number of
women in the board
Women Entrepreneurs and Firm Size
% of Firms With Female Top Manager
40
35
30
25
Poland
20
Russian Federation
Azerbaijan
15
10
5
0
Small
Medium
Large
Firm Size
Source: "Enterprise Surveys, The World Bank Group“, 2008, 2009
A tool for the discriminated groups
Microfinace
 Target mostly women
 Important role in women empowerment
 Number of women have increased over the
last decade
Is the welfare impact higher when
more women are served?
Impact on children’s health, more salient in the case in of
women borrowers in comparison with men borrowers.
Why women’s access to finance is
important?
Retirement Savings
Contingency Planning
Buffer Savings
Insurable
Contingencies
Business livelihood
Access
Credit
Emergency Loans
Housing Loans
Consumption Loans
Wealth Creation
Savings & Investments
based on household’s
level of financial
literacy and risk
perception
Source: Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial Sector Reform, India, 2008
Still…why women’s access to
finance is important?
EQUALITY BETWEEN
MEN AND WOMEN
ECONOMIC PROGRESS
Increasing women’s
access to finance

Commercial Bank
Partnerships with MFIs to
increase access for women

Mainstreaming Gender in
formal financial institutions

Specialized women’s banks

Integrated credit registries

Mentoring, training in non
traditional businesses

Increase financial literacy
and awareness

Have more female voices at
the decision-making table

Sex disaggregated data
The value-added of statistics
Need for accurate,
comparable and reliable
sex-disaggregated data
Why is data collection on
access to finance difficult?


Supply side
Regulators
Financial institutions
Demand side
Data sources
Various data sources are available for
measuring women's access to finance
(1) Gender and entrepreneurship:
Enterprise Survey, The World Bank Group
Over 100,000 firms in 125 countries
Main focus: emerging economies but also a few
developed economies for comparative purposes
% OF FIRMS WITH FEMALE PARTICPATION IN OWNERSHIP
% OF FIRMS WITH FEMALE TOP MANAGER
…by FIRM SIZE
… by SECTOR
… by OWNERSHIP
Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Central America
East & North Africa Latin America & Caribbean
South Asia
East Asia & Pacific
Sub-Saharan Africa
Middle
(2)The OECD Gender, Institutions
and Development Data Base




Women's access to land
Women's access to bank loans
Women's access to property
other than land
Mean age of marriage (women,
in years)
(3)Africa Gender and Development Index
(AGDI)




Ownership of urban plots/houses and land;
Access to credit;
Freedom to dispose of own income;
Management
(4) Reserve Bank of India
A central bank’s initiative to track
sex-disaggregated data
UN Recommendations for Gender
Mainstreaming and Data Collection
National level (Governments)
 improve the legislative frame
 monitor the impact of policies
 support financial institutions
International community
 promote training for financial institutions
 create awareness of women's needs and of
the benefits of the lender
 collect sex-disaggregated data in their field
UNCTAD
gender dimension in all areas of work
reassess the capability of their programs to
combat gender inequalities
United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe
Concept & Production:
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe – Statistical Division
Edited by:
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe - Statistics Division
Sources:
Sushma Narain, “Gender and Access to Finance”, World Bank Report (working paper)
”World Survey on the Role of Women in Development”, Women's Control over Economic Resources
and Acess to Financial Resources, including Microfinance, United Nations, New York, 2009
"Enterprise Surveys, The World Bank Group“, 2008, 2009
“The Gender, Institutions and Development Database” (GID-DB),OECD, 2009
Photo Credits:
http://www.fotolia.com
© 2009 The World Bank Group, UNECE, All Rights reserved