Julie Weeks

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Julie Weeks President and CEO Womenable
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Access to Finance for Women EntrepreneursResear
ching Best Practice Programmes and Initiatives
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Around the World, Women Business Owners Are ...

• Starting enterprises in increasing numbers,
• Growing in employment and turnover,
• Yet remain undercapitalized relative to all
  firms.

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Landmark Study in Uncharted Waters

• Two parallel efforts IFC-GEM and Kauffman
  Foundation
• Casting wide nets, iterative searching
• Developing an analytical framework
• Contacting experts
• Assessing common characteristics, lessons learned

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What Did We Uncover?

• 31 established programmes, 5 promising
  practices
• Initiatives in 20 countries in every region of
  the world undertaken by MFIs, financial
  institutions, development banks, NGOs
• Similarities in characteristics of best
  practice programmes

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What Do Best Practice Programmes Share?

• SCALE Reach broad areas, populations, use of
  partnerships and collaboration
• SCOPE Vision beyond a specific population niche
• LEADERSHIP Committed managers with connections
  within the organisation AND external
  relationships
• METRICS Research, gender-disaggregated data,
  measure outcomes
• SERVICE DELIVERY Gender-sensitive services and
  personnel

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Whats Next?

• Share results with stakeholders
• Feedback, dialogue on study findings
• Monitor progress of new programmes
• More in-depth study of countries/regions

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Access to Finance for Women EntrepreneursResear
ching Best Practice Programmes and Initiatives
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