Gender equality in a changing world

AFC WORLDWIDE 2021

GENDER EQUALITY IN A CHANGING WORLD EAST AFRICA AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO Improving gender equality by increasing women’s access to financial products and services results to a more balanced society and a better working environment.

AFC provided the Women in Leadership series of trainings to banks in Tanzania and Rwanda as part of the EIB Financial Sector Technical Assistance Programme in East and Central Africa.

A gender strategy for banks has been developed not only in Uganda but also for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where currently: jph

female branch managers

36%

19%

female team heads

For a country where women are mostly employed in lower level jobs, the bank is already well ahead in creating an inclusive workplace.

AFC worked remotely with the bank to formalise their internal gender equality policy by building on this position. A framework strategy was devised based on the inputs of female employees through an open-ended questionnaire, providing interesting suggestions for actions to enhance the gender equality within the bank.

The DRC and East African countries in general, strongly prefer that meetings are held face to face but, the communication infrastructure is often limited. However, in these challenging times caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, AFC still delivered high quality trainings, as confirmed by trainees’ evaluation results.

Due to disrupted travel, training plans were quickly redesigned and online meeting tools were used. Sessions were reduced to intensive half-day workshops with less participants and continuous discussions to guarantee good learning outcomes.

The different group dynamics and reduced body language also fostered an increased participation, especially for the shy trainees.

Ultimately, participants adapted and embraced the modified training situation. The bank’s management in DRC recognised the importance of gender equality and an atmosphere was created in which staff felt more comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions.

For further information, please contact:

Equal access to finance promoted Yvette’s food trade businesses in Rwanda

Equal access to finance promoted A nastasie’s hardware st ore in Rwan da

Friederike Graupner friederike.graupner@afci.de

Holger Christ holger.christ@afci.de

31

AFC WORLDWIDE 2021

CASE STUDY TARGET GROUP IMPAC T, WOMEN AND GENDER FINANCE

Support to Uganda Development Bank to Develop Gender Strategy Although women account for half the population, they generally do not have the same opportunities as the male population which is reflected in employment opportunities, difference in pay, as well as access to financial services.

Reducing gender-based inequality has proven to be closely linked to increased economic development, resulting in higher income per capita, increased sustainability, and enhanced social stability.

The Uganda Development Bank (UDB) aspires to promote gender equality in the development of its operations, recognising gender as a cross-cutting element. In addition, the bank is working towards allocating at least 30% of capital to women-owned or -led enterprises by the end of 2024.

To support this effort, UDB has accessed an EIB financing facility which requires that 25% to 30% of the loan proceeds are provided to businesses that contribute to women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in accordance with the 2X challenge, which has established a number of criteria that qualify improvement of gender equality by focusing on access to finance for women-owned or women-led businesses, increasing women’s employment opportunities and women’s access to products and services.

Correspondingly, the project provided support to UDB to develop a gender strategy to guide efforts to improve outreach to women and build capacity to monitor sex-disaggregated data to inform product and pipeline development.

By committing to meet the 2X Challenge by the end of 2024, UDB can actively assess specific investment opportunities for women’s economic empowerment and track progress against those criteria.

32