FAO, IFAD & WFP. 2024. Diagnostic of gender and age norms in financial inclusion - A pilot study in five districts of Malawi. Rome.
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Book (stand-alone)Gender-inclusive toolkit for financial institutions in sub-Saharan Africa
Making the African Continental Free Trade Area work for women
2025Also available in:
No results found.The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Trade Centre have collaborated to support women in overcoming gender-based obstacles in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement. The "Empowering Women and Boosting Livelihoods through Agricultural Trade: Leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area" programme, developed in 2021, aims to promote women’s participation in the agreement and increase their access to capacity-building and higher-productivity activities. This initiative capitalizes on the new opportunities in regional trade created by the agreement.One of the main challenges women face is access to finance. Agriculture is traditionally associated with lower returns and high-risk investments, and women are perceived to be a riskier segment due to discriminatory social and gender norms. These biases affect capital providers’ perceptions of women, as well as women’s financial literacy, bookkeeping skills, and investment readiness. Furthermore, the lack of collateral is a major constraint, largely due to women’s limited ownership and control over land in Africa.The objective of this toolkit is to raise awareness of the business case for financing women in agricultural value chains and to provide financial institutions with practical guidance for advancing gender-inclusive strategies across different parts of their organizations. This toolkit complements a policy brief developed under the same programme, which provides concrete recommendations for financiers and other relevant stakeholders to foster gender-responsive financing. Building on case studies from Ghana and Nigeria, the policy brief offers insights for promoting gender-inclusive financial practices in the agrifinancing ecosystem. -
Policy briefFacilitating gender responsive access to finance in the agrifood sector in sub-Saharan Africa
Making the African Continental Free Trade Area work for women: Policy brief
2024Also available in:
No results found.This policy brief focuses on promoting gender-responsive access to finance for women in the agrifood sector in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). It highlights the critical contributions of women to agrifood systems, while also discussing the substantial challanges and barriers they face to accessing finance due to persistent gender-based constraints and structural inequalities. These include discriminatory social norms, limited opportunities for business development, and restricted ownership of property and assets. These obstacles are compounded by a lack of gender-responsive financial products and services. Formal banking institutions and products often de facto exclude women since they are unable to provide collateral, forcing many to rely on personal capital and informal savings schemes, which severely limits their business growth and potential.The brief proposes several solutions to address these barriers, emphasizing the importance of enhancing financial literacy among women and promoting formal microfinance and rural banking. It suggests implementing guarantee and insurance schemes tailored to the needs of women-led businesses and developing financial products and services that are responsive to gender-specific challenges. Additionally, the brief underscores the necessity of gender-responsive policy reforms and the engagement of multiple stakeholders to ensure inclusive financial inclusion.Furthermore, the policy brief advocates for increased representation of women in decision-making roles and the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws within the financial industry. It also calls for measures to ensure women's land and property ownership rights, recognizing that secure land tenure is crucial for their economic empowerment. By implementing these recommendations, the brief argues that bridging the financial gap for women in agribusiness can significantly enhance productivity, economic growth, and food security across Africa. -
Book (stand-alone)Enabling markets of financial services for the rural youth
Insights and recommendations
2024Also available in:
No results found.The issue of financial exclusion stands at the forefront as one of the core bottlenecks that constrains rural young people from achieving their full economic potential. Rural youth from all backgrounds face considerable challenges when seeking to access and make use of quality financial services from formal financial service providers, such as commercial banks, microfinance institutions, and credit unions. The capacity to access and make proper use of quality financial services represents a crucial factor that enables youth to kickstart and expand new business ideas, pursue higher levels of education, build assets over time, and attain socioeconomic independence. It represents, therefore, a critical, foundational element for youth entrepreneurship, empowerment, and resilience. In this sense, the regulatory and sociocultural environment in which youth live and work can play a major role in constraining – or facilitating – their financial inclusion.
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