• Gender finance
Oct 12, 2016

The gender gap in access to finance is an obstacle for economic growth, employment opportunities and shared prosperity. To tackle this challenge, the Central Bank of Jordan, the Arab Monetary Fund and GIZ partner up for this year’s high-level policy forum to support strategic policy development for financial inclusion of women in the Arab World.

“We can do it!” – This famous slogan for the promotion of women in the society came up in the 1980s. It is true: the GDP of Egypt, for example, could jump by 34%, if women’s labor participation was equal to that of men. While the financial inclusion of women is obviously indispensable, data reveals that the level of Arab women’s inclusion into the financial system is still among the lowest worldwide according to Worldbank’s Findex data. The significant gender gap in finance is an obstacle for economic growth, employment opportunities and shared prosperity.

That is why the Central Bank of Jordan, the Arab Monetary Fund and the GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) join forces for the “Advancing Women’s Financial Inclusion in the Arab World” conference at the Dead Sea in Jordan. Under the theme “Breaking barriers, liberating potential”, this regional high-level policy forum will gather from November 22-23, 2016 more than 120 policy makers and financial sector experts from the Arab world and beyond to support strategic policy development for financial inclusion of women in the region.

Supported by AFI, CGAP, New Faces New Voices, and the European Union, the event will provide numerous players from the region with useful insights into promising policies and market-led innovations for a more inclusive and progressive environment for women. The GIZ Programmes for the ‘Promotion of the Microfinance Sector in the MENA Region’ (MFMR) and for the ‘Coordination with Arab Donors’ (CAD) look very much forward to welcome their partners at the Dead Sea.

by Atilla Kaiser-Yücel and Florian Zabel