This document discusses women's economic participation through microfinance and strategies to retain female clients under for-profit models of microfinance. It finds that while microfinance transformations aim to induce growth, they often lead to fewer female clients. Key lessons are to clarify the vision for transformation regarding women, demonstrate a profitable and scalable women-led model, and invest in products and services beyond credit to promote women's empowerment and financial inclusion long-term. Maintaining a focus on sustainability, affordability, research on women's needs, and governance structures committed to women can help institutions better cater to and retain female clients through transformation.

1. FROM MICRO TO SMALL AND MEDIUM
ENTERPRISE: CATERING TO THE EVOLVING
NEEDS OF FEMALE CLIENTS
- Roshaneh Zafar, Managing Director Kashf Foundation
For the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit
November 14-17, 2011 – Valladolid, Spain

2. The Need for Women’s Participation in
the Economy
 The losses of not involving women in the economy
translate into billions of dollars in lost opportunities
 Economic growth would have been 37% higher if
women had been fully engaged in the financial sector
 Economic agency of women catalyzes intergenerational
benefits, i.e. increase in the average age at marriage,
lower fertility rates etc.
 Economic Participation diminishes the triple burdens of
reproductive, productive, and social responsibilities for
women.
 An increase in the contribution by women towards
household income increases access to/control over
household resources and decision-making power.

3. The Role of Microfinance in
Women’s Economic Participation (1/2)
Individual Household MF Strategies to address these constraints
Financial Women lack Men control cash • Designing pro women strategies that
Barriers
access to income, men have reflect the concept of agency and
banks/ financial specific removes the need for physical collateral.
services in own expenditure • Building group mechanisms that allow
right patterns procuring loans in proximity to the
community
• Promoting and providing affordable and
accessible savings
Economic Women undertake Gender division of labor, • Introducing graduated lending schemes that involve a
Barriers activities which unequal access and feel-good approach and also cater to conflicting
produce low control of land, labor demands on women’s time
returns; and inputs unequal • Providing business development services
Women have a control of joint • Helping create value chains
heavy domestic household produce and
workload income stream (from the
produce)

4. The Role of Microfinance in
Women’s Economic Participation (2/2)
Individual Household MF Strategies to address these constraints
Social/ Women not Limited role for • The group lending approach overcomes
Cultural
Barriers literate or women in many of these aspects by coalescing
educated; girls household associative strength.
education not decision making; • Broadening the suite of products being
prioritized violence towards offered to female clients especially savings
women and financial education.
Political/ Women lack Women lack legal • Linking products to women’s rights to
Legal
Barriers confidence to rights to jointly property e.g. housing loans.
claim owned • Savings products especially designed to
political/legal household target women
rights assets.

5. Gender Significant Outcomes
 At the end of 2009 there were around 128.2
million microfinance users around the world, 81.7
percent or 104.7 million out of which were women.
 The growth in the number of very poor women
reached has gone from 10.3 million at the end of
1999 to 104.7 million at the end of 2009.
 There has been a 919 percent increase in the
number of poorest women covered in microfinance
programs from December 31, 1999 to December
31, 2009.

6. Targeting & Retaining Women
under a For-Profit Paradigm
 The Issue: While transformation is primarily meant to
induce growth at the institutional level, in a majority
of cases it is leading to reduction in the retention of
female clients
 The Influencing Factors: Commercialization demands
that MFPs expand their existing portfolios by
increasing loan size and penetrating
industries/entrepreneurs with higher credit absorption
capacity. Both these factors put pressure to diverge
away from small scale enterprise (predominantly
female) with low debt absorption capacities towards
medium enterprises with higher debt absorption
capacities.

7. Learning from CARD MRI (Philippines) &
Kashf Microfinance Bank Limited (Pakistan)
CARD MRI has been able to successfully Kashf Microfinance Bank has been
prevent mission drift, post able to successfully develop a
transformation, in terms of reduced strategy for targeting female clients
female exits from the program via: after transformation through:
 Ensuring product optimization to client  Making front-end investments to
needs create and market a savings
 Establishing mutually re-enforcing culture
institutions catering to the holistic  Optimizing a pro-woman savings
needs of the client base
strategy and piloting a
 Incorporating feedback of clients into branchless banking model
the policies of the company via
concerted and sustained linkages
 Continuing mission orientation
with the client base and good governance through
the Board of Directors.
 Maintaining representation from the
former NGO board after
transformation.

8. Lessons Learnt for Women's Inclusion
under the For-Profit Paradigm
 Clarifying the overarching vision for transformation and
ensuring it is completely and fully embedded in all aspects of
the transformation process is key to retaining women post
transformation
 A continued focus on sustainability and affordability is pivotal
so that the institution can demonstrate a strong business case
for investing in women’s enterprise and financial development.
 Continuous and on-going research and development for
product design and understanding women’s needs is vital in
formulating strategies and action-plans that prevent mission
drift.
 The role of the board in maintaining a focus on women’s
retention is another very important aspect.

9. Conclusions and a TO-DO list for
Women's Inclusion (1/2)
 UNDERSTANDING the dynamic context of women’s economic participation
that needs to be contextualized to different societies
 KNOWING that there is no one path to transformation and hybrid and
innovative solutions can work in strengthening the mission and vision of
retaining female clients
 ARTICULATING a clear rationale and vision for the need to transform and
conducting stress tests of it in light of retaining female clients
 BUILDING buy-in at the board level for promoting women’s access and
retaining women clients
 DEMONSTRATING a model that is scalable, replicable and profitable while
being women led
 EMBEDDING the concept of front end investments to promote women’s
economic empowerment through financial education, enterprise
development etc.

10. Conclusions and a TO-DO list for
Women's Inclusion (2/2)
 LEARNING that women’s empowerment is a long term strategy and that
women require products beyond credit
 ENGAGING with female clients at all levels through a continuous research
and development process
 SELECTING investors that are committed to promoting women’s access and
ensuring that the original NGO (parent) is involved in governance structures
 ENSURING lessons learnt in the past by the NGO (parent) a key driving
force for the transition process.
 BUILDING a team that believes and espouses a commitment to retaining
and sustaining female clients
 SEGMENTING the women’s market to highlight the needs of female clients
and offer solutions that address these needs
 LEVERAGING on networks and building collaborations with other entities to
retain female clients.

11. Thank you!