The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States need to align their plans on gender and financial inclusion with their national strategies, and the countries and the private sector should include initiatives on sustainable finance, such as green bonds and inclusive green finance.
This came out of a session held under the theme "Gender with a focus on financial inclusion for women - challenges and opportunities" held during the annual SADC Regional Financial Inclusion Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa. The financial inclusion strategies are aided by the Support to Improving the Investment and Business Environment in the SADC Region (SIBE) Programme, which is supported by the European Union.
The discussion was moderated by Mr Blessing Mautsa, FinMark Trust Zimbabwe Coordinator, and it highlighted the challenges in women's financial inclusion and the opportunities available. The session also discussed how challenges encountered can be mitigated and how to leverage the opportunities available to deepen financial inclusion amongst women.
Globally, women have fewer economic opportunities and are more likely to work in informal employment or undervalued jobs. In some instances, COVID-19 worsened the status quo which caused job losses hitting women the hardest and further widening the gender gap.
Commercial banks often focus on men and formal businesses, neglecting women, who make up a large and growing segment of the informal economy. Women have less access to technology and often lack collateral or have insufficient business formality or income levels to meet loan and credit requirements. There is therefore a need for collective efforts and strategic partnerships to expand opportunities for women and inclusive recovery and reconstruction programmes that counter the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants recommended education as this leads to empowerment beyond financial inclusion. For greater impact in the development and implementation of financial education it was recommended that financial institutions needed to be creative to make it easy for the illiterate to comprehend for example through the usage of pictures and voice, as well as the introduction of financial education in the secondary school curriculum.
There was also a need to focus technology and mobile phones as a need and an asset in deepening financial access. Policies should encourage women to access basic phones and technology; reduce the cost of data; and offer data-free incentives. It was recommended that there be ministries that look into women's affairs and are responsible for SMEs to make it easier to manage women's access to finance, and that community microlenders be registered under local government and the central bank.
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Three countries namely Malawi, Zimbabwe and United Republic of Tanzania reported that gender with a focus on financial inclusion for women was a key focus of their national financial inclusion strategies; and Tanzania uses a financial inclusion framework focused on women while Malawi is developing a gender-inclusive roadmap.
A discussion on Sustainable Finance and its importance to the SDGs moderated by Mr Aiden Choles, Director DBK Advisory, recommended that countries and the private sector include an array of initiatives under the label of sustainable finance, for instance green bonds and inclusive green finance.
The deliberations provided insights into how Sustainable Finance can better aid the achievements of the SDGs, leveraging financial inclusion and gauge countries' openness to receiving assistance in the development of sustainable finance frameworks, incorporating financial inclusion as a key component. Sustainable finance is defined an initiative that is gaining in momentum, and that links strongly to environmental principles whilst financial inclusion also links to social principles.
