Women's World Banking Blog

Leadership & Diversity

Explore the latest global and regional insights from Women’s World Banking’s work in policy, leadership, women’s entrepreneurship, gender lens investing, and more.

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Leadership & Diversity

Celebrating the 2024 Graduation of the Leadership & Diversity Program for Regulators at the AFI Global Policy Forum in El Salvador

The 2024 Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) Global Policy Forum, held in El Salvador between 2 – 5 September, was a week of rich discussion and collaboration. The highlight of the event for Women’s World Banking, was the Leadership & Diversity Program for Regulators (LDR) graduation ceremony on the morning

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Leadership & Diversity

Inside Track: A New Era of Women Leaders Revolutionizing Tech Regulation

How Women’s World Banking’s new TechEquity Program for women policymakers, regulators, and supervisors is leveraging new research to tackle wicked industry problems By Sonja Kelly (Vice President, Research & Advocacy) and Elizabeth Ingerfield (Manager, Leadership & Diversity Programs) Tech jobs are not a tool for exclusion—they are a radical new

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Leadership & Diversity

Case Study: 2022 Leadership & Diversity Program for Regulators

Scroll down to download the case study. In 2022, the fourth cohort graduated from our Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators (the LDR program). For this case study, we interviewed three participants who share their experience of developing a gender inclusive policy initiative during the program. The LDR program, created

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Women in Leadership: A diverse group of colleagues in an office
Leadership & Diversity

Advancing Women in Leadership Roles: Inclusion Insights

Women’s representation in leadership positions remains a pressing issue globally. According to OMFIF’s 2023 Gender Balance Index, at the current rate of progress, it would take over a century to achieve gender parity in leadership roles for central banks and major financial institutions. Despite significant advancements in recent years, women

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Leadership & Diversity

Empowering Ideas into Action Through the 2022 Leadership & Diversity Program for Regulators

The Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators (LDR) is a multi-week learning program taught by Women’s World Banking and Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. It equips senior officials and high-potential women leaders from government ministries, central banks and regulators in emerging markets with the skills to create an enabling environment

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Leadership & Diversity

Women’s World Banking Connects with the Leadership & Diversity Program for Regulators Graduates at the 2022 AFI Global Policy Forum

By the Leadership & Diversity Team: Francesca Brown, Sarah Buitoni, Elizabeth Ingerfield, & Nana Ampah On the 5th and 6th September our Leadership & Diversity Team attended the 2022 AFI Global Policy Forum in Jordan. Here the team met with our 2022 Leadership & Diversity Program for Regulators (LDR) participants

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Leadership & Diversity

A Q&A with Mary Ellen Iskenderian On “There’s Nothing Micro About a Billion Women”: The Micro and Macro Impact of Empowering Women Through Financial Inclusion

Nearly one billion women remain outside the formal financial system, unable to participate in or benefit from financial growth and prosperity. Despite advances for women in recent decades, the gender gap in financial inclusion stubbornly remains at 9% across the emerging markets, requiring greater efforts from financial service providers and

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Leadership & Diversity

Case Study: What it Takes: Insights from Women Leaders in Financial Inclusion

As part of our Leadership & Diversity programs, Women’s World Banking tracks the career paths of high-potential women leaders, both to enhance our future program offerings for new generations of leaders and to share their experiences with others. With funding support from Credit Suisse, Women’s World Banking conducted case study

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Leadership & Diversity

In Conversation with Caroline Abel, Catia Tomasetti, Jorgovanka Tabaković, and Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus: Paving the Way for Female Leadership in Central Banks

In financial institutions around the world, women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership, with only 14 holding the governorship at a Central Bank. Previously in this series, Women’s World Banking spoke with the Governors of the Central Banks of Malaysia, San Marino, Serbia, and Seychelles about navigating success and

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Leadership & Diversity

In Conversation with Caroline Abel, Catia Tomasetti, Jorgovanka Tabaković, and Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus: Reflections on a Successful Career in Central Banking

Across the globe, central banks and other regulatory agencies face a persistent and significant gender gap in leadership. Today, the number of women serving as Governor—the most senior position—at a Central Bank totals only 14, illustrating a clear need for greater diversity in leadership. In Part I of this Q&A,

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Leadership & Diversity

Women in Leadership: 5 Lessons for Navigating Change

Whether in the day-to-day context or amid the upheaval wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the struggles of leadership are universal. For women, who continue to battle gender stereotypes in the workplace and shoulder a disproportionate share of care responsibilities (among other obstacles), the choice to exercise leadership comes with additional

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Leadership & Diversity

Report: Leadership as a Driver of Innovative Financial Services for Women

Over the last six years, Women’s World Banking has supported leaders of financial service providers (FSPs) through our Leadership & Diversity for Innovation Program (LDIP). The LDIP seeks to develop the skills of senior executives and high-potential women leaders to enable them to successfully serve low-income women, while charting a

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Leadership & Diversity

Investing in Women Leaders and Empowering Women Customers Go Hand-in-Hand at AMK, a Cambodian Financial Institution

By Victoria Johnson, Research Associate and Sonja Kelly, Director of Research and Advocacy Investing in women is smart business. Data shows that having women leaders improves financial performance, increases sales, leads to better decision-making, and creates a more inclusive corporate culture. On the other hand, women customers are often underserved,

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Leadership & Diversity

In Memory of Viji Das, CEO of Friends of Women’s World Banking

All of us at Women’s World Banking are devastated to learn the sad news of Viji Das’ passing. Throughout her life she was a strong, clear and brave voice for women’s empowerment at a time when it was hard, and sometimes even dangerous, for such views to be expressed. Indian

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Leadership & Diversity

MEDIA RELEASE | Women’s World Banking and Alliance for Financial Inclusion gather Central Bankers and Senior Policymakers from around the world to kick off its inaugural Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators

MEDIA RELEASE April 2, 2019   Contact: Karen Miller, +1 212 556 3149 or klm@womensworldbanking.org Women’s World Banking and Alliance for Financial Inclusion gather Central Bankers and Senior Policymakers from around the world to kick off its inaugural Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators   Oxford, England – Women’s World

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Leadership & Diversity

Introducing the Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators: a new program of inclusive policy design and leadership development for financial regulators

Policymakers have the opportunity to play game changer in driving women’s financial inclusion efforts. However, a strong, gender-diverse team within the regulatory body needs to be in place to amplify these efforts. Women’s World Banking and AFI’s Leadership & Diversity for Regulators program provides the tools to design inclusive policies

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Leadership & Diversity

Have you found your ikigai?

Our Management Development Program at NBS Bank (Malawi) helped managers understand their core values and leverage their differences to better work together to serve women.

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Leadership & Diversity

Promoting Women’s Leadership

“Promoting Women’s Leadership” is a collection of best practices that both companies and women leaders can implement to promote greater gender equity in their institution.

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Leadership & Diversity

The two must-haves of a leadership training to drive lasting change

After launching our leadership and diversity program offerings in 2009, Women’s World Banking set out to study how leadership trainings can best translate into bigger and more sustained changes at the institutional level. We asked ourselves: what aspects of our program design most effectively drove this kind of change?

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Leadership & Diversity

Investments that pay off- Building Strong Teams That Support Financial Inclusion

Besides the extent of their outreach and their ability to offer diverse products, an MFI’s success is now being measured by operational, financial, social, and gender indicators. In February 2014, Women’s World Banking’s Leadership and Gender Diversity program team provided Crecer, Crédito con Educación Rural in Bolivia just this opportunity to strengthen its team of managers through the Management Development Training program.

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Leadership & Diversity

Bloomberg | Bloomberg quotes Mary Ellen Iskenderian

Our President and CEO Mary Ellen Iskenderian weighs in on Bloomberg”s latest look at the glass ceiling facing women around the world. Excerpt: Disparities exist at both ends of the economic scale around the world. In 2012, a Gallup poll for the World Bank showed that only 47 percent of

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Leadership & Diversity

What does it take to be an inspiring woman leader? An Online Roundtable for International Women’s Day

In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, Women’s World Banking hosted an online roundtable with three alumni from our signature Women in Leadership program to reflect on their learnings from the program, how they have implemented these to become better leaders in their institution and ways this has inspired positive change among their colleagues and clients.

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Leadership & Diversity

In the Philippines, Leadership and Experience Help Clients Rebuild after Haiyan

By Maura Hart, Manager, Public Relations Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF) was founded in time of crisis in the Philippines 29 years ago. Decades later, NWTF has seen its clients through countless typhoons (an average of 22 per year in the Philippines) and other natural disasters, experiences that proved invaluable when Typhoon Haiyan (known in the Philippines as Yolanda) hit in November.

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Leadership & Diversity

Celebrating one year of leadership community

In celebration of our Community’s One Year Anniversary, we asked members to share photos of themselves working with their teams and to tell us their leadership philosophies. We are now pleased to share them with you through this video!

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Leadership & Diversity

Higher stock prices: the case for gender diversity

A new study from Thomson Reuters finds that companies with gender-diverse boards perform better than companies with zero women on their board. This echoes what the Center for Microfinance Leadership has known all along: that diverse perspectives lead to stronger decisions and healthier institutions…

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Leadership & Diversity

Optimizing Capital Structure Toolkit

The Optimizing Capital Structure Toolkit is essential for microfinance institutions (MFIs) undergoing transformation and beginning to mobilize deposits, MFIs have two new major sources of capital (equity and deposits), and it becomes a challenge to understand prudent or optimal mixes of savings, debt, quasi-equity, and equity.

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Leadership & Diversity

The case for women’s leadership: Joyce Banda

Under Joyce Banda, Malawi’s economy is recovering, with manufacturing expected to grow six percent and agriculture 5.7 percent (World Bank) and respect for democracy and human rights has returned to the country (International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute).

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Leadership & Diversity

Co-creation of a leadership learning experience

In 2013, Women’s World Banking’s Center for Microfinance Leadership (CML) was given the incredible opportunity to create a new Senior Leadership Exchange to grow its own product offering while supporting the development of women leaders in microfinance.

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Leadership & Diversity

10 Steps for a Successful Transition from Program to Office

Microfinance practitioners attend numerous training, workshops, exchanges, and conferences during the year. The skills and theories learned are invaluable for the participants of such events who normally leave these programs re-energized and full of ideas they want to implement in their organization and toward modifying their own management styles. However, at times it is difficult to get buy-in from others in the organization, and the concepts or organization development goals are often forgotten and never put into practice.

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Leadership & Diversity

What if it Had Been Lehman Brothers & Sisters?: The Importance of Building Gender Diverse Microfinance Institutions

Microfinance as an industry is still quite young, and when it comes to addressing institutional support for gender diversity, the efforts are nascent. Much has been learned—both about what has worked and what has failed—in the corporate world about engaging women professionals. The question to the microfinance industry is how well can we take advantage of these inroads, these tested efforts and do even better at building inclusive institutions?

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