Reflecting on 2022: Women's World Banking & There's Nothing Micro About a Billion Women

2022 has been an extraordinary year, full of both personal and professional milestones. At the top of that list was the publication in April of my book:?There’s Nothing Micro About a Billion Women: Making Finance Work for Women . I was so proud to share years of research and experience with all of you and I can’t emphasize enough how much your words of encouragement meant to me. It’s inspiring to see how many of my peers also believe in building a more inclusive world where women are fully engaged and included in the formal financial system and the broader economy. I hope you continue to take the book’s calls to actions to heart and help us make real change!

Of course, my new role as “author” is intricately linked to my work at Women's World Banking . Several business cases and women’s stories you read in the book grew out of the organization’s thoughtful research and innovative work. I’m so proud of all this organization has achieved in its over 40 years, and 2022 represented a particularly important turning point for us. This year we reached the “flywheel effect” with our strategy to work at greater scale to achieve greater impact.

We’ve proven the incubation-replication model for product introductions really works and are on track to reach millions of low-income women with financial products and services they could never previously access. And we’re doing this innovative, impactful work through teams of immensely talented staff located in our countries of operation. We’ve also established our credibility as the “go to” advocacy team for women’s financial inclusion through advisory assignments with the Central Banks of Mexico, Nigeria and India – not to mention building relationships with 230 regulators in 41 countries through the Leadership & Diversity for Regulators Program. (Applications are now live for the 2023 Program!)

We further solidified our leadership role in gender lens investing as Women’s World Banking Asset Management's closed its second fund, reaching a?rare triple-digit fund size in this under-invested space. WAM also began preparations for the launch of a US-focused women’s?economic empowerment fund in early 2023.

We’ve created momentum in these areas as well as in our Research and Network engagement activities. Our 2022 research included digital adoption for women entrepreneurs in Indonesia and women migrant workers in Cambodia , our work in elevating women banking agents in India , and case studies and interviews from Nigerian women leaders . We also released our own insights in real time during the release of the 2021 Global Findex!

One specific report couldn’t be more timely — our paper on the financial lives of Ukrainian women refugees . Women make up 90 percent of the nearly 7 million Ukrainians who?have?fled?since February. Women’s World Banking worked quickly to interview women refugees to learn about their financial experience and highlight the role financial services can play in ensuring their resilience.?The lessons from this research extend well beyond the experience of these individual women to shed light on the importance of financial access for all displaced people. ?

We also saw many more opportunities to bring our networks together, virtually and even more in-person. With the launch of the Women’s Digital Financial Inclusion Advocacy Hub with UNCDF, we hosted our first in-person event during UNGA since 2019! We also hosted many virtual and in-person events across Southeast Asia, India, and Nigeria led by our regional teams.

All these events represent important steps along the path to Women’s World Banking’s “main event” for 2023: our Making Finance Work for Women Global Summit to be held in Mumbai on May 24-25. I hope to see you all again in Mumbai for #MFWW2023 !

With nearly 1 billion women still left out of the formal financial system, our work is far from over. Thank you for being with me on this journey and for your support of Women’s World Banking’s work and my book and your belief in our mission. We can’t do it alone! I wish you all a happy holiday season, and hope you join me next year in continuing to drive real change for women around the world.