MAKING
CONNECTIONS
DELIVERING
RESULTS
A Community Fostering
Inclusive and Green Finance
Who We Are
We empower women-owned and led businesses in Asia and the Pacific by assisting financial institutions in providing gender-responsive and sustainable finance through the adoption of cutting-edge technologies.
Here, you will find a diverse range of knowledge products and learning events, including:
Check this site for updated resources.
This is a members-only portal that offers exclusive insights into industry knowledge. By becoming a member, you can:​
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Access tailored knowledge events and materials on climate and gender related topics
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Download tools and toolkits related to sustainable finance
Embrace the power of knowledge, and let our portal keep you updated!
Spotlight
BankIslami Pakistan Celebrates First Women-Managed Branch
BankIslami has launched its first fully women-managed branch in Karachi, Pakistan to promote gender equality in the workplace. Women’s representation in the workforce in Pakistan stands at just 21%. BankIslami aims to empower women as customers and employees in the financial sector to break barriers in an industry that has long underserved women. The initiative was supported by gWFX, which provided gender sensitivity training and capacity-building. Read the full press release here.
News and Events
5th Asia Finance Forum
22 September 2025 | ADB Headquarters, Manila, Philippines
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The 5th Asia Finance Forum, hosted by ADB in Manila, will explore how financial systems across the region can be designed to harness the benefits of innovation and competition to ensure inclusive and sustainable development. This conference aims to engage a broad range of stakeholders across ADB's developing member countries. The event will serve as a platform to explore new developments and emerging trends and challenges in financial technology, sustainable finance, and regulatory frameworks; foster knowledge sharing through real-life use cases; build a future-ready financial system by finding solutions that emphasize trust building and robust regulation; and strengthen cross-border collaboration. It will include sessions on financial inclusion and innovative solutions for MSMEs.
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Check back here soon for the registration link. Learn more about this event here.
Watch: On International Women's Day, we are honoring Maya Kobalia, Environment and Social Department Head at MFO Crystal. ADB supported Maya and the Crystal team to issue the first gender bond in Georgia. Watch the video below to hear her insights on gender bond issuance.
ADB Shireen Lateef Awards: Fiji Merchant Finance Limited (MFL) Project Awarded Best Project with Gender Designs
On 4 March, the Fiji: MFL Increasing Access to Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Including Women-Owned SMEs Project was awarded Best Project with Gender Designs at the Shireen Lateef Gender Equality Operations Awards at ADB Headquarters in Manila.
The Fiji: MFL Increasing Access to Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Including Women-Owned SMEs Project is recognized for pioneering ADB’s first finance sector transaction in Fiji, addressing the credit gap for women-owned and led SMEs, and innovatively leveraging We-Fi grants to promote gender-lens investing in the Pacific.
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The Shireen Lateef Gender Equality Awards are presented in honor of the late Shireen Lateef, a pioneering figure in ADB’s gender and development initiatives. These awards recognize teams and individuals who have made exceptional contributions to advancing ADB’s work in gender equality.
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Webinar: Tapping into Fintech and AI Solutions to Better Serve SMEs
On 20 February, gWFX held a knowledge sharing session highlighting solutions and lessons from a recent Fintech Innovation Challenge focusing on Southeast Asia. The challenge explored how financial institutions can leverage technology solutions to successfully enable small businesses, including women entrepreneurs, to access finance more easily. The event featured an overview of the solution provided by the winning fintech company, Planto. Planto delivers AI-powered financial insights and cashflow analysis for SMEs to produce real-time forecasts and support credit decision-making. In partnership with ADB’s IT Department and the High-Level Technology Fund, gWFX has successfully completed three challenges.
New blog: 3 Lessons from Crowdsourcing Digital Solutions for Improving MSMEs’ Access to Finance
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Crowdsourcing can be an effective way to address pain points that limit micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), including women-led businesses, from obtaining financing. In this DevAsia article, gWFX and ADB’s IT Department share lessons learned from Fintech Innovation Challenges held in Pakistan, Nepal and Thailand to find and develop innovative technology solutions. Read more.​​​​​​
Technology
We support FIs in the identification and selection of cutting-edge technologies to facilitate gender-responsive and sustainable financing.
What We Do
Capacity
Building
We provide tailored knowledge solutions to enhance our partners' capacity in delivering inclusive financial services.
Funding
Opportunity
We explore funding and co-financing opportunities to support FIs in boosting lending to women and women's businesses.
Sustainable
Finance
We encourage and assist the implementation of sustainable finance in our partner FI's strategy, operation, products and services.
Partners
The CAREC Women’s Empowerment Online Platform (WEOP) is our knowledge partner. It is a comprehensive and user-friendly digital space that aims to empower women across the region by providing capacity development resources, opportunities for networking, knowledge sharing, and collaboration with stakeholders.
The CAREC member countries are Azerbaijan, People’s Republic of China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
To promote finance sector development, the Financial Sector Development Partnership Fund (FSDPF) was established in July 2006 through contributions from the Government of Luxembourg. Given growing demand from the Asian Development Bank’s developing member countries for financing support, the Financial Sector Development Partnership Special Fund (FSDPSF) was created in January 2013. The FSDPSF focuses on the key operational areas of finance sector development, inclusive finance, and infrastructure finance. Since the fund was established, the FSDPSF has allocated a total of $25.5 million for 76 projects, some of which are capacity building initiatives of gWFX.
The High-Level Technology (HLT) Fund is a multi-donor trust fund established in 2017. It provides grant financing to promote the integration of HLT and innovative solutions into ADB-financed and administered sovereign and nonsovereign projects throughout the project cycle—from identification to implementation and operation. The fund encourages more widespread adoption of HLT to address development challenges in ADB's developing member countries.
Mastercard works to connect and power an inclusive digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, their innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential.
Visa is a world-leading digital payments network that removes barriers and connects people to the global economy. Visa aims to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.
The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) is our co-financing partner. We-Fi is a collaborative partnership among 14 governments, eight multilateral development banks (MDBs), and other public and private sector stakeholders, hosted by the World Bank Group.
Need more details?
We are here to assist you. Contact us by email at womenfinx@adb.org or through the contact form.
We are open from 8:00AM - 5:00PM Philippine Standard Time (UTC +8).