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:
-
Access tailored knowledge events and materials on climate and gender related topics
-
Download tools and toolkits related to sustainable finance
Embrace the power of knowledge, and let our portal keep you updated!
Spotlight
WE Finance Code Case Studies: Lessons of Experience in Fiji, Indonesia and Sri Lanka
The Women Entrepreneurs’ Finance Code (WE Finance Code) is a global initiative which aims to increase the amount of financing available to women owned and led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (WMSMEs) by encouraging financial institutions to commit to leadership, data collection, and action. Over the last year, the Women’s Finance Exchange has supported WE Finance Code adoption and implementation in Fiji, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, helping institutions strengthen sex-disaggregated data practices and embed gender-responsive approaches. Experiences from three financial players in the region—Fiji Development Bank in Fiji, Hatton National Bank in Sri Lanka, and Amartha in Indonesia—highlight key insights gleaned from putting the Code into action. Read in-depth case studies from Fiji, Indonesia and Sri Lanka below.
Amartha: Designing Products with Women Leads to More Responsive Financial Offerings
Hatton National Bank: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Through a Comprehensive Suite of Products
What We're Reading
Women lead a large share of micro and small businesses across low- and middle-income countries, yet their enterprises remain smaller and less profitable than men’s. Many run smaller firms, work in informal markets, and possess little or no collateral. These barriers affect women’s ability to obtain and control capital—particularly larger loans—even as grants, microcredit, and digital lending proliferate.
Despite a growing body of rigorous studies on the impacts of grant and credit interventions, evidence on how capital affects women entrepreneurs remains fragmented. Existing reviews have either been limited in scope or have not systematically examined gender differences. As a result, important policy questions remain unresolved— including whether women entrepreneurs benefit from capital, which groups benefit most, which forms of capital are most effective, and the conditions under which these gains are sustained.
News and Events
Read our latest newsletter on Financing a Green Transition That Works for Women
As we celebrate International Women’s Day this month, we focus on why it’s important to finance a green transition that works for women.
Women-led small businesses, in particular, are key drivers of sustainable growth and resilient communities. Yet, access to capital remains a significant barrier. In the latest issue of the Women’s Finance Exchange Dispatch, we explore how financial institutions can better support women entrepreneurs at the heart of the green transition.
Read the latest issue here.
On International Women’s Day, we are shining a light on the care economy.
Data shows women do 4 times more unpaid care work than men in Asia and the Pacific. Balancing the responsibility of care between men and women is vital to development.
The Women's Finance Exchange, through ADB's Women Entrepreneurs in Care: Acceleration, Resilience, and Expansion (WE Care) program, together with the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, will pilot approaches to strengthen access to formal financial services and ecosystem support to the care economy in India, the Philippines, and Uzbekistan, to increase access to quality, affordable care services while creating economic opportunities for women. Read more.
ADB, TP Bank Support Viet Nam’s Women Entrepreneurs
In Viet Nam, ADB has partnered with local banks to enhance access to finance for women entrepreneurs, with the support of the Women’s Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) was the first bank supported by ADB to conduct a comprehensive Gender Gap Assessment. Following the assessment, the bank developed a dedicated customer identification system for women owned small and medium-sized enterprises, launched new gender-responsive credit products and marketing channels, and introduced tailored advisory services to better meet the needs of women-led enterprises.
View this video to learn more about this initiative.
ADB Sri Lanka Non-Financial Services Training for Women Entrepreneurs
In 2024 and 2025, ADB in Sri Lanka delivered non-financial services (NFS) training to women-owned SMEs to boost financial skills and climate literacy with the support of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). NFS play a critical role in helping women entrepreneurs build resilience, improve financial decision-making, and better access finance through financial institutions. The program focused on climate finance, credit guarantees, and managing financial indebtedness. By July 2025, 305 women SMEs were trained in managing financial indebtedness, 367 in climate finance, and 372 in accessing credit guarantees. These training materials are now available on the SME Connect platform — currently only in Sinhala. Please access the platform here.
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).