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: Blog
5 Lessons from Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code Pilots in Fiji, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka
By Aileen Theresa Ruiz, Joanna Romero, and Alexandra Harris
What can financial institutions learn from Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code
pilots in Fiji, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka?
Drawing on the experiences of Fiji Development Bank, Amartha, and Hatton National Bank, this blog shares five practical lessons on using sex-disaggregated data to identify the women's market, designing products that better meet women's needs, and building stronger institutional commitment to expand access to finance for women entrepreneurs. Read more.
What We're Reading
The report outlines the various WSME segments and profiles, along with their financial and non-financial needs. It also provides market sizing insights and presents three country case studies: Pakistan, Uganda, and Colombia. The accompanying Toolkit offers a step-by-step guide to help financial intermediaries tailor products for different WSME segments, support funders in assessing risk and targeting high-potential businesses, and assist BSOs in designing segment-specific programs. It includes practical guides and tools across six steps—from analyzing the WSME landscape to customer segmentation, service demand assessment, solution design, and building the business case.
News and Events
Read our latest newsletter on Advancing Inclusive Green Affordable Housing
What will it take to make green housing more accessible and inclusive?
The latest issue of the Women’s Finance Exchange Dispatch examines how innovative financing solutions can help expand access to affordable, climate-resilient housing across Asia and the Pacific, particularly for female-headed households.
The issue explores:
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A new publication highlighting pathways to inclusive green housing in Malaysia
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How digital innovations are helping improve access to financial services for underserved customers
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Insights from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code on advancing women's financial inclusion
Read more here.
gWFX Learning Lab Webinar: Developing Comprehensive Product Offerings for Women Entrepreneurs
On 17 June, ADB’s Women’s Finance Exchange held a gWFX Learning Lab webinar on Developing Comprehensive Products Offerings for Women Entrepreneurs, moderated by Aileen Ruiz-Zarate, Senior Investment Specialist, ADB, featuring Amit Tendulkar, Senior Digital Technology Specialist, ADB; Rachel Freeman, Chief Growth Officer, Tyme; Khadija Mariam, Head of Women Entrepreneur Cell, BRAC Bank; Aria Widyanto, President Commissioner, Amartha Financial; and Kevin Yu, Head of B2B Lending, Fuse Financing Inc. The discussion explored how financial service providers are combining financial products with non-financial services to create more comprehensive and accessible offerings for women entrepreneurs, particularly women-owned small businesses.
The webinar was attended by 67 participants from financial institutions, development organizations, non-profits and fintech companies, among others. Drawing on real-world insights, the discussion demonstrated how fintechs and financial institutions can develop product innovations to better serve their women customers, integrate the right technologies, and develop a pipeline of women entrepreneurs.
The recording of the webinar is available in our Member Forum section.
Read our latest publication: The Path Toward Green Affordable Housing and Green Mortgage Standards in Malaysia
How can Malaysia increase uptake of green affordable housing and mortgages, particularly among low-income groups and female-headed households?
A new joint publication by ADB and Cagamas Berhad, the National Mortgage Corporation of Malaysia, explores this key issue and shows how stronger standards, increased collaboration, and homebuyer incentives can help drive sustainable urban development. Read and download the publication here.
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
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).