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Current Trends in the Social Empowerment of Women

through Financial InclusionReinforcing Microfinance:

Social Empowerment through Financial Education

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CAWTARPromoting gender equality in the Arab World

Empowering Arab women to fully exercise their human rights by reducing gender gaps through: Research

Generation of data to support institutions

Performing studies on women’s issues when others hesitate

Training An integrated approach where

Research feeds into Training and where both feed into Advocacy and Policy

NetworkingRegional coverage and

partnershipsAdvocacy

Topics of FocusWomen’s Economic

ParticipationWomen and Decision-Making Women’s Political

Participation Women and LegislationsGender & Human Rights Gender Based Violence Adolescence Gender and Water Resource

ManagementWomen and the Media

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Trends in Regional Financial Inclusion

The MENA region has the lowest rates of financial inclusion in the world• the lowest rates of financial inclusion in the world• Sub list 5

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Financial Inclusion in MENA Region

Mauritania Algeria Tunisia Egypt Jordan Palestine Saudi Arabia

Yemen Lebanon Iraq Iran0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Men and Women (% age +15)

Formal bank account Formal savings Formal Credit

http://datatopics.worldbank.org/financialinclusion/

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Women Financial Inclusion in the MENA région

Tunisia Algeria Mauritania Egypt Jordan Lebanon Saudi Arabia Iraq Yemen Iran Palestine

http://datatopics.worldbank.org/financialinclusion/

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Regional Trends in Women Entrepreneurship

Relatively low rates of involvement in entrepreneurship by women can be found in the MENA region. Far less than 50% of the early-stage entrepreneurs are women.

The OECD identified an average self-employment rate of 29.5% in MENA countries, however these rates are significantly lower among women at 12.5%.

Latain

America

& Carabb

ian MEN

A

Sub-S

ahara

n Afric

a

Asia Pa

cific &

South

Asia

Europ

e (EU

28)

Europ

e (Non

EU 28

)

North A

merica

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

male female

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Women Entrepreneurship: Regional Challenges

Access to new

markets

Access to credit and finance

Access to training

Business regulations and tax incentives

Being taken

seriously

Balancing work and

family

Political and

security conditions

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MENA Women Entrepreneurs

Main characteristi

cs of women

entrepreneurs

Own the business

but not the property

Engaged in traditional handicraft

and services

Believe non-

traditional sectors

offer potential

Engaged in other

activities besides business

Positively impact the

family through

business

Optimistic about their business

opportunities

Possess more technical than

managerial knowhow

Motivated, confident, and ready to act

independently

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CAWTAR’s Current Initiatives: CAWTAR identified the need to strengthen the financial education of women in order to ensure their social and economic integration. This need was identified after years of work on empowerment and women's rights and in collaboration with various partners (AGFUND, WB, GIZ, ENDA). The project is supported through both in-house studies and reports, as well as the use of open source data.

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Why is improving financial inclusion a regional priority?

Financial Stability

Economic Growth

Poverty Reduction

Meets the financial needs

of the poor; enables risk

management

Facilitates and encourages economic activity, promotes

activities that generate income, increased investment, and job

creation

Allows formalization of

businesses, reduction of

informal financial services, consumer

protections

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Assessing the Needs

Aspirations and obstacles

Employment then entrepreneurship Pessimism

Knowledge and perception of

Financial Services

Weak knowledge of institutions and

servicesCritical and mistrusting

Financial Education Training Lack of knowledge Various needs /

High demand

After studying the needs of the region, CAWTAR can summarize the findings for Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt as follows:

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Providing Solutions: Training and Dissemination

Face to Face Trainings

We adapted 5 open source training modules from MFO:Budgeting, Savings, Debt Management, Financial Services, and Financial

Negotiations

Online Trainings (E-learning)

With the money we saved using these open source

training modules we were able to develop an E-learning

platform

Production and dissemination: 2 Outreach Videos

1 Radio Spot for local broadcast

1 video and brochure to promote the E-learning

platform

We monitor and evaluate through a system we’ve put in place to track impact

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Providing Solutions: CAWTAR: Enhancing Microfinance

Training of trainers

(face-to-face)

Training of beneficiaries

# Sessions 3 40# Beneficiaries 70 800

Profiles Women and YouthPartnering Organizations

ENDA, ONGs, TAMSS, Employment Offices, SANABEL, CEOSS, CMS

21%

79%

Gender

MenWomen

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What’s Next?Thanks to AGFUND, GIZ, and the backing of Saudi fund for development which will enable to continue what we have started.

CAWTAR has launched a new project which will focus on financial education for entrepreneurs in Tunisia and Palestine, this program is expected to immediately benefit over 200 women and young people of both countries.