Project profile — Women Entrepreneurs Financing Initiative

• Africa, regional (60.00%)
• America, regional (20.00%)
• Europe, regional (20.00%)

• Banking And Financial Services: Education/training in banking and financial services (24081) (50.00%)
• Business And Other Services: Business support services and institutions (25010) (50.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project supports the Women Entrepreneurs Financing Initiative (We-Fi). We-Fi’s mandate is to unlock the potential of women-owned and women-led small and medium sized enterprises (WSMEs) in developing countries. It mainly emphasizes WSMEs in low-income countries and countries dealing with fragility, conflict and violence. It aims to do this by sustainably addressing constraints these women face and by reducing the WSME financing gap. We-Fi enables WSMEs to grow, create jobs and improve productivity. Project activities include: (1) increasing access to finance; (2) strengthening access to markets; (3) ensuring access to training, mentoring and networks; and (4) improving the enabling environments for women in business. With funding of US$353 million from 14 governments, We-Fi’s collaborative partnership among multilateral development banks, governments and other stakeholders provides a unique ecosystem to unlock financing for women-owned and women-led businesses in developing countries. We-Fi works with six multilateral development banks as implementing partners: the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic Development Bank and World Bank Group (including the International Finance Corporation). We-Fi has issued four calls for proposals to deliver on its mandate. The most recent round focused on addressing the needs of women entrepreneurs exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, through the use of digital technologies and leveraging finance and data.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) supported over 200,000 WSMEs; (2) mobilized US$3.5 billion from the public and private sectors to amplify We-Fi’s capacity to respond to the negative impacts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as job losses, greater burdens of domestic care work and declining markets; and (3) implemented projects in over 66 countries, with 65% of the funds going to low-income countries, including many facing fragility, conflict and violence.

Results achieved by We-Fi through the support of the Government of Canada and other international donors as of July 2021 include: (1) 11,181 women-owned and women-led small and medium sized enterprises (WSMEs) benefited from financial and non-financial support; (2) 141 partnerships established with public and private sector institutions; (3) $1 billion in additional funds mobilized; (4) 65% of funds going to low income and fragility, conflict and violence countries; (5) US$243 million in loans and grants provided to WSMEs by We-Fi supported financial service providers; and (6) 17 legislative and legal reforms supported.

• Proactive disclosure